Once the hottest things on two legs, the boys of “Gossip Girl” are having trouble crossing over into adult roles.
While Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford and Ed Westwick all experienced TV stardom during the run of “Gossip Girl” — which aired for six seasons on the CW (2007-2012) — they’ve all had their most recent TV efforts roundly rejected by the public.
Badgley, who played fish-out-of-water Dan Humphrey on “GG” — a Brooklyn boy among the Manhattan preppies — was part of the ensemble on NBC’s limited “event” series “The Slap.” Some event. No one watched.
As heartthrob Nate Archibald on “GG,” Crawford had to fight off the girls. In his new series, “Blood & Oil,” he’s begging for viewers. On “Blood & Oil,” Crawford plays a young man who travels with his wife to the Dakotas to strike it rich during an oil boom. Not even a marquee name like Don Johnson has proven to be a draw here. Web site TV by the Numbers calls this show “DSW” — Dead Show Walking.
“Gossip Girl��� bad boy Westwick, who played Chuck Bass, seemed to be onto something good with “Wicked City,” an ABC thriller with roots in the Sunset Strip crime scene in 1980s LA. (Westwick plays a suave serial killer prowling around LA.)
But the show premiered to poor reviews and miserable ratings.
In fact, “Wicked City” now has the ignominious distinction of being the lowest-rated new series — which means, more likely than not, that it’s headed for the cancellation heap.
We wish these guys well with their next TV projects — better luck next time.