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CW on for 1 more season?

D

dave73

I just saw this story on Yahoo about the CW might be on for 1 more season. The people at CBS & Warner Brother thought by combining the WB & UPN networks to form CW, that they would get both sets of audiences. Instead, it has lost audience when combined.

My opinion was that the WB was the stronger network, and should have stayed WB. I liked the shows that WB had over UPN. Overall, if I'm not mistaken, they kept most of the former WB shows when CW was formed like Next Top Model, One Tree Hill, & Smallville. I believe the only UPN show retained was Everybody Hates Chris. I have yet to see what MyTV has in the way of shows, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's doing better than CW.

Now what do you think will happen to the CW affiliates if it goes off the air after next year? Do you think the affiliates might go independent? I know WGN 9 in Chicago would like to go back to being an independent station. But Tribune Broadcasting has forced WGN-TV to be a CW affiliate, and as a result, has been forced to have WCIU 26 air most of the night games that WGN has rights to broadcast in Chicago. In a way, I'd like to see WGN-TV go back to being an independent. They were an independent station for about 40 years before they became a WB affiliate in 1995.
 
Dave said:
Now what do you think will happen to the CW affiliates if it goes off the air after next year? Do you think the affiliates might go independent?
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I don't think CW - excuse me, The CW - will cease to exist as long as My Network TV is around. Think about it. When the UPN network was formed in 1995, bang! Just shortly after, WB came into existence. Then, when they merged to form CW, whaddayaknow, "My" pops up. My two cents.
 
WWE Smackdown! was a carry over from UPN. As for MY, if that doesn't put them on the radar, nothing will. Looking back, I also feel that merging the two networks was a mistake, because it showed a sign of weakness and magnified it.
 
Funny how the new brass at The CW trashed the WWE as "no longer being a breakout program", which while it does have a ring of truth to it, was the webs highest rated show...

If MYTV does grab Smackdown, I'm wondering how many of their affilliiates have sports programming on Fridays as opposed to CW stations...
 
WWE is indeed heading over to my as the contract has already been signed. Premptions shouldn't be a big deal here in Hartford/New Haven. WTXX-TV/DT (CW) channel 20/D 12 of Waterbury/Hartford carries the Mets games from WPIX. WTIC-TV/DT (FOX) channel 61/D 31 of Hartford carries the occasional Yankees game.
 
You need to remember that MNTV is really "Fox-2". When the Fox O&O UPN stations lost out to CW, MNTV was throw together. They are just getting their feet on the ground and FOX has a lot more patience than Viacom.
 
Dave said:
I just saw this story about the CW might be on for 1 more season.
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Key word is "might."

The people at CBS & Warner Brother thought by combining the WB & UPN networks to form CW, that they would get both sets of audiences. Instead, it has lost audience when combined.
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Actually, the "lost argument" claim can be made by all networks -- ABC, FOX, CBS and NBC as they have all seen their audiences decrease. And the writers' strike didn't help. The CW is doing better than MNTV. If they are claiming lost audience, then perhaps they should look at carriage issues when the 2 networks were merged.
 
I think the reality is nowadays with all the cable channels that air movies and sports, there is just not room for six major commercial networks. If one of The CW or MNTV fails, then there should be no replacement network, and let the survivor continue as the #5 network. Some stations could survive as independents, such as WGN or WPIX that can air sports and have a news department, but in a lot of smaller markets I think some stations should just shut down if they can't get other viable programming - although RTN is definitely a possibility for some, and there are smaller markets that can support independent stations, such as South Bend, Indiana which has WHME/46 (although it has translators in the Chicago market). Some markets are already over-saturated with Ions, A1s, Daystars, and infomercial transmitters.
 
Dave said:
My opinion was that the WB was the stronger network, and should have stayed WB. I liked the shows that WB had over UPN. Overall, if I'm not mistaken, they kept most of the former WB shows when CW was formed like Next Top Model, One Tree Hill, & Smallville. I believe the only UPN show retained was Everybody Hates Chris. I have yet to see what MyTV has in the way of shows, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's doing better than CW.
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UPN shows that made the jump to CW included Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends, Veronica Mars, America's Next Top Model, and WWE Smackdown.
 
mescutia said:
I'd be surprised if MNTV outlives The CW.
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Same here. If the original predictions were correct, My Network TV was suppost to be gone by now.

I don't think either the CW or My Network TV will be around in a couple of years. The internet and cable (as I mentioned in an earlier post) are the reasons, and I don't see another broadcast network starting up to take their places as a result. Only a major sports deal would save either network.
 
M.J. said:
I think the reality is nowadays with all the cable channels that air movies and sports, there is just not room for six major commercial networks. If one of The CW or MNTV fails, then there should be no replacement network, and let the survivor continue as the #5 network. Some stations could survive as independents, such as WGN or WPIX that can air sports and have a news department, but in a lot of smaller markets I think some stations should just shut down if they can't get other viable programming - although RTN is definitely a possibility for some, and there are smaller markets that can support independent stations, such as South Bend, Indiana which has WHME/46 (although it has translators in the Chicago market). Some markets are already over-saturated with Ions, A1s, Daystars, and infomercial transmitters.
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I disagree...because of digital TV, I think to some extent you're going to see more networks. The ones backed by studios, they aren't going to let them fail unless they lose too much money. I think there will be a push to challenge light cable TV watchers, or folks on the brink of doing away with cable TV altogether.

Heck, it's already happening. They probably won't have affiliates in every market, but they'll definitely be 'nationally' programmed. You mentioned RTN, now Google the following: ".2 Network" (that's 'Dot-Two'), "World Championship Sports Network", and I know there's probably another new outlet I've missed that is signing up for digital subchannel carriage. The really small nets catering to LPTV stations (America One, 3ABN, FamilyNet, etc.) might find clearance in bigger cities.

They aren't going to be full-fledged channels with much in the way of original programming, but they'll load up with plenty of reruns, movies, and perhaps some sports. Ion itself might be ahead of its time.
 
jal41 said:
I don't think either the CW or My Network TV will be around in a couple of years. The internet and cable (as I mentioned in an earlier post) are the reasons, and I don't see another broadcast network starting up to take their places as a result. Only a major sports deal would save either network.
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I think MyNet will have a fighting chance if they can build around the audience that Smackdown brings. Sports could do just that--there's plenty of product amongst college sports (football and basketball) and the numerous games in pro basketball, baseball, and hockey (maybe). Perhaps NBA and MLB could agree to program a night of TV that would help promote NBA TV and the upcoming MLB Network. Getting NFL games isn't an option, but more programming from the NFL Network itself might be possible (they already have "Total Access").

The CW's biggest problem IMO is subtle abandonment of African-American viewers (who still watch the most television overall and kept UPN's Monday night schedules from ever truly bombing) and it's relentless pursuit of 18-34 women, many of whom aren't watching the teenybopper shows the network has now.

I know that CW (and the old WB and UPN) were/are reluctant to pick up the scraps of the bigger four nets, but many of those canceled shows would be probably be considered hits on either The CW or MNTV. They might have swallow their pride and take viewers where they can. Shark, Cane, K-Ville, Back to You, etc...they didn't have lots of viewers, but they weren't total ratings bombs.
 
I thought Shark was almost aways a top 10 or top 15 show for CBS? Back To You was just cancelled, if I'm not mistaken. As for Hartford/New Haven, WTXX-TV/DT (CW) has only survived due to their relation with WTIC-TV/DT (FOX) of Hartford and The Hartford Courant newspaper. WCTX-TV/DT (MY) of New Haven really doesn't have much going for it anymore. Their 10 PM news (produced by WTNH-TV/DT (ABC)) gets destroyed by WTIC's news at 10 every night (WTIC's news is also simulcated on WTXX).
 
There may be an iceberg ahead... if an economic crunch really hits, and companies pull back on their marketing money, there may be something of a shakeout amongst these smaller nets on both broadcast and cable, if there are lower across-the-board ad revenues out there to be had.

Hate to say that, hope it doesn't happen, but... marketing money is often the first to go when companies have to cut back.

BTW, does anyone know why the CW decided to start over with a new name?

Would it not have made sense to research which network had the name that was the most well-branded with their target and kept that name, (I suspect WB would have won, but who knows?) as opposed to starting over from scratch?
 
I just finished the book "Season Finale, the rise and fall of the WB and UPN" and it had a lot of good information.

The WB started to go downhill in 2000 after Jamie Geller the top executive had Time Warner combine operation of The WB and Turner Networks. They stopped basing their netork out of Hollywood and ran it from Atlanta.

Also when AOL took over Time/Warner, it screwed everything else up. I just finished another book about that merger. The basic philosophy of the WB was that they wanted to air shows no one else would air. Thus their biggest hit Reba was a source of problems to Geller as he said Reba, while a hit, was a show that really belonged on CBS or ABC, not "his" network.

UPN floundered around, the problem being political correctness. Even though the network attracted large number of black audience those audience don't purchase enough to make the network viable. The urban audience that watched UPN were largely poor and didn't buy much so you had more than a 3:1 ad revenue. In otherwords you had to sell three times as much with the black audience to get the same result as the white audience of the same age group. It isn't race so much as affluence. Furthermore the domination of African American shows on UPN caused many people not to bother to look at the network for anything new.

UPN was in constant battles between Chris-Craft which lost 800 million dollars on the newtork and Paramount (later Viacom). (They later sold their TV station for over five billion dollars which made up for it.). The book tells how UPN executives always felt CBS wouldn't be serious about a small newtork when they had their own. Also FOX after buying Chris-Craft continued to pressue UPN into picking up rejects. UPN constantly received rejected shows from FOX, that failed to make FOX's cut.

The WB had similar problems with Time/Warner which after the AOL mess was a shambles and they had to deal with Ted Turner who hated the WB and UPN and didn't like them combining ship. Though Warner really didn't do that and Turner didn't have a say, you know Ted will say it regardless if he has a right to say it.

As for WWE, like with UPN the show is not a find, it isn't like the network is making the show. WWE is really just purchasing time on MyNetworkTV like they did on the CW, in a sense WWE is sort of an informercial. In otherwords they went out and bought the time and WWE controls all of it.

As for the Tribune, who knows with Zell at the helm what will happen. And it'll be interesting to see what stations do with their subchannels. Will it be more programs or just more infomerical. As we saw with cable, having more channels on cable didn't mean more shows, just more airings of the same tired shows.
 
I didn't realize that America's Next Top Model was originally a UPN show. I have not watched a lot of TV in the last 5 years. But I do know that CW actually turned me off, as I felt that it wasn't the best of WB & UPN. But I wouldn't be surprised if CW goes off the air. if it does, I definitely want to see WGN go back to being an independent. As for TV possibly having sub-channels; I don't see why not. I don't know if it's still gonna happen with WCPX 38 Chicago, but I remember that when it was PAX, that there was gonna be several subchannels that were gonna be religious. WGN originally had The Tube, but that network went under. WTTW & WYIN have Create. WMAQ & WLS have their own weather channel. But nothing else as of yet.
 
DubbaDon said:
You need to remember that MNTV is really "Fox-2". When the Fox O&O UPN stations lost out to CW, MNTV was throw together. They are just getting their feet on the ground and FOX has a lot more patience than Viacom.
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But what difference does Viacom's lack of patience make? They don't own any part of the CW, which is co-owned by Time Warner and CBS. CBS is now a separate company from Viacom, and has been for a couple of years.
 
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