AOL Television Launches New Online Series "Outside The Box"

Business Wire, Oct 1, 2008

New Series Will Feature Stars from Top Network and Cable Television Shows Interviewing Each Other with User Submitted Questions

Debut Episode Featuring Stars from ABC's "Private Practice" Premieres Today

NEW YORK -- AOL Television has announced the launch of Outside the Box, http://www.television.aol.com/outside-the-box, a new free on-demand online series in which cast members from popular network and cable television programs interview one another using fan submitted questions. The debut episode, featuring Kate Walsh, Taye Diggs, Audra McDonald and Tim Daly from ABC's "Private Practice" will premiere today. The season premiere of "Private Practice" airs tonight, Wednesday, October 1 (9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

The new series will put the power directly into the hands of television fans, allowing them to create and submit questions that will be used during the interviews. The one-on-one format features two or more cast members interviewing one another about the show, their characters and their antics on and off the set. Each episode will last no more than ten minutes and also include comical outtakes and bonus clips. AOL Television will debut episodes periodically. Forthcoming episodes include ABC's "Desperate Housewives" (series airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET on ABC) with Felicity Huffman and Doug Savant; "Dirty Sexy Money" (airs Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. ET on ABC) with Lucy Liu and Peter Krause; "Life on Mars" (premiering Thursday, Oct. 9, 10:00 p.m. ET on ABC) with Michael Imperioli and Jason O'Mara; and "Scrubs" with Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison. The series will be filmed remotely or at AOL's studios in Los Angeles or New York.

"Outside the Box signifies our ongoing commitment in providing consumers with the highest possible production quality, while simultaneously providing fans with unparalleled access to top talent," said Mike Rich, Senior Vice President. "This new series will provide advertisers a new venue for high impact custom solutions while reaching a large scale built-in audience who consume, and then share video on the web."

Outside the Box is supported by AOL's digital advertising business, Platform-A, http://www.platform-a.com, which will identify key opportunities for advertisers and provide relevant display advertising and content-targeted links on the sites.

The series will be part of AOL Television's growing offerings, which include free and full streaming of a myriad of current and classic TV series, daily video highlights of last night's top television moments, celebrity interviews, photos and gossip, as well as interactive quizzes, user-polls and original editorial features. AOL Television is one of the most trafficked sites on the Web for television fans with more than 14 million unique visitors according to the August 2008 comScore Media Metrix report.

Outside the Box is an outgrowth of Moviefone's signature series, Unscripted, in which cast members from film interview each other using user-submitted questions. Since the series launched in 2004, Moviefone has filmed more than 60 episodes of the series, including interviews with Hollywood A-list talent including Johnny Depp, Will Smith, George Clooney and Halle Berry. In addition to Unscripted, the new show joins AOL's roster of long running original series that include AOL Music Sessions, The DL, and The Interface.

About AOL

AOL is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services, runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com.