The much hyped web drama “Quarterlife,” which is set to debut on MySpace on November 12, may be making the jump to television as a result of the Hollywood writers guild strike. According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, the Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick-backed web show is rumored to be in talks with NBC to be used as strike-contingency programming.
Zwick and Herskovitz, the creative team behind the cult hit TV show “My So-Called Life” and the Oscar-nominated film “Blood Diamond,” make up one of the more high profile teams to try their hand at a web-only production. They would follow the successful run of Michael Eisner’s “Prom Queen” earlier this year.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Quaterlife” could appear on NBC as early as February. The show, which was initially developed for ABC three years ago, will go on with its Monday MySpace debut as planned, a spokesperson for Zwick and Herskovitz told the paper. However, Herskovitz has gone on record as saying that their MySpace contract only covers the first four hours of the show and the team would like to explore other distribution channels.
This would, of course, not be the first time NBC has looked to the web for talent for its television network. The network’s late-night staple Saturday Night Live famously hired Andy Samberg after viewing some of his popular web video shorts.