‘One Tree Hill’ thrives despite its big upheavals
HOLLYWOOD - It’s the CW’s dirty little secret: In its seventh season, “One Tree Hill’’ is watched by more people than the network’s “it’’ show, “Gossip Girl.’’ It always has been.
The success, hushed though it has been, has come despite major upheavals to the show, a sort of earnest older sister to younger, hipper series such as “90210’’ and “Gossip.’’ Since launching in 2003, “One Tree Hill’’ has occupied five time slots, switched networks, and survived a risky plot decision to jump its high school-age characters four years into the future.
This year, the show is dealing with another blow: In May, actors Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton, who played the romantic leads, Lucas and Peyton, decided not to return for the new season after heated contract negotiations.
And yet “One Tree Hill’’ is still a draw. With little network promotion, the show is delivering an average of 2.4 million viewers this season, more than CW’s heavily marketed new series “Melrose Place.’’
So why do you never hear about it?
Few, if any, gushing news releases go out about “One Tree Hill,’’ which began on the old WB as an 11th-hour replacement for a postponed crime drama. Its initial conceit - stepbrothers embroiled in battle on and off the high school basketball court - didn’t stick, and ratings were low until story lines evolved into a sentimental, sudsy melodrama concerning the brothers’ larger group of friends living in fictional Tree Hill, N.C.
It’s decidedly less sexy than the Upper East Side, the hotbed of sin on Melrose, or a town of vampires. And “One Tree Hill’’ has never been a critics’ darling.
But somewhere along the way young people latched on to the show’s improbable blend of angsty, pop song-laden love triangles and saccharine endings, and moments of total madness. In Tree Hill, the hot guys are sweet, the mean girls make the best friends, and your son can get kidnapped and chased down in a cornfield by a psycho nanny who’s after your husband.
Mostly, however, says creator Mark Schwahn, it’s heartfelt.
“Call it painfully earnest, but for most of the country, earnest isn’t painful,’’ Schwahn said. “I won’t apologize or make excuses for wearing our hearts on our sleeves.’’
He even gave Peyton and Lucas a proper goodbye, sending the just-married couple off into the sunset with their new baby girl in tow.
New cast member Shantel VanSanten, who plays the photographer Quinn, called the show’s Middle America appeal its very staying power.
“I’m from Minnesota, and both my grandma and my friends can watch the show and relate to the issues because most of it is about real life - just not real life in LA or New York.’’
