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player ready...For fans of NBC’s hit TV show “The Office,” this week’s biggest TV event won’t even be on the idiot box.
You’ll have to tune in to the Internet, at nbc.com, for new Webisodes of NBC’s hit show “The Office” that begin Thursday. Sure, the show is basking in first-season Emmy nominations for Steve Carell and the series itself. And at 7:30 p.m. Thursday on TV, you can catch a repeat of the series pilot, according to tvguide.com. But fans are eager to watch something new from the cast.
You won’t find Carell, who plays bumbling boss Michael Scott. The Webisode stars are three characters you don’t see much of on TV–office accountants Angela (Angela Kinsey), Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) and Oscar (Oscar Nunez ). They will investigate an accounting scandal at Dunder-Mifflin–a missing $3,000. Rainn Wilson, as Dwight, also will pop in.
A new Webisode will be posted each Thursday at nbc.com for the next 10 weeks.
Call this new trend “must-experience TV.” Network programmers hope that using interactive online elements will prove an effective way to attract a broader audience to their shows, and one that’s far cheaper than advertising.
“We all live in an online universe–more and more of people’s time is spent on the Web and less in front of the TV,” said Jon Vlassopulos, vice president of Endemol New Media and Strategic Planning, who helped develop the online “Deal or No Deal” game for NBC.