As Gossip Girl’s ratings have struggled (though most recently, they’re up), the CW has announced that it will no longer stream episodes of the show on the internet. Is this a mistake?

While the show has been pulling in low numbers on TV (2.6 million viewers weekly), new episodes hit iTunes at No. 1. Additionally, episodes streamed at cwtv.com were drawing loyal viewers each week.

The decision to pull the episodes from the web was not without controversy. While the CW can tout higher ratings, the numbers only reflect a 1% increase overall. And on the web, Gossip Girl only hit No. 7 on iTunes this week.

It would appear that the internet fans will not turn off the computer and push traditional ratings up significantly. Will this kill off Gossip Girl’s buzz? One hopes not.

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The CW has announced that it will no longer stream video of not yet aired Gossip Girl episodes on its site. While the first 12 episodes will continue to be available for viewing on the internet, the five episodes which remain will not be available for streaming.

Dawn Ostroff, President of Entertainment for CW said, “For these next five weeks the epicenter of the ‘Gossip Girl’ universe will be on The CW’s broadcast television airwaves.”

I don’t think that anybody was really surprised to hear the news. While Gossip Girl has struggled in TV ratings, it has consistently been ranked highly on the internet. Those internet viewers do not add to the TV viewer numbers - in other words, no ad revenue for the show. This has been a concern to many involved with the show.

If you can’t catch the episodes on Mondays from 8:00-9:00 p.m. EST (and you don’t have TiVo), try watching encore episodes on Sundays from 6:00-7:00 p.m. EST. Otherwise, you’re out of luck.