'Gossip Girl' dish: no more Webcasts

By CRISTINA KINON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Saturday, April 19th 2008, 4:00 AM

If you want to know what happens to S and B on The CW's "Gossip Girl," you better tune in Monday at 8, or you'll have to wait for a repeat.

The network announced this week it would no longer stream new episodes of the series on its Web site, www.CWTV.com., because this seems to be siphoning off its cable audience.

"This is an experiment," Paul McGuire, executive vice president of network communications for The CW, told Variety. "We need to grow the ratings for the show, and we want to see if this helps move the needle."

While "Gossip Girl" has enjoyed critical success and heavy online hype, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to view streams on its site and becoming one of iTunes' most downloaded shows, its ratings have floundered. The show's average is only 2.5 million viewers.

The CW is hoping that this "experimental" move will push the show's younger demographic off their computers and onto their couches.

The first 12 episodes of the season will remain, free of charge, on The CW's Web site, and iTunes will continue to offer new episodes for download.

To fill the online void, The CW will instead provide two-minute show recaps, behind-the-scenes videos, postshow interviews with series co-creator Josh Schwartz and a watch-and-win contest.

Monday night's episode will be the show's first since the writers' strike.