Backpackers Digital Series Moves to Television

BURBANK: The digital series Backpackers, a CW Seed original produced by Shaftesbury U.S. and Smokebomb Entertainment, is moving from online to the broadcast network The CW this summer.

Backpackers will premiere with ten original half-hour episodes on The CW on a date to be announced. The first four episodes contain material previously released as digital episodes on CW Seed; the final six are wholly original and will be written and produced for The CW.

CW Seed, meanwhile, will launch a companion reality series, The Real Backpackers.

"Since launching last year, one of our missions for CW Seed was for it to serve as an incubator for new talent and new ideas," said Rick Haskins, the executive VP of marketing and digital programs at The CW. "We're very excited to see Backpackers turn from a short-form digital series into a full-length broadcast television show, and we are continuing to look at CW Seed for other possibilities to transform content and for creative new ways of doing business."

"It has been such a wonderful creative experience partnering with The CW on Backpackers," said Maggie Murphy, the head of Shaftesbury U.S. "This is our first online project to travel to television and a perfect example of how digital storytellers and broadcasters can come together to incubate and migrate content across multiple platforms."