The best part about the back-to-school season is the return of fall TV. Some new shows, some old, all entertaining enough to distract students from doing their homework and studying for test.
Although I have never been much of a TV fanatic, there are a few shows that I'm looking forward to...I actually have "Gossip Girl's" premiere - Labor Day, if you're a fan - penciled in on my calendar. Here are the major network shows we think young people will be tuning into -- or streaming online. Due to the writer's strike there's lots more familiar faces and less new series (The CW is a notable exception). Let us know which new shows premiering in "prime time" (is there such a thing anymore?) you think will be teen/young adult hits in the comments!
Sunday
Apart from the regular teen-friendly FOX Sunday night line-up of "The Simpson's,""Family Guy" and "American Dad," the only other new show on Sunday nights that feels buzzworthy is over on HBO....
"True Blood": Judging from the enormous popularity of Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" book series, "True Blood" - show about vampires and normal folks coexisting in a small town - will be HBO's newest hit. If they decided to stream episodes, it could be a teen hit, too.
Monday
NBC
"Chuck:" The writer's strike may have saved "Chuck," but this lovable nerd turned intelligence source and his "Geek Squad" should pull in the "Heroes" crowd.
"Heroes": The big question for this sci-fi drama is can it regain its footing after a shaky sophomore slump.
"Gossip Girl": Although this show has loads of fans, this will be their make-or-break season for success. Hopefully the return of online streaming will provide a much-needed boost.
"One Tree Hill": I didn't realize that this show was still around, but it seems to be hanging on. Now the kids are all grown up leading adult lives, but the high-strung drama continues.
Tuesday
FOX
"Fringe": "Lost" meets "X-Files" in a smart, slick supernatural thriller. To appeal to a younger audience, FOX is premiering Fringe online the same time as it's TV debut exclusively on college campuses.
The CW
"90210": In the same vein as "The OC" and, of course, "Gossip Girl," the CW's latest teen soap is bound to make waves. Not only will millennials watch it, but thirty-somethings who loved the show the first time around will likely tune in to see how it matches up.
"Privileged": Based on the Alloy Entertainment book "How To Teach Filthy Rich Girls," this sounds like a "Gossip Girl" vacation to the west coast.
ABC Family
"Greek": Returning with a second season, Greek is back [already]. Casey will be the sorority's returning president, Rebecca will be full of trouble, and poor Rusty will continue being the resident nice guy - for a frat boy, anyway.
Wednesday
ABC
"Pushing Daisies": Teens were buzzing about this show last year, and the series about a pie-maker who brings the dead back to life was ranked the number one new TV show in an AOL TV poll ("Gossip Girl" was number 2).
NBC
"Knight Rider": The talking car and its studly driver captivated kids in the 80s, but will it draw in a new generation of viewers? (Val Kilmer voices KITT the car!)
The CW
"Stylista": "The Devil Wears Prada" for the small screen. ELLE Magazine's eccentric fashion news director Anne Slowey plays a Donald Trump-esque figure, with high demands and impossible expectations. Follows "America's Next Top Model" naturally.
FX
"Sons of Anarchy:" Charlie Hunnam, who has had a few minutes of fame with several thriller films, plays a biker in a outlaw motorcycle gang.
DirectTV (and probably on a peer-to-peer network near you)
"Friday Night Lights": After much speculation, this Ypulse favorite is returning to DirectTV, then will return to NBC later in the year.
Thursday
ABC
"Ugly Betty" and "Gray's Anatomy" are back -- young women love McDreamy, McSteamy and the general soapiness of "Grays."
NBC
"Kath & Kim:" Loosely based on an Australian sitcom of the same name, Kath & Kim will bring in an audience with two big stars. Molly Shannon and Selma Blair have a dysfunctional mother + daughter relationship and are full of wacky antics.
"The Office:" Although the finale wasn't quite as cliff-hanging as the previous year, The Office will pick up where it left off with Angela's impending vows and Jim and Pam's possible engagement.
The CW
It's boys night for the girls as the long-running Superman soap "Smallville" and Hardy Boys-esque "Supernatural" both return.
Friday and Saturday
Hmmmm....who's home on Friday and Saturday nights? NBC's "Crusoe," (Fridays) an adaptation of Daniel Defoe's classic novel, looks interesting, in a "Lost"-like period piece meets "Pirates of the Caribbean" kind of way.
Note from Anastasia: Light posting today and tomorrow as I attempt to wrap up my vacation this week.
ZwinkyCuties (Barry Diller to launch a kids version of Zwinky to rival Club Penguin. Plus Dizzywood gets a cool $1 million in funding) (New York Post) (PaidContent)
- The 'Bebo' Effect (a new UK study about teens, sex and social networks seems very sensationalized in this kind of lame article. Plus Mixi tops MySpace and Facebook in Japan) (The Telegraph) (BusinessWeek)
- Eight myths (about video games debunked by MIT professor and Ypulse friend Henry Jenkins)
Today in Ypulse Books Alli interviews Chris Rettstatt, "the heart and mind behind author Monk Ashland," about his Kaimira series of YA sci-fi books. We are also giving away three copies of the first book in the series, Kaimira: The Sky Village -- check out the interview for more information on how to win your free copy. And in Ypulse Book Essentials, follow the links to a discussion of author Richard Right's work, learn about a new children's publisher and why we shouldn't be reading [or teaching] Catcher in the Rye anymore.
CosmoGIRL's shopping concierge (allows readers to find products from the latest issues at local stores. Will be interesting to see if other teen mags follow the lead, because this is a really cool - and most likely lucrative - feature) (press release)
- More fodder for CW ads (they haven't even released preview copies to critics, and the Parents Television Council is already worried that "90210" will advocate teen sex, alcohol, and drug use) (Ad Week)
- 'Idol's' got girl power (a new female "American Idol" judge will bring a little balance to the show....or just make Paula look even more out of it) (Media Post, reg. required)
- Mario's new show (the "Saved By The Bell" alum is adding yet another reality show to his resume) (People)
- Zune fortune (a teen entrepreneur sold a tech forum, ZuneBoards, and made $62,000. Nice.) (Boston Herald)
- Less foreign exchange (fewer American families have the means to host foreign exchange students) (San Diego Tribune)
- Millennials and news (a Pew study showed that a third of us don't seek out any news on a typical day... which isn't true. Plus, new polls about millennial voters) (Editor & Publisher) (press release)
- Mobilizing youth (cool slideshow from Mobile Voter's Ben Rigby, who spoke at the Ypulse Mashup)
- Linking up before college (roommates are connecting with each other on Facebook before meeting face-to-face. Plus, mtvU rolls out a Yelp-like network of sites for 25 of the biggest college campuses) (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) (Media Week)
- Facebook ads not for every advertiser (more on which types of brands Facebook's new social networking "engagement ads" will actually work for) (CNET's The Social)
We've got new research for sale on Ypulse Research from the AMP Agency. The report, titled "College AMPlified: Decoding the Campus Experience," is an in-depth whitepaper and data tables offer strategies for colleges, companies and brands to follow to establish credibility with students on campus. The study defines specific "touch points" -- areas of opportunity from initial virtual interactions (1 in 5 students did not take an actual campus tour of the college they chose) to on-campus living spaces (where we notice that some fundamental amenities continue to correlate with levels of discomfort and dissatisfaction) But wait! This year, American University students can check online to see if a washer or dryer is available -- and receive a text message when their wash or dry cycle is completed. There's also some great data on how "Green" carries relevance on college campuses.
Remember, if you work for an agency or research house that produces white papers, reports or any type of research on tweens, teens or twentysomethings, consider selling your research on Ypulse -- and reach around 8K youth media and marketing professionals looking for the latest facts and figures about this demographic. Contact Charles Pelton for more information.
Note from Anastasia: Just a reminder that I'm on a "sorta" vacation this week, so posting will be lighter through Thursday. We'll be off Friday through Monday (back Tuesday) for the Labor Day holiday.
- Teen TV (More on that infamous show that cleared a path for "The O.C., Gossip Girl, and yes, even The Hills." Plus, "Gossip Girl" creator Josh Schwartz feels guilty about using nasty quotes as a promotional tool. Also, be ready to see "90210" emblazoned on apparel, cosmetics, bags and school supplies just like the show's first time around) (New York Magazine) (Women's Wear Daily)
- 'America The Beautiful' (12-year-old model Gerren Taylor shot to fame, then disappeared. This new documentary reveals her story) (St Louis Post-Dispatch)
- Running from student loans (the rising price of loans makes it hard for college students recover... with two years left, this is not something I want to be reading.) (New York Times, reg. required)
As a child, I was never a heavy TV viewer - not because my parents banned it or limited my TV time, just because I preferred doing fazed-out things like playing outside. Around age 10, my parents invested in a computer, and that's when my parents started to worry about my neon screen addiction. I could sit in front of that monitor for hours, Googling and clicking and learning. Limited to one hour increments, I would sneak in, slouched down in the chair praying my parents wouldn't hear me. I can even remember surfing the Net on the sly in the dark, way past bed time (no surprise that I am still the same computer geek I was then).
Now my parents' worry is shared across the nation, with kids preferring computers to TV and parents wondering if they should put limits on their surfing time. The New York Times, reg.required, just reported on a recent computer-versus-TV study:
For children ages 10 to 14 who use the Internet, the computer is a bigger draw than the TV set, according to a study recently released by DoubleClick Performics, a search marketing company. The study found that 83 percent of Internet users in that age bracket spent an hour or more online a day, but only 68 percent devoted that much time to television.
The study found that the children often did research online before making a purchase (or bugging their parents to make one). The big exception to this rule was apparel: like many grown-ups, the children said they preferred to choose their clothes at a store.
Performics reported that some corners of the Internet were more popular with the children than others. While 72 percent of the children online belonged to a social networking site (usually MySpace), 60 percent of them said they rarely or never read blogs.
Obviously I am a little biased, as I believe I have learned more online than I did during my entire high school career. While I don't think it's healthy for kids to spend hours upon hours on a computer, it sure beats mindless time in front of the boob tube (or video games, for that matter). As long as computer use is realistically monitored, I don't think parents should be worried. But then again, I'm no parent. What do you think?
Who said the entertainment biz isn't diverse? (flip to kids' channels. Disney just premiered "The Cheetah Girls One World," featuring a plethora of stars with different ethnic backgrounds. Plus teen girls not digging the Olympics) (New York Times, reg. required) (Media Life Magazine Younger Viewers)
- 'Mall' didn't have many buyers (17.1 million viewers tuned in to the premiere of Disney's "High School Musical 2"; "American Mall" brought in a paltry 436,000. I enjoyed it, but maybe MTV's audience is too old for its version of Disney's tween hit) (Ad Age, reg. required)
- TV hits the streets ("It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" joins "Seinfeld" in holding campus tours this fall) (Zap2It)
- Social Konnections (Konnects hoping to bridge the gap between social Facebook and all-about-business LinkedIn. Plus, Facebook comes up with more ways to sell your friends stuff... through your own profile. So sneaky of them. They're also pushing new "engagement ads" which encourage click-throughs to big brand sites) (Media Post, reg. required) (Wired)
- Gen Y will soon be deaf (killing their hearing softly with in-ear headphones. And speaking of "high-pitched," "American Idol" reject Sanjaya debuts as the national pitchman for Nationwide Insurance) (CNET) (MSNBC)
- iFastTrack (musicians, including Yael Naim, the Ting Tings, and Feist, featured in Apple ads find overnight success) (Variety)
- Commercial success (instead of taking standard two-minute commercial breaks, MTV tried an 8-minute "mega pod" of ads during last Monday's premiere of "The Hills." And because teen girls are so obsessed with the show they, of course, sat through it. Plus, if the "90210" ladies can get along, why can't The Hills girls?) (Mediaweek) (Reuters)
- Gaming trends (superhero craze continues, with Spiderman, Batman, and DC Comics finding sweeping success online and on video games. Women are playing games too, and Playboy is launching a game targeting 20- and 30-somethings called "Pool Party" that will be based on "actual events held at the Playboy Mansion.") (USA Today) (Mediapost)
- Back to college (welcome to school, here's an iPod. Plus, the Timesfollows a few freshman from Parsons around while they shop for dorm supplies. Also, back-to-school shoppers will be spending 83% less on clothing) (New York Times, reg. required) (Mediapost, reg. required)
- DIY Keds (this is so cool - I wore Keds as a kid, and I want a new self-designed pair pronto! And Gen Y also loves DIY college majors - thanks Karell!) (The Futurist)
P.S. Remember the Media Post article about the viral bee video from yesterday? Watch it here.
Next week's Democratic National Convention has had no trouble staying in the headlines, but it seems the Dems are going to great lengths to ensure that they're also staying on the minds of American youth. The convention is shaping up to be the musical festival and celebrity-studded event of the summer. Hip bands including - but not limited to - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Cold War Kids, Nada Surf, Death Cab for Cutie, Fall Out Boy, Black Eyed Peas, and Kanye West will all be on hand to perform in Denver; superstars like Scarlett Johansson, Zooey Deschanel, Ben Affleck, Anne Hathaway, Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, and other bold-faced names are all expected to make appearances.
With such an impressive guest list, this convention is bound to draw fans from both sides of the political spectrum. Young voters are also the most impressionable voters, so it will be interesting to see if they sway when they see their favorite bands and celebrities supporting Obama. If I wasn't already a lefty, I probably would second-guess my stance after seeing Death Cab for Cutie - my favorite band since junior high - rock out for liberal causes.
For every Democratic delegate who is bound for the convention in Denver, desperate to influence the platform committee, there are plenty more looking for the best entertainment acts and the hottest parties -- and they'll have plenty of choices. As the politics have drained from our national conventions, high-level socializing, entertainment (with a purpose) and a chance to brush elbows with celebrities have become the real action at the quadrennial get-togethers. From studio heads to character actors, Hollywood's most devoted politicos have revised their vacation plans to make a place for the convention, with its myriad sideshows and soirées. There may be more SAG cards in Denver next week than in Hollywood.
There's something -- actually two or three somethings -- for everybody. For the industry elite, the toughest challenge will be to maintain an orderly social calendar at the convention, which begins Monday and ends Thursday with the acceptance speech by nominee Barack Obama at Denver's football stadium.
A little more glitz than conventions from elections past, but let's be honest - isn't Obama a glitzier candidate?
Today's Ypulse Guest Post is from Larry Weintraub, the CEO of Fanscape. Larry's 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry encompasses nearly every area, including marketing, sales, advertising, merchandising and event management. Fanscape is a leading emerging media marketing agency focused on reaching and activating the newest generation of web and mobile savvy consumers through online and wireless media.
Larry's recap of a panel he moderated on young people's music consumption is interesting given the survey summary we linked to on this topic in yesterday's Essentials. Perhaps this generation doesn't love music more than we did, they just have more ways to consume and interact with it. If you work in youth media and marketing, and would like to write a Ypulse Guest post, just email me!
How Youth Are Consuming Music
Last Thursday I flew to San Francisco to speak at the Bandwidth Conference. I was asked to moderate a panel titled, "Bellwethers." The sub-title of the panel stated "Fanscape's Larry Weintraub sits down with representatives of the leaders of the industry - music loving youth. A look at the way they discover, purchase (?), interact with, and are exposed to music."
Each semester we host a fantastic group of interns at Fanscape and I always seize the opportunity to ask them about their various consumption habits. With the Bandwidth panel, I tried something a little different. Rather than just relying on my own arsenal of questions, I tried a little social-networking and I sent a note to 500 of my LinkedIn contacts asking them if they could pose a question to a young person about how they consume music and entertainment, what would it be?
The response was overwhelming. Within a week almost 100 people had sent nearly 200 questions, affirming that old "careful what you wish for" adage. Just sorting through them all took several hours, but yielded some consistent thematic musings such as how did they discover music, was sound quality an issue, and was there any price that might inspire them to buy music instead of steal it. There were also requests to find out if radio mattered and whether subscription was even a consideration. All in all I had a plethora of great queries. On the morning of the conference, I grouped and sorted my notes and when I entered the green room, I was prepared and excited to meet my panelists.
There were four wonderful young adults each with very different backgrounds. These were not students from Stanford University or a Silicon Valley high school. Rather, these were very modest and "real" people from relatively small towns who had absolutely no ties to the music, entertainment, or technology industries.
The group consisted of Aubrey (19) from Reno, Nevada; Ratesh (20), also from Reno; Edward (23) from Stockton, California, and Camilla, (18) from Berkeley, California.
Before we hit the stage, I calmed their nerves by telling them they needn't worry about being judged or considered criminals. "Pretend we're just having a conversation in a coffee shop," I told them. "I just want to talk about what you like to do with your free time and how you like to listen to music." I let them know that I personally understood how and why music is considered free and that it was the direct result of an industry not listening to its consumer. I needed them to be open and aware that nothing they said would be used against them.
Newsletter readers: Visit Ypulse.com for the rest of Larry's post.
The best part about the back-to-school season is the return of fall TV. Some new shows, some old, all entertaining enough to distract students from doing their homework and studying for test.
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