The Beautiful Life: TBL (also known as The Beautiful Life) is an American television drama series, which ran on The CW from September 16, 2009 to September 23, 2009. The series starred Mischa Barton, Elle Macpherson, Sara Paxton, and Corbin Bleu. It revolved around a group of male and female models sharing a residence in New York City. Mike Kelley (Swingtown) served as the showrunner for the series, based on the script by former model-turned-writer Adam Giaudrone, and Ashton Kutcher was the executive producer. The CW ordered 13 episodes for the first season.
On September 25, 2009, The Beautiful Life: TBL was canceled after two episodes due to astonishing low ratings. Six full episodes were produced, while the cancellation came during the filming of the seventh episode. On November 17, 2009, The New York Daily News reported that the CW planned to air the remaining episodes during the summer months. However, a CW spokesperson stated that “the status of unaired episodes has yet to be determined”, and as of now, the remaining episodes are still yet to air.
However, all episodes are now airing on YouTube, Kutcher spoke on the development “What we feel like we’re doing is creating, in some ways, an industry first…. A show that couldn’t find its legs on television, we believe can find its legs on the Web.” The five episodes being aired online are sponsored by HP.
| 2 | “The Beautiful Aftermath” | Michael Lehmann | Anna Fricke & Mike Kelley | September 23, 2009 Released online – December 15, 2009 |
1.04 Views online: 686,842 |
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| Chris believes his chances at a modeling career are over and prepares to leave New York City until he receives a surprise phone call from Claudia. Claudia informs Raina that she needs to focus more on her career and less on her new relationship with Chris. Isaac confronts Vivienne about her behavior towards him at a go-see, and the two end up working out an arrangement that serves both their needs. Marissa accuses Sonja of stealing the Versace campaign from her and decides to seek revenge in a very public way, which leads Sonja to Cole for assistance. Marissa invites Raina’s brother, Alex to a party hosted by Nina Garcia, where more secrets about Raina’s past are revealed. | |||||
| 3 | “The Beautiful Lie” | Sanford Bookstaver | Dailyn Rodriguez | Released online – December 16, 2009 | Views online: 778,295 |
| Raina has an unpleasant meeting with her brutal ex-con father whom she finally gets the nerve to stand up to. Meanwhile, Sonja must face the consequences when a revealing photo of her goes public, while she continues to ask Cole to keep the existence of her newborn baby daughter a secret from the public. Also, Chris tries to help Raina and her brother Alex when Russian mobsters give a lot of trouble for Alex over his past business. | |||||
| 4 | “The Beautiful Triangle” | Michael Fields | Lisa Henthorn & Jonathon Roessler | Released online – December 18, 2009 | Views online: 637,368 |
| Raina and Cole’s stars begin to skyrocket as they begin work on the Calvin Klein ad. Chris, on the other hand will find his initial success at the Details shoot fade, as he explores the less glamorous side of the industry from the outside looking in. Sonja books a major campaign that comes with strings attached. Marissa embarks on a business relationship with Alex while Isaac realizes his relationship with Vivienne is more complicated than he imagined when he meets an aspiring young model. | |||||
