UPN and WB hope to thrive together
Published 9:00 pm Monday, July 17, 2006
LOS ANGELES – For about a decade, UPN and The WB tried individually to break into the realm of legitimate broadcast networks.
Neither one of them did.
At times, they each displayed flashes of brilliance, but it was usually the kind that jumps out at you while you’re touring your local fourth-grade science fair.
But the two have combined and, while the new CW should provide a better home for the shows, the critics will persist to be a thorn in its side.
“Can you talk about your decision to keep ‘One Tree Hill’?” one critic asked CW entertainment President Dawn Ostroff, “and how that fits in with your strategy of keeping the best shows from either network?”
But the schedule looks relatively strong for the network, whose target audience is adults 18 to 34.
It officially launches Sept. 20 and will air locally on UPN’s old home, Channel 11.
“The one thing that’s really fascinating is that we are going to be targeting Gen X and Gen Y-ers,” Ostroff said. “When you look at those two generations together, it’s about 120 million Americans.
“When you look at the 18-to-34 segment of that, it’s about 42 million Americans. … So there’s a great opportunity there to reach a huge segment of the population.”
The CW will feature just two new shows. “Runaway” is a drama about a family of five on the lam after dad (Donnie Wahlberg) is wrongly accused of murder. “The Game” is a sitcom spinoff of “Girlfriends” about wives of professional football players.
The small slate of new shows is the result of returning relatively successful shows from two networks and the logistics of trying to draw viewers to a new network.
“You have to realize that we have a very tall order,” Ostroff said. “We need to communicate to all of these viewers and all of these very devoted fans a new network and, in many cases, a new channel to find their favorite shows.”
The merger gives shows a chance to survive that didn’t have it before. UPN’s “Veronica Mars,” for example, will now have a lead-in from the successful and established “Gilmore Girls,” which was on The WB. They will air back to back on Tuesday nights.
“The WB was always the right place for teen shows,” said “Veronica” creator Rob Thomas, whose show was up against a certain ABC drama last season. “Fingers crossed that they don’t move ‘Lost’ to Tuesdays at 9.”
Everwood, nevermore
Marsha Schroeder of Everett, and others, have asked about “Everwood,” and on Monday, CW President Dawn Ostroff talked about what she called an “agonizing decision.”
The show won’t be back.
“There were a lot of painful decisions in figuring out how you combine the schedules of these two networks and put the shows on that really make sense,” she said.
“Gilmore Girls” living on?
Good news for Herald reader Kathie Chapman and other fans of “Gilmore Girls.”
Much has been made about “Gilmore Girls” stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel heading into the final years of their contracts, and many critics, including this one, have jumped the gun in calling the upcoming season its last.
“The fact is our legal contracts are up, so you begin to imagine, ‘What if?’” Graham said. “I hope that we have such a great season that it feels like we should keep going.”
Read more about “Gilmore Girls” in my blog.
Columnist Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet. com. For more from the TV Critics Association press tour, check out Victor’s blog at heraldnet.com/blogpopculture.
