The CW & My Network TV

[SterlingNorth 33]

I don't know if this will change everything or change nothing, but the woman who for better or for worse made the CW what it is (broadcast's teenaged girl network) is rumored to be leaving.

 

Dawn Ostroff is rumored to leave in order to spend time with her family -- which at least in DC and politics is code for "You're Fired".

[tw-804 190]

Well, the good news is that The CW is up 7 percent this season in total viewers.

[TVNewsRI 4]

Well' date=' the good news is that The CW is up 7 percent this season in total viewers.[/quote']

 

Yep, here are the ratings for CW primetime:

 

2009:

11 viewers

 

2010:

12 viewers

[bhratbrat 423]

2011: 15 viewers AH HA HA

[tw-804 190]

Yep, here are the ratings for CW primetime:

 

2009:

11 viewers

 

2010:

12 viewers

 

Y'all got jokes...

[kjohnson 15]

I love some of the comments:

 

That being said[and I’ll pre-face this by saying I watch half the shows on the CW(Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Life Unexpected, Nikita, Smallville), even if I have to tape shows on my old-fashioned VCR while I’m watching other shows):

1) Funny how the CW is the WB when the person currently running the CW ran its main competitor UPN before the merger put her in charge of the CW and eventually, the only UPN show left is America’s Next Top Model.

2) Yeah, the CW so far has gained 7% viewership over last season, but they don’t have to program Saturdays(where every network airs reruns except Fox while ABC has college football in fall) or Sundays(the CW used to but gave it up).

3) How was Veronica Mars “an Alias ripoff”? Didn’t watch Alias, but I’m familiar enough to know that a teenage private detective is not a rip-off of an uncover CIA agent. Hell, thinking about it, Alias was, in a way, a rip-off of the La Femme Nikita franchise that the CW just remade(Nikita’s a great show). VM was still better than 90% of the garbage that was on TV then and even now, so it certainly wasn’t “stupid”. Not the show’s fault that Ostroff didn’t have the ovacular fortitude to promote the show more than once or twice a week while airing ads for 7th Heaven(a piece of garbage show in which the only good thing it ever did was launch Jessica Biel’s career) every commerical break.

(And, when VM was cancelled due to poor ratings, but not after Ostroff waffled for a month before finally making the decision, I moved straight on to acceptance, because I saw the writing on the wall, just as I saw the writing on the wall for Life Unexpected; I’m just going to enjoy the last episodes and move on.)

4) Again, while they gained viewership over last season, they’re still in last place in that coveted Adults 18-49 demo advertisers like. Keep in mind that Smallville and Supernatural were moved to Fridays after Vince McMahon decided not to renew WWE’s contract to air WWE Smackdown and moved it to MyNetwork for a couple of years before settling on Syfy this year. And they were moved to Fridays specifically to kill the shows because they didn’t fit the CW’s target demo. Only problem is that they gained viewers on Fridays and have been near #1 in their timeslots.

While the CW has gained viewers this season, they’re headed toward a downturn next season with Smallville in its final season and One Tree Hill most likely being cancelled because its remaining original cast members are ready to move on to bigger things.

A little parable: While Fox became big when Married With Children and The Simpsons became huge hits, Fox didn’t truly make it until they outbid CBS for the broadcast rights to the NFL, which skews mostly male and accounts for the vast majority of the most-watched shows on network and cable TV(this past February, Super Bowl XLIV, won by the New Orleans Saints for their first championship, beat the M*A*S*H finale as the most watched show all-time). And the NFL’s viewership continues to grow among both genders.

The bottom line: a network needs both male and female viewers to grow. Focusing on just one gender or one narrow demo is shortsighted. And The CW does need both since it is a broadcast network with affilate stations, not a cable network where it can get away with focusing on such a niche demo.

 

This was spot on.

 

Good riddance.

The CW has been a joke for a long time. They started off decent in premiere year but after that Dawn decided to make the network a ridiculous 18-34 women’s Cable outlet. ONE SUCCESS out of the entire network’s tenure and that’s Vampire Diaries. Smallville in year TEN does better than their entire Monday and Tuesday lineup.

They need to diversity at last with her gone it just might.

They got some interesting things in Pilot stage for the Fall. Hopefully with her gone they will get a chance as she has a tendancy to scrap all of them if they aren’t for teeny boppers.

Move Supernatural to a new night. Scrap One Tree Hill which is long in the tooth. Scrap 90210. Make ONE night for that 18-34 women’s demo with Gossip girl or something and thats it! Maybe a comedy night. A Supernatural oriented night.

 

 

Women should get more than one night, in all fairness. We don't need a broadcast version of SpikeTV, either.

 

CW is still a huge mess, although I have to admit that it doesn’t look as bad for the network as it did some years ago.

Just a small reminder that CW’s target group are 18-34 year-old women, ,ut two of the best-rated shows on that network are Smallville and Supernatural. Ostroff tried her best to let these shows die quietly on Friday, but they’re still more successful than every other show exept for Vampire Diaries, the only real break-out hit Ostroff produced since the start of The CW.

There are still a few construction sites on that schedule… The abysmal ratings of GG, 90210, OTH, Hellcats, the decline of Top Model, the last season of Smallville… Young women are just not that interested in The CW.

I mean, where’s “Glee” or “The Secret Life Of The American Teenager”? Where are the programming innovations that one would expect from a broadcast network targeting young women?

 

 

I've said it before. The demo the CW is looking for is on their smartphones texting, or on the internet.

 

What Ostroff oversaw with the CW marketing campaigns was truly appalling. For a network targeted towards teenagers to build all of its advertising around sex – from OMFG to “Menage a Thursday” – is more than crass, it’s destructive. (In fairness to the CW, they’re not alone: see HBO’s Pimp Ho campaign for Hung, or the Dexter with the baby in blood. How many of you have driven with a six year old who reads those billboards out loud?)

And while Ostroff didn’t invent the tendency of these shows to give young women unrealistic body image models, the CW has certainly built upon the WB’s history of such, while further sexualizing them. Anorexic teen actresses breeding a generation of young women with eating disorders and body image issues. Congratulations on that legacy.

 

[SterlingNorth 33]

A huge change may be in store for the CW. A change that may forever alter the destiny of the CW Network. A man named Mark Pedowitz may become president of the network.

 

Wait, the emphasis seems off...

 

 

A MAN named Mark Pedowitz may become president of the network.

 

Of course that's not to imply woman can't run broadcast nets (in case someone is tempted to read this post out of context), but a guy may be more aware that the network as programmed is driving guys away, and may even have some ideas as to stop the fleeing.

[Guest NewsHound]

A huge change may be in store for the CW. A change that may forever alter the destiny of the CW Network. A man named Mark Pedowitz may become president of the network.

 

Wait, the emphasis seems off...

 

 

A MAN named Mark Pedowitz may become president of the network.

 

Of course that's not to imply woman can't run broadcast nets (in case someone is tempted to read this post out of context), but a guy may be more aware that the network as programmed is driving guys away, and may even have some ideas as to stop the fleeing.

 

Meanwhile, off topic, I read that ION Television will begin producing its own original programming again sometime this year (the first time since the PAX days), therefore becoming the 6th broadcast network filling that void MyNetworkTV left when it became a programming service.

[kjohnson 15]

A huge change may be in store for the CW. A change that may forever alter the destiny of the CW Network. A man named Mark Pedowitz may become president of the network.

 

Wait, the emphasis seems off...

 

 

A MAN named Mark Pedowitz may become president of the network.

 

Of course that's not to imply woman can't run broadcast nets (in case someone is tempted to read this post out of context), but a guy may be more aware that the network as programmed is driving guys away, and may even have some ideas as to stop the fleeing.

 

That's great. Maybe they kill off the Lifetime-esque parts of Nikita. It's really hurt the show. Not saying a doesn't need vulnerable sharing time, but not in action-adventure shows.

 

2011-2012 schedule: A more balanced approach to programming. Then you'll have viewers FTW. And money.

[SterlingNorth 33]

Even with many of my predictions not coming true as exactly as I predicted (Damn you, David E. Kelly!), I think I nailed it when I wrote:

 

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.

 

Chemical research is still an option, CW.

 

Save that, the network needs a complete overhaul.

[SterlingNorth 33]

Amazing enough, my prediction rises from the ashes like a Phoenix. Wait, that's a different comic book character.

 

The CW is Developing Wonder Woman Origins Series.

[SterlingNorth 33]

I guess the amazing thing is that the CW has survived for far longer than we all expected, with original programming even. While MyNetworkTV is one in name only. That said, I still don't see how the CW managed. I guess the exceeding patience of CBS and WB, plus rising Twilight lifting all vampire drama. And remarkably, they successfully launched a successor series of sorts to Smallville -- Arrow -- and seems to be confident of a 2013-2014 coming around to try to make a CWfied Wonder Woman and renew ANTM.

[MidwestTV 1173]

I remember not too recently ago that people over on TVBTN were predicting/suggesting that once the CW affiliate contracts expire in 2015-2016 or so that the CW will officially finally die.

[CircleSeven 1944]

So even if Mark Pedowski try to appeal to an array of diverse audience, outside of the female white girls? it's still a dying network. And I still hope WGN can prosper being an independent again. Dawn left, I don't think Mark is any better.

[CircleSeven 1944]

And Tribune should think about having their own network. They can probably make a mint. They already cashing in on Antenna TV.

[TVNewsLover 727]

And Tribune should think about having their own network. They can probably make a mint. They already cashing in on Antenna TV.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Tribune owned 50% of The WB network. How well did that go for them?

[CircleSeven 1944]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Tribune owned 50% of The WB network. How well did that go for them?

You were right, Tribune had a stake in the WB. And of course you know what happened to the WB.

[channel2 869]

I really don't think that a new over-the-air network is viable now. TV is a crowded field, the medium itself is shifting away from linear viewing and more towards nonlinear viewing (e.g. DVRs, Netflix, iTunes), and Tribune got burned with The WB (which failed in part due to an abbreviated lineup and making little to no effort to actually break through, unlike Fox) and The CW (which is a continuation of two money-losing ventures and, due to being under common ownership with CBS, has no incentive to grow, just like UPN), so why would they try this "fifth major network" thing again?

[hathawaynson2 38]

I personally think that My Network TV will last a lot longer if Local Programs were in the mixture along with the programs that air every Monday-Friday.

Second of all, I would think the CW would be on Life Support plus it has stronger program, come on folks, I don't believe the CW would last enough.

[channel2 869]

MyNetworkTV is not a network. It is nothing more than a two-hour weeknight feed of reruns of shows that started on other networks. No matter what it aired it was a joke to begin with.

 

The CW is not going to exist in five years the way it's going. Netlets in its vein don't work, because they make no efforts to really grow. Look at Fox. They got on the map in no small part due to their NFL coverage; The WB and UPN didn't seem interested in airing live sports, and The CW doesn't seem to be either. Primetime shows can be hits, but with some exceptions they don't have the staying power that sports do.

 

Also, there is the issue of demographics. The CW targets primarily teenybopper girls, a fickle crowd that needs to be kept up with because their tastes/interests can change at the drop of a hat. Not to mention that they don't seem to watch much linear TV nowadays.

[CircleSeven 1944]

Okay, since they've greenlighted a second season of Whose Line Is It Anyway, the network is thinking about something they haven't had since The Game. Comedy.

 

And I still don't think The CW is going to last. But this might be the boost they probably need.

[Leavellebrett 85]

 

Okay, since they've greenlighted a second season of Whose Line Is It Anyway, the network is thinking about something they haven't had since The Game. Comedy.

 

And I still don't think The CW is going to last. But this might be the boost they probably need.

 

I heard somewhere that Whose Line was their biggest premier on that network in its history... as well as it's having the biggest return audience week after week.

[LoadStar 363]

 

Okay, since they've greenlighted a second season of Whose Line Is It Anyway, the network is thinking about something they haven't had since The Game. Comedy.

 

And I still don't think The CW is going to last. But this might be the boost they probably need.

 

Les Moonves explained recently that although The CW posts a loss every year, because virtually all the shows on the network are produced by CBS or Warner Brothers, it somehow ends up a net positive. Don't ask me how that works, but the short version is that they say they're perfectly OK with the way things work.

[channel2 869]

If the end credits of Arrow are any indication, The CW itself owns the copyright to its shows, so they stand to make money off of ancillary markets (home video, syndication, streaming, digital sales).

[SterlingNorth 33]

 

If the end credits of Arrow are any indication, The CW itself owns the copyright to its shows, so they stand to make money off of ancillary markets (home video, syndication, streaming, digital sales).

 

Here, you win. As NYMag's Vulture notes, it's through streaming that the CW balances its books. (The home video market is moribund, and it remains to be seen how See-Dub's shows will fare in syndication, but Netflix keeps the lights on.) And the CW holds copyright to Arrow? I would have thought it was Warner Bros. Television, given Warner's ownership of DC Comics.