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10 Years Ago Today - The WB, UPN Sign Off

And many of the stations that didn't get CW got 'My Network TV' instead. Viewers were the losers as former affiliates largely went to infomercials and reruns instead of making any effort to independently program their stations with desirable content.
 
According to Wikipedia, UPN signed off on this day 10 years ago.

The WB signed off two days later on the 17th.
 
DToTheJ said:
Meanwhile, I couldn't track down the close of UPN
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UPN didn't have a formal closure. The network went dark after an airing of WWE Smackdown.

The early launch of MyNetworkTV left the final weeks of UPN and WB programming unavailable in many markets.
 
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Amazing that The CW has lasted ten years...and most of the time they are below Univision in the ratings.
 
crackedscreen said:
UPN didn't have a formal closure. The network went dark after an airing of WWE Smackdown.

The early launch of MyNetworkTV left the final weeks of UPN and WB programming unavailable in many markets.
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Ironically, including on Channel 29 in Minneapolis. I believe the newscast ended in the summer. Fox and Sinclair were both so bitter that they weren't included in the merger talks, that both owner groups almost immediately dropped all mention of UPN or The WB in favor of generic programming. IIRC, Fox even pre-empted programming to promote the new My Network before it launched.

The CW, for many years, existed primarily for DVD sales. IMO, the merger made CW far weaker than either of the previous networks, as The WB targeted the younger generation (at the time, me) and UPN largely targeted a more "urban" audience. From the time of the merger, until about 2 years ago, I had absolutely no reason to turn on The CW, My Network TV, or the affiliates (WB 23 having always been a weak affiliate IMO, and UPN 29 becoming a shell of it's former self after the affiliation switch away from Fox prompted by the ownership change). I realize that both The WB and UPN didn't do very well in the ratings, but of the two networks, I always thought The WB did a much better job, and had the better programming.

Lately, it seems like The CW is trying to get back more to it's roots of being a niche network, with decent programming (while picking up some of the audience lost by Fox who seems very risk averse as of late).
 
mnradiofan said:
Fox and Sinclair were both so bitter that they weren't included in the merger talks, that both owner groups almost immediately dropped all mention of UPN or The WB in favor of generic programming.
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Fox was definitely bitter. For Sinclair, it was all about the $$$. They gambled on MyNet's 50/50 inventory split vs. CW's reverse comp, a move they probably regret now. One factor of CW's early ratings woes was losing out on key Sinclair affiliates.

Anyway, Fox seems to be over it now as they've taken the CW affiliation in Chicago.
 
yep, WWE SmackDown was the last thing to air on UPN, and the funny thing is, SmackDown actually not only outlive UPN, but it's actually no longer on broadcast TV and on the same network as Raw now.
 
I remember the last night of The WB. I had never watched "Dawson's Creek" or "Felicity" but one reason was the lack of a good signal. WTWB got a major signal boost in 2000 and it was one of only two stations I could pick up perfectly with my rabbit ears on a TV which wasn't black and white but had the color off because that helped the reception. I watched that station a lot.

The new network meant new message boards. They couldn't just have UPN viewers join the existing boards. The old boards stayed around a while. I didn't mind because I could read. Others were upset because there was no activity. I was used to reading old messages before they fell off into the archive, which at one point was deleted not long after topics joined it.

Now all we have are the few messages that the Wayback machine saved. I saved what I could, but it was just too much.
 
Once WGN got rid of The WB on the Superstation WZPX which was PAX signed a deal with The WB on 22 hour delay at 6PM only thing that wasn't delayed was Kids WB. So I didn't really watch much WB because of the delay other than couple of reality shows & What I Like About You on Saturday WZPX had UPN before they got WB at 11PM at night once PAX signed off. LIN TV got UPN that was a weather station before it became general entertainment channel and became known as WXSP although cable didn't add WXSP until May of 2001 I was a fan of some the UPN shows Hugley's, Smackdown when I was a fan of WWE Buffy etc. WXSP also aired sports Tigers, Redwings, Pistons carried a lot of sports.

Once the merger of The WB & The CW happened I thought the only place it was going was WXSP only downside was the sports although at that time Pistons were only sports they aired only few Redwings games on Saturdays since I knew WZPX which was I Suck Network paid programming network LOL because of 22 hour delay of The WB. WWMT Freedom that owned it at the time made there sub-channel The CW one of few markets that didn't go to either The WB or UPN got The CW it was called West Michigan CW but went with CW7 as most cable companies put it on channel 7 why they call it CW7. WZPX moved to channel 14 once The CW made it's debut WXSP went with My Network TV more a TV service now than a real network just my opinion. Sorry for rambling on.
 
Megatron said:
Once WGN got rid of The WB on the Superstation WZPX which was PAX signed a deal with The WB on 22 hour delay at 6PM only thing that wasn't delayed was Kids WB. So I didn't really watch much WB because of the delay other than couple of reality shows & What I Like About You on Saturday WZPX had UPN before they got WB at 11PM at night once PAX signed off. LIN TV got UPN that was a weather station before it became general entertainment channel and became known as WXSP although cable didn't add WXSP until May of 2001 I was a fan of some the UPN shows Hugley's, Smackdown when I was a fan of WWE Buffy etc. WXSP also aired sports Tigers, Redwings, Pistons carried a lot of sports.

Once the merger of The WB & The CW happened I thought the only place it was going was WXSP only downside was the sports although at that time Pistons were only sports they aired only few Redwings games on Saturdays since I knew WZPX which was I Suck Network paid programming network LOL because of 22 hour delay of The WB. WWMT Freedom that owned it at the time made there sub-channel The CW one of few markets that didn't go to either The WB or UPN got The CW it was called West Michigan CW but went with CW7 as most cable companies put it on channel 7 why they call it CW7. WZPX moved to channel 14 once The CW made it's debut WXSP went with My Network TV more a TV service now than a real network just my opinion. Sorry for rambling on.
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My aunt lived in Grand Rapids at the time and she had WKBD on cable until WXSP was added to the local system (TCI Grand Rapids, which had fewer channels than the cable in my hometown of 6,000 people!)

CW7 is on cable 17 on Comcast Grand Rapids. Guess who's on cable 7? WZPX!
 
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