away from the Bassholes all the signs are bad for them.

Example: I went today to my doctor's office. The nurse there knows I write about TV and asks what I had been doing lately. I told her and then added, "But weirdly, the show I've gotten the most delight from lately is one I wouldn't put in a list of my top 30 shows." She asked what show and I said, "Gossip Girl." She exploded, "I love Dan and Blair!" And another nurse overhead and yelled out, "Me, too!" They both got really stressed out when I told them that The Kiss wasn't going to lead to Dan and Blair getting together right away. But I assured them that they would eventually.

Don't Panic

Dan and Blair have a long, long story ahead of them. Temporary set backs are merely that: temporary. All the foundations of a very long story have been laid in place, and despite the bleatings of the Bassholes, this pairing is hugely popular. As I've said elsewhere, Dan and Blair are single-handedly responsible for reigniting interest in the show. Even if the viewership goes up, the viewers who remain are more excited now than they have ever been.

Keep in mind: fully a third of ALL posts on the "All I Want is Everything" thread here on TWoP have been made since the LAST episode. How in the hell can that even be possible? I mean, back in the fall only a couple of pages would be filled in a week. Not that is done in an afternoon.

Remember, the people at the CW and who work at GG know how to assess all this. They know the terrorist tactics of the Bassholes for what they are, and while they don't want to alienate them (though interestingly some have gone ahead and done that anyway), they are not going to back away from Dan and Blair. They have hit narrative gold: a story that fans suddenly care about, passionately.

А ведь ей и придумывать ничего не надо было , просто влюбить его в себя, судя по всему, наш одинокий парень в конце сезона и так с разбитым сердцем останется. Ох, уж эта сердцеедка-интриганка Блэр

I hate that Chuck gets to spend the entire season being an ass and the writers think we'll love him in the last 5 episodes. Honestly, it just makes me hate him more.

I agree with everyone else in that I don't want DB to end up together at the end of the season, but I don't want her to end up with Chuck either. I want her to go off with the Prince, because at least then we know anything can happen next season. Although ending the season with Chair and then coming back next season only to find out they've broken up during the summer would be awesome. Chair fans would be SO pissed.

This could even apply to before the season ends...is Dan even a viable candidate on the "ballot for Blair's heart" if there's no indication AT ALL that she gives a shit? Logically, at the very least, there would HAVE to be a small (or, idk, maybe so large that my view of my TV screen is obstructed ;P) payoff of some sort in the finale implying that, contrary to what she says in 4.18/4.19, Blair does like Dan as more than a friend.

I know. I sometimes wonder if they throw out so many ideas in the writers' room that they forget what was actually shown. Or maybe the stuff with Raina was supposed to really be nothing more than BI games and Chuck has just gone so far off the rails that what the writers think would be obvious is not clear to the audience.

But then again its probably just them trying to keep certain fan bases calm because they know they went too far and damaged Chuck and Blair too much.

At least its mostly in the press. When it gets to Roswell levels of crazy, I'm getting out. That damn show used to have a character explain the previouslies on a chalkboard, except they were the alternate universe version of what actually happened.

Seriously, it could be worse than the WTF in the press. Envision Vanessa explaining at the beginning of every episode how, perviously, Chuck is a reformed kissing bandit who is now devoted to his one true love, Blair, and has been chastly waiting for her to grow up enough to be his equal so they can be together forever.

But even if they hadn't said that, it is just crystal clear that there is a huge amount to their story that hasn't been laid out. They set the two of them up as a fated couple and laid over tons of symbolism and references. You never, ever set something up like that and not develop it.

But forget the jerkwads who yelping for Chuck to continue to abuse Blair. Fans really reacted negatively to that and showed it less by yelling about it than by simply ceasing to watch the show. I keep repeating this but it is an incredibly graphic illustration of how reenergized fand are by Blair and Dan: since Dan and Blair kissed, ONE THIRD OF ALL THE POSTS ever on this thread have been made. One third. I mean, this thread was started before the show began and the page count was at around 420 when Blair and Dan kissed. Now the thread, after only five weeks, is at almost 630.

And this site is not the exception. All the sites are this crazed about the show. The sssss(h)ite even is in a state of frenzy, since they sense a fundamental change is taking place, and it scares the bejeezus out of their Chuckoholic pea brains.

The producers all are aware of this. The network execs are all aware of it.

The fanbase has NEVER been this interested in the show. And if the ratings are up to any signficant degree on Monday, it is the absolute end of Chair. The pairing of those two were part of a series of problems on the show that were causing the show to hemorrhage viewers. They HAD to shake things up because they were working with a formula that wasn't working. And the sssss(h)ite can complain as loudly as they want, but you simply can't stick with a losing formula. Plus, you can tell they like writing Dan and Blair more than Chuck and anyone.

Это правда!
Love how Chuck & Blair fans think @Bart150 tweets are rude & unprofessional yet they have no problem tweeting death threats 2 Josh & company

Let's attack the man for having an opinion! How dare he? I'm just glad that he doesn't feel the need to pander to the Chair fans. That makes me respect him so much.

Of course, if he had been openly praising Chair, all the Chair fans would be throwing it in our faces with, "He's a writer he's clearly a Chair fan, he clearly is going to put Chair together. Dair is going to die, because he loves Chair!" But nope, other way around and he's just rude and unprofessional.