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The Beautiful Life: TBL
Format	Drama
Created by	Adam Giaudrone
Starring	Corbin Bleu Mischa Barton Sara Paxton Nico Tortorella Ashley Madekwe Elle Macpherson Benjamin Hollingsworth
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	5 (2 television) (5 online)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Ashton Kutcher Jason Goldberg Karey Burke Mike Kelley
Location(s)	New York City, New York
Running time	42 minutes
Production company(s)	CBS Television Studios Katalyst Films Warner Bros. Television
Broadcast
Original channel	The CW Television Network (television) YouTube (online)
Original run	September 16, 2009 (2009-09-16) – December 18, 2009 (2009-12-18)
Status	Cancelled

The Beautiful Life: TBL (also known as The Beautiful Life) is an American television drama series, which ran on The CW from September 16, 2009 to September 23, 2009. The series starred Corbin Bleu, Mischa Barton, Elle Macpherson and Sara Paxton. It revolved around a group of male and female models sharing a residence in New York City.^[1] Mike Kelley (Swingtown) served as the showrunner for the series, based on the script by former model-turned-writer Adam Giaudrone, and Ashton Kutcher was the executive producer.^[2] The CW ordered 13 episodes for the first season.

On September 25, 2009, The Beautiful Life: TBL was cancelled after two episodes due to low ratings.^[3] Six full episodes were produced, while the cancellation came during the filming of the seventh episode.^[4] On November 17, 2009, The New York Daily News reported that the CW planned to air the remaining episodes during the summer months. However, a CW spokesperson stated that "the status of unaired episodes has yet to be determined.^[5]

The first two and remaining episodes are now airing on YouTube, Kutcher spoke on the development "What we feel like we're doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first.... A show that couldn't find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web."^[6] The five episodes being aired online are sponsored by HP.^[7]

Cast and characters

Main

• Corbin Bleu as Isaac Taylor
• Mischa Barton as Sonja Stone
• Sara Paxton as Raina Mayer
• Benjamin Hollingsworth as Chris Andrews
• Nico Tortorella as Cole Shepherd
• Ashley Madekwe as Marissa Delfina
• Elle Macpherson as Claudia Foster

Recurring

Jaime Murray was cast to play powerful wardrobe stylist and resident cougar who has her eyes on Isaac (Corbin Bleu).^[8] Ed Quinn signed on to play the husband of Claudia Foster (Elle Macpherson).^[9] Former Miss Israel Gal Gadot was cast to play Olivia, a Gisele Bundchen type supermodel at the top of her game.^[10] Billy Magnussen was to have had a multiple episode arc as Alex who is Raina's brother which will offer clues on Raina's past.^[11]

Guest stars

Marie Claire fashion director and Project Runway judge Nina Garcia had a small cameo in the second episode. Designers Matthew Williamson and Erin Fetherston were also set guest star along side model Jessica Stam.^[12] Model Irina Lazareanu made an appearance in the pilot as did So You Think You Can Dance Canada season 1 winner, Nico Archambault. Claire Unabia and Mila Bouzinova from Cycle 10 and Cycle 9 respectively made a special appearance at the Nina Garcia's party in episode 2.

Production notes

The show was largely filmed on location in New York City. Studio interiors were filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios, Queens, New York.

Prior to the start of production, Mischa Barton agreed to have her ears pierced especially for the role of Sonja Stone so that, when required, she could wear the same style of pierced earrings as the other female cast members also playing models.^[13]

Promotion

The Beautiful Life was heavily promoted through the cast's and producer's Twitter with promotional photos of Sara Paxton, Corbin Bleu, and Ashley Madekwe appearing semi naked with the tag line "What are you looking at?".^[14] The Beautiful Life was heavily promoted during New York Fashion Week and through New York magazine. In a very targeted mailing, 4,000 high profile contacts in the fashion and media worlds got a polybagged edition of New York magazine featuring those semi naked shots of the cast and then, during Fashion Week, copies of New York featuring an ad spread and the naughty nudes were handed out in the show tents. The show also received some unplanned publicity due to Mischa Barton's medical issues in the weeks leading up to the start of production.^[15]

Reception and cancellation

The series premiere did poorly with 1.38 million viewers, and a 0.6/2 in Adults 18-49, 0.8/2 in Adults 18-34, and 1.1/3 in Women 18-34. The second episode also drew in low numbers, with a 0.6/2 rating with adults 18-49, with only 1.1 million viewers.^[16] The show was officially cancelled on September 25, 2009 due to the poor reception.^[17]

International airings

The show was originally announced as being part of the Autumn schedule of Ireland's TV3, but the show was later moved to TV3's second station 3e. Since the cancellation of the show in the US, TV3 dropped the show from its lineup. It is unknown if any episodes will now air in Ireland.

After the cancellation, Channel 10 in Australia announced it would not air the show at all.

Prior to the show's cancellation, it was announced that it would be shown in the UK by Channel 4. Following the show's cancellation, it is unknown if any of the completed episodes will be shown in the UK.

Episodes

• *American viewers are listed in millions.

Episodes online

Youtube's logo for the series

On December 17, 2009, executive producer Ashton Kutcher reported on The Beautiful Life's official Youtube channel that because of the cancellation, the remaining episodes will be released online. If the episodes gain more hits online, more new episodes may be produced exclusively for the Web. The first three episodes were released online, with the last two premiering Monday, December 21, 2009.^[18] Thanks to a sponsorship deal with Hewlett Packard, the five first episodes are available. Kutcher is hoping that the high production quality of the show will increase its audience size on YouTube, which will in turn lure sponsors to finance more episodes.^[19] The official YouTube channel also includes a number of short videos featuring the main cast members talking about the "beautiful changes" they have planned for 2010, plus a number of other videos connected with the show.

References

External links

• The Beautiful Life at the Internet Movie Database
• The Beautiful Life at TV.com
• Official TBL YouTube Channel