About

Gossip Girl, a teen drama, premiered on September 19, 2007 in the United States on The CW. Gossip Girl is based on the young-adult book series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar, and was developed for television by The O.C. creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. The series follows the lives of the young, wealthy social elite residing in Upper East Side, Manhattan, and is narrated by an unseen and seemingly omniscient character, “Gossip Girl”, whose blog is widely read among the characters.

After the first three episodes were aired, the series received a full season order of twenty-two episodes from The CW. Due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, only thirteen episodes were produced. Once the strike ended, The CW announced five more episodes to be produced and aired in April and May 2008. Despite earning low ratings during the first part of the first season, it was announced in March 2008 that the series was renewed for a second season since it “hits a bulls-eye with The CW’s target demographic of females 18 to 34″ and the episodes are among the most downloaded on iTunes. When the series began to air again in April, however, The CW stopped offering online streaming on their website in an apparent effort to boost ratings though in July 2008 The CW decided to put back the online streaming of the show’s episodes on their website again.