TV’s life after death

WHEN A NEW TV show is canceled these days, it no longer automatically vanishes into the ether. Instead, it might spend a few weeks traveling through the Ethernet.

Last week, NBC gave the hook to “Kidnapped,” its well-regarded but little-watched drama. But rather than leaving viewers in the lurch -- it was, after all, a serialized show whose plot was designed to play out over an entire season -- the network decided to make the remaining episodes available for free on its website. CBS is doing the same thing with “Smith,” another expensive bit of serialized TV that critics liked but viewers didn’t -- at least not in the numbers necessary to stay on the air.

Call it the latest experiment in online TV: using the Internet as the final resting place for shows not ready for prime time. Although fans of the show may cling to the hope that a successful run online could resurrect it, the network’s main goal is to mollify those viewers without spending much and, in the process, maybe sell online ads to recoup some of the costs. Though it’s not very likely that a show as costly as “Kidnapped” or “Smith” could survive online through advertising alone.

But no one really knows. The Net offers a different set of advertising tools and the chance to market products much more efficiently. It also gives advertisers much better feedback on the effectiveness of their pitches. Beyond that, it allows shows to reach a global audience and gives network marketers inexpensive new ways to spread the word about a show.

That’s why the Net is becoming a place where TV shows go not just to die but to get a second wind or a first tryout. For example, NBC’s sitcom “The Office” struggled in its first few weeks last year, then got a lifesaving boost when the network made downloadable episodes available through Apple’s iTunes Store. CBS put two of its sitcoms online last winter to introduce them to college-age viewers. This fall, the pilot episodes for seemingly every new show ran online, often before they went on the air. And later this year, a studio involved in “Kidnapped” -- Sony Pictures Television -- plans to put a pair of offbeat comedies onto the Net in the hope of drumming up enough interest to land a place in some network’s prime-time lineup.

With roughly 100 million Americans now using high-speed Internet connections at home, it’s conceivable that an online show could draw an audience as large as “Lost.” It’s just a matter of time before someone figures out how.