Can EQAL make CBS’ Harper’s Island a Hit Online?
NewTeeVee, January 13, 2009
HARPER’S ISLAND is about a group of family and friends who travel to a secluded island for a destination wedding. They’ve come to laugh… to love… and, though they don’t know it… to die. As the wedding festivities begin, friendships are tested and secrets exposed as a murderer claims victims, one by one, transforming the wedding week of fun and celebration into a terrifying struggle for survival. In every episode, someone is killed and every person is a suspect, from the wedding party to the island locals. By the end of the 13 episodes, all questions will be answered, the killer will be revealed and only a few will survive.
Dunh-Dunh-DUNH!
CBS is using EQAL’s technology and video experience (lonelygirl15, KateModern) to develop the Harper’s Globe web site that will feature original online episodes that will intertwine with the TV component. The online part of the show will debut on March 18, weeks before the show debuts on TV on April 9, and the old and newteevee shows will coexist throughout the show’s weekly run, which will conclude on July 2.
Now that EQAL (and by extension, new media) has a seat at the table, it has to prove its worth. EQAL Co-founder and President Greg Goodfried was on our transmedia panel at NewTeeVee Live, where he and all the speakers refused to talk about transmedia success metrics or define what those metrics should even be. Defining your own success when it’s just a girl with a webcam is one thing, but when you’ve got a big media company footing the bill — they’re going to want tangible results.
