The CW & My Network TV

[kjohnson 15]

Proves this thread's point. The CW doesn't work as a network. Convert the shows to syndication, and there's hope.

 

18-34 women don't watch TV; Dawn Ostroff hasn't caught on (or doesn't care; not sure which). So when will Tribune make the CW expand it's demo? The stations are being hammered by a horribly uncompetive network.

[SterlingNorth 33]

Proves this thread's point. The CW doesn't work as a network. Convert the shows to syndication, and there's hope.

 

18-34 women don't watch TV; Dawn Ostroff hasn't caught on (or doesn't care; not sure which). So when will Tribune make the CW expand it's demo? The stations are being hammered by a horribly uncompetive network.

 

...even so, there are too many problems at Tribune right now for even the CW to matter.

 

 

 

Change of subject, THR is reporting that the CW's "The Game" may be given new life -- as a BET show. This could be a happy ending for a show that did not have network support. As with all other problems, this one stems from the CW's inability to program for anyone other than white women 18-34 (and it's not even as good as that as the former WB was).

 

Though with that note, I again have to wonder why the Trib is only coming out now with complaints of the Sea-Dub's narrow focus when it was as bad a problem as it was on the predecessor Dubya-Bee network.

[kjohnson 15]

I suspect that it wasn't as much of problem when Tribune wasn't swimming in debt. They should demand wider demos for 2010-11 or kill the affiliations.

 

It's good to hear The Game might make a comeback. BET would be a good home for it, and it might actually thrive there, rather than being put into a Friday night "death slot."

[SterlingNorth 33]

About that other useless network --MyNetworkTV lost the rights to WWE Smackdown to Sci-Fi... I mean SyFy.

 

This is just, wow.

[jero23 105]

Although I do find the Vampire Diaries a relatively decent show, the rest of the CW's line-up suck big time. It's only a matter of time when they realize that chasing after 18-34 white girls will get you only so far in the long run especially if a huge chunk of their major market affiliates jump ship over lack of cohesion with their schedules...

[kjohnson 15]

Tribune has become exasperated with Dawn's insistence on a demo that does not harmonize with the Disney Channel, much less Tribune stations core audience.

 

As for the Smackdown...Murdoch is so focused on the WSJ he just let the last marketable thing MyNet had to keep their affiliates from jumping ship.

 

This is making those rumors of WRBU flipping to Canal 46, Telefutura seem more likely.

[mre29 1340]

Once again, I wonder which network will die first...

[channel2 869]

Probably MyNetworkTV, seeing as how the only reason it even exists was so Fox could save face after the announcement of The CW's formation; that, and it's not even officially a network anymore, it's a syndicated two-hour-block (which it has always been, only now Fox acknowledges it).

 

The CW will probably keep scraping along; The WB and UPN did for more than a decade, even though The CW's formation was sort of an admission of defeat, albeit one where the losers wanted to keep fighting a battle that they will probably never win.

[SterlingNorth 33]

Probably MyNetworkTV, seeing as how the only reason it even exists was so Fox could save face after the announcement of The CW's formation; that, and it's not even officially a network anymore, it's a syndicated two-hour-block (which it has always been, only now Fox acknowledges it).

 

The CW will probably keep scraping along; The WB and UPN did for more than a decade, even though The CW's formation was sort of an admission of defeat, albeit one where the losers wanted to keep fighting a battle that they will probably never win.

 

And scrap along they do. This is one way to save money, and I guess expand the audience to....well... British expats who miss watching bad British reality.

[kjohnson 15]

I don't really want to know what sort of shape Trib station will be in after a decade of this "network."

[SterlingNorth 33]

I can't believe this. The CW is actually planning on running each week without an encore performance of a show. No same week reruns!

 

I say it lasts at most a month after all their shows premieres (usually sometime in early October). I suspect by November sweeps, at least one show gets canceled and they revert back to rerunning 90210 or Vampire Diaries or ANTM to fill the hole.

 

OK, the CW announced its fall schedule.

 

They've promised this season will be the final season of geriatric Superboy. That said, the schedule has enough estrogen to turn an NFL player into a contestant at the Miss USA pagent.

[kjohnson 15]

Sterling, I do enjoy how Dawn paid absolutely no mind to suggestions to make the network more male-friendly. Her ideas for scheduling makes Lifetime or Oxygen more appealing to males.

 

Quote of the post: "the schedule has enough estrogen to turn an NFL player into a contestant at the Miss USA pageant." Ain't that the truth.

 

I'm giving Gossip Girl one more shot, and then I'm dropping it. I'd rather watch Grey's/Private Practice for estrogen-filled programming. At least ABC has good shows.

 

That schedule is a disaster waiting to happen. Putting unproven shows up next to low rated ones is a guaranteed PBS stations will kick their asses.

[SterlingNorth 33]

The problem is that the network is now well within a vicious cycle. There's little chance that any show that tries for a broad audience base will survive since there's no place on the network to promote it. Each year as they retrench, the cycle gets more and more vicious. Losing wrestling was a huge blow as with it they threw away a megaphone to folks whose concern is removing bras as opposed to using them to achieve the perfect shape. Repeat again with the end of "Chris" and "Game", shows that couldn't be promoted elsewhere on the lineup. Actually, I still believe this began even before The CW itself as the WB was femmed up and UPN U-turned to grab that audience with "Top Model".

 

The tragic thing is that the mission for next year wouldn't have been completely impossible. As they still have Smallville and Supernatural, they should have developed a sci-fi or action-adventure show a la "Heroes" or "Chuck". Those shows got numbers that, while they should have gotten Zucker fired, would be celebrated at the CW. Of course, the CW is trying to game in with "Nikkita", but the network has managed to turn breasts into a warning flare. Do not dock here lest the Amazons imprison you. (Though now I wonder if "Themyscira" would be a better prospect than "Gotham" as a spin-off, in this situation.)

 

At best (and only if "Nikkita" somehow attracts a significantly broad following, or if "Vampy Diaries" turns its critical accolades into such a following as well), they can only hope to have not homogenized its audience any more than it is already. But that means they already made their job all the more harder in the year following when they lose Smallville as a lure.

 

Spring 2011 will be an ugly one at the CW, as they'll be left with nothing to build upon. Or maybe those chemical byproducts will have feminized us all by next year, leaving the CW as the only appropriate broadcast network. It might be cheaper for them to go into chemical research.

[kjohnson 15]

Sterling, great analysis. Now that I'm out of school, I'll get to watch the death spiral of CW continue. This should be entertaining this fall.

 

I may even give "Vampy Diaries" a shot.

[detroiter313 178]

Looks like The CW has gone all "Lifetime/WeTV/Oxygen" on us, isn't it?

[SterlingNorth 33]

For years I've mocked how long they've kept running Smallville. Maybe not often here, but on some of the other places I inhabit online and off. "Geriatric Superboy" I've called the show. That said, I've always assumed that they were keeping the show alive until they could figure out a viable spin-off. . .

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Wonder Woman issue #600 went on sale today. Having been renumbered back into the 3 digits to be with her contemporaries, (Superman hit #700 last week) author J. Michael Straczynski and artist Jim Lee are trial-ballooning a reboot and costume redesign (something that's frighteningly common in the funny book business). Reviews are .... shall we say "mixed". Anyway, TVWeek floats a theory that the design was made with TV in mind. That sounds plausible. The only living person who pulled off the classic costume as designed was a beauty pageant winner who would go on to play the principal in the Disney movie Sky High, and Chloe Sullivan's mother in Smallville. And the log line and costume seems to track with a long line of darker and grittier reboots like the Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica, and the WB's own Birds of Prey. Of course, most of those failed; the big exception was Battlestar Galactica.

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I joked that Themyscira would be the only viable idea for a spin off -- provided, of course, that someone from there actually appears on the show. (And if such a show comes to pass and it is titled "Themyscira", I want something for the suggestion, Time Warner. I dunno, a tote bag or something.) While Graeme McMillan does lay out a some good reasons for it, I still think the CW needs to man up. I would have suggested they end the Bat-embargo and let someone do a Batman series. Another obvious suggestion would be to let the series shift into its take on the Justice League. Some less obvious ideas would perhaps try to make a series out of some of the Milestone characters DC has rights to use, like Icon or Static. I'd do that only to add a little bit of color to the world of supers.

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Notice that Summit is doing its damnedest to make men want to see Eclipse -- or at least not be embarrassed when their girlfriends take them to see it. I figure that is mission that the writers of the Vampire Diaries and Supernatural are going to have to embark on for the next season. Likewise Nikita will need to pull an Olivia Munn/Michael Bay -- be cute and disarming while making stuff blow up real good. And while we're on it, they might consider advertising Nikita and any future broad reaching programs in places like G4 or Wizard Magazine or Maxim or places where men are known to be, since men won't be watching the CW to see these promos in their natural habitat.

[SterlingNorth 33]

And here we go. . .

Breaking TCA 2010 News: THE CW WANTS TO FIND A NEW DC COMIC BOOK HERO TO REPLACE 'SMALLVILLE' NEXT YEAR

 

This would have been something to be working on before ending Smallville.

[ColumbusNewsFan 217]

By what I was reading, It's looks like the door is opening for a Wonder Woman series revamp on The CW. Thinking about it that is the most logical choice for them.

[SterlingNorth 33]

I think I may have called it. Now if it actually winds up on TV, and on the CW

[ColumbusNewsFan 217]

When you're right. you're right.

[SterlingNorth 33]

Not much to report, except the two networks seem to bumble along, surprisingly... Read up on a piece in Variety that another script order done by the CW is for a show based around Raven, a character noted most for being a member of the Teen Titans (see popular animated series).

[kjohnson 15]

I'm going to say a few things about the CW:

 

I'll confess to liking Supernatural, Nikita, and a surprise: Hellcats. I've all but given up on Gossip Girl. The network has a framework that could get both men and women watching, but the front office brass is still brain dead. I still think there will be some reckoning when CW station affiliation renewals come up.

[kjohnson 15]

Not much to report, except the two networks seem to bumble along, surprisingly... Read up on a piece in Variety that another script order done by the CW is for a show based around Raven, a character noted most for being a member of the Teen Titans (see popular animated series).

 

This brings up a new question: Do all shows have to have a heroine? If she's going to be a Joss Whedeonesque heroine, no problem, but the female leads on CW shows are pretty poor.

[bhratbrat 423]

Well, K I think the CW is probably a bit worse in the ratings than the original incarnation of KDNL ABC 30 News.

[kjohnson 15]

I think the only thing saving KPLR is that the news comes on before CW prime, or it would be a full on disaster.

 

Prior the shared services agreement with KTVI, KPLR was being destroyed in total viewers and demos because News11 just didn't gel with the demo the CW insists on.