Gorham stranded on TV's next hot "Island"

Christopher Gorham ’96 stars as a groom-to-be, whose impending nuptials attract a diverse group of friends and relatives to a remote location on the mystery mini-series “Harper’s Island,” which debuted April 9 on CBS, to impressive ratings that handed the network one of its best weekday evenings in months. The isolated wedding guests will then be picked off one-by-one by a determined killer, whose identity will be revealed in the final episode.

The series’ debut is preceded by an innovative marketing campaign that includes an online “prequel” series of webisides and a custom-made social networking site.

Online entertainment news magazine “The Wrap” reports that…

…there's more on the line than just another prime-time offering. CBS will be watching closely to see whether the web can serve as a new vehicle to create awareness for its broadcast shows — even before they air.

“Harper’s Island” is a 13-episode "close-ended" (think: ’70s-style miniseries like “Roots” and “Shogun”) murder mystery on which one character will be killed off each week, with the killer unveiled at the end. But for the last three weeks, the show’s web companion, “Harper’s Globe” has been running online, with four episodes already launched.

Unlike "Island," "Globe" is a steamy “social show” that delves into the world of Robin Matthews (Melanie Merkosky), a minor character on the TV series. It's produced by EQAL, the team that generated the popular "lonelygirl15."

It's also more than just a web series. The website itself is an interactive experience for fans — it has daily content updates with characters from the show uploading videos and blogs and even a built-in social network that is already gaining some traction.

If it performs well, other networks may look to CBS’ model as a way to grab hold of an untapped sector of viewers.

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