Entertainment

War Between 'The Originals' & 'PLL' Gets Funny

by Christine DiStasio

I know you were spending your Tuesday trying to make the very difficult decision between watching your old favorite guilty pleasure Tuesday night show, ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars, and your new favorite guilty pleasure show, the CW's The Originals. Well, The Originals just decided for you with their latest promo for the CW's new hit vampire drama that mocks Pretty Little Liars and it's ever-elusive villain, "A". And it gets even better — the promo will air on ABC Family during tonight's episode of PLL. So basically, even if you were leaning towards tuning into PLL at 8 p.m., the CW is going to ensure that you change the channel.

The promo mocks the signature of PLL's big, bad villain "A" and makes pointed references to the audience's frustration with the unknown identity of the character — after four and a half seasons of waiting for answers that still haven't come. (Yes, it's been that long.)

The new 32-second ad urges annoyed viewers to change their channels from ABC Family to the CW for some wild vampire drama in a marketing tactic that the network has never tried before. And yes, the promo is ACTUALLY going to air during the broadcast of Pretty Little Liars' latest episode.

According EW.com, the CW got through ABC Family's Disney-owned advertising department by purchasing local ad time from major cable and satellite providers that transmit the show. (Cable networks and distributors often have their own ad-slots for sale.) So there's really nothing ABC Family or "A" can do about the CW beating them to the punch with a move that they probably stole from "A"s playbook.

This is the first week that The Originals and Pretty Little Liars will overlap in the 8 p.m. time slot and it looks like the CW is taking no chances and no prisoners to make sure The Originals stays on top of Tuesday guilty pleasure programming. I guess it's gAme on, bitches.

Image: ABC Family