LA Times: ‘One Tree Hill’s’ strong roots

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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 yet another blow: In May, actors Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton, who played the show’s 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, a bigger haul than CW’s heavily marketed “Melrose Place.”

Network President of Entertainment Dawn Ostroff calls it her little engine that could. “No matter where you put it, viewers follow.” So why do you never hear about it?

Few, if any, gushing press releases go out about “One Tree Hill,” which began its life 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, super-sudsy melodrama concerning the brothers’ larger group of friends living in fictional Tree Hill, N.C.

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