The CW announced that when Gossip Girl returns on Monday, the new episodes will no longer be streamed on their website (CWTV.com).
The first twelve episodes of the season will remain on the site and were originally made available for free a week after their airdate. The show received hundreds of thousands of viewers online which the Network believes poses a threat to the primetime airing of the show, since teens are being conditioned to watch the show online rather then when it is on television.
A CW spokesman said that “While the buzz on the show has remained strong, we decided to have it be that you can only get it on our airwaves. We’ll see if that at all impacts the numbers.”
The show has switched from Wednesday at 9:00PM to Mondays at 8:00PM and because of the WGA strike, tonight will be the first new episode of the show in three months. The new episodes will continue to be available on iTunes where Gossip Girl downloads are ranked among the highest.
