Online push isn't saving "Studio 60"

The critics seem prepared to write an obituary for NBC's inside-TV series, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." Tom Shales, in Tuesday's Washington Post, wrote that it is "also known as Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme's revenge on NBC for not renewing 'The West Wing' through the year 2525."

The San Francisco' Chronicle's C.W. Nevius was more generous and supportive of the show at the start of the season. But, "Sadly, it isn't working out. We've hung in there, but it is starting to have the feeling you get on NFL Sunday when it becomes clear that the home team isn't going to be able to stop those slashes off tackle," he wrote.

Hey, I'm a Washington Redskins fan — I know that feeling.

I'm also a fan of "Studio 60." Although I am an episode behind, and, after the last show, I thought they've got to wrap up this head-writer-loves-show-actress-but-they-broke-up-but-they-have-to-work- together-and-they-really-want-to-make-up story line. It is, or maybe was, getting tedious.

One reason I've been rooting for the show is that NBC really was aggressive using new media to promote the show and build buzz. The premiere episode was on a Netflix DVD weeks before it aired. I think you could download it, too. Apple's iTunes is selling shows now: five episodes in a $9.95 package. The show's producers did a live blog after the premiere. And the NBC Web site for the show has been firm and packed with blogs and video.

But the dog isn't hunting — on TV or online. A fan blog is generating less than a dozen comments for its show summaries. There's nobody home at another site, too.

Now, NBC has chosen to play an episode of a great show, "Friday Night Lights," in the "Studio 60" time slot Monday. An NBC spokesman told the New York Post that "60" was slated to have a repeat then, anyway, and "Lights" deserves a shot at the upscale audience the Sorkin-Schlamme show is drawing.

He said execs at the Peacock Network do not consider "60" a disaster.