Oh, right. I'm stupid.

In a market with seperate WB and UPN affiliates, I imagine one of them will just go back to being an independent station.

WB and UPN, by gobbling up a lot of previously independent stations, were partly responsible for the death of scripted syndicated television. Anyone think we'll see a bit of a resurgence?

From http://www.tribune.com/pressroom/rel...01242006.html:

Is this the same as 'Superstation WGN' that I get on my cable service? Because I remember they used to offer WB programming in the 90s but stopped about 5 years ago. But the press release makes it sound like all the channels are current WB affiliates.

I may be wrong but I believe there is a local WGN and a Superstation WGN. I remember a few years back the WGN had to stop broadcasting the WB content across the contry (I think) and thus created 2 somewhat seperate stations.

Yeah we'll still get this CW on WGN, but I guess the rest of the country that gets WGN through cable or satellite won't.

Originally, until we got a WB affiliate, my UPN station was the same way around here. We'd have the regular UPN programming Monday - Friday until 10pm, and then they would show WB shows after that, but on different nights that they ran on WB. For instance Buffy and Angel would run on Saturday, and a show like Roswell would air on Wednsday (after Voyager) instead of it's (then) Monday time slot on WB.

Anyway, now that UPN's schedule of shows is so weak, it sounds like a good idea to me. I mean really, they've only got two decent shows right now - Veronica Mars and Everybody Hates Chris - and to be honest I don't even watch those, nor anything on UPN since Enterprise finished - I almost forgot they even exist anymore. (I did pick up VM on DVD, though, so I'll probably start watching it). Just makes sense to have one strong network, rather than two weaker ones.

So I'm guessing this news sucks for Pittsburgh, as we have WB in HD and UPN is not even broadcasting digitally yet. According to that list of cities, our UPN is a CBS Station group, so I guess that means the current UPN will be the new broadcaster of the combined channel? So no more WB/UPN in HD for us!

While not offically cancelled, I have heard Charmed will be gone after this season. So far nobody is under contract for next year. And since the stars and producers have not been signed, I doubt the new channel would keep them for next year. The show is so expensive to produce, that they would not want to keep it around.

This is probably for the best. They will be hopefully stronger by combining forces.

I wonder if we'll soon see a CBS2 with even more CSI spinoffs?

Let's try to project a schedule for this new network given what has been reported.

Here are the shows listed in the article:

WWE Raw (2 hours)
Smallville (1 hour)
Gilmore Girls (1 hour)
Supernatural (1 hour)
Veronica Mars (1 hour)
Everybody Hates Chris (30 minutes)
Girlfriends (30 minutes)
Reba (30 minutes)
Beauty and the Geek/America’s Next Top Model (I’m going to assume they could share a timeslot – 1 hour)

That is 8.5 hours out of the 13 hour primetime schedule. One sitcom not mentioned (perhaps the one produced by Will Smith -- I think that's All of Us) or a new sitcom will make it 10 hours. I have to think they'll develop at least two hours of new shows, so that would leave only one hour for the likes of Everwood, One Tree Hill, or other shows I'm not thinking of.

This is big speculation on my part, but I see the following schedule:

Mondays:
Smallville -- 8 PM
New Show – 9 PM

Tuesdays:
Gilmore Girls – 8 PM
Veronica Mars – 9 PM

Wednesdays:
America’s Next Top Model – 8 PM
New Show – 9 PM

Thursdays:
Everybody Hates Chris – 8 PM
Another sitcom – 8:30 PM
New/Established Show(s) - 9-10 PM

Fridays:
WWE Raw 8 PM to 10 PM

Sunday:
Girlfriends 7:00 PM
Reba - 7:30 PM
Supernatural – 8 PM
New Show – 9 PM

I strongly doubt they will move Smallville. I think EHC is more likely to move.

I actually had Smallville moving up to Thursdays at 9 PM with EHC staying put at 8 in the first schedule. I didn't move EHC because I think this combined network is going to be light on sitcoms, and EHC is the most successful of the bunch. It is true that Smallville has done very well in that timeslot, though. I do think UPN has a tradition of a solid Monday comedy block, so that is definitely another way the network could go. Riffing on that, we could see:

Mondays:
Everybody Hates Chris - 8 PM
New comedy - 8:30 PM
Girlfriends - 9 PM
Reba - 9:30 PM

Thursdays:
Smallville - 8 PM
New Show - 9-10 PM

Sundays:
New/Returning Show(s) - 7 PM
Supernatural - 8 PM
New Show - 9 PM

I'm the biggest wuss ever.... but hope they keep Related

Going off my previous post, I'd guess:

Monday:
8-9 Everwood
9-10 Supernatural

Tuesday
8-9 Gilmore Girls
9-10 Veronica Mars

Wednesday
8-9 America's Next Top Model/Beauty & the Geek
9-10 One Tree Hill

Thursday
8-9 Smallville
9-10 New show?

Friday
8-10 WWE Smackdown

Sunday
6-6:30 Reba
6:30-7 WB Sitcom (What I Like About You?)
7-7:30 Everybody Hates Chris
7:30-8 Girlfriends
8-9 A new show, or something like Charmed or Related if they stick around

Another option might be cutting SmackDown down to an hour, which is something I believe has been discussed in the past. Of course, the risk there is the pairing show would likely draw lower ratings than SmackDown, plus I don't think the cost of producing two hours of SmackDown is that much more than the cost of producing only one hour.

I know why they're going this: by combining the resources of both WB and UPN, this gives the channel more marketing clout to go up against ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

The portion highlighted is why I think it's a lock that it stays at 2 hours in length. I do think it's possible that it might go off the prime time schedule, though. They could use the "easy view" 5-7 PM Sunday block for Raw, opening up time for other prime time programming. They'd have to have a lot of research done about the audience it would be likely to draw in order to justify the move, but I could see it happening.

I think that's part of it. I think the fact that neither network has a full slate of quality shows is another reason. The biggest reason in my opinion is neither of those, though -- by combining, they'll pick up the markets where one of the two networks doesn't have a real affiliate showing its programming during prime time. Some of those markets are pretty big -- my own Richmond, VA market is one without a real WB affiliate. If they can get up to the percentage of coverage that Fox has, they'll be taken more seriously by everyone.

That's a very reasonable looking schedule. However, is 5-7 Sunday their Easyview repeat bloc? Also, aren't you missing 9-10 Sunday?

I think keeping 9-10 Thursday open is a strong possibility - Smallville is their strongest show now and they would likely use it to launch any new drama behind it.

The merger makes complete sense.

I hope the new station is picked up by my current WB affiliate, it's signal is much stronger than UPN's when it comes to OTA HD. Maybe I'll actually be able to watch Veronica Mars in HD. ETA: finished reading the first page and the Tribune-owned WB11 will definitely be the new CW Network.

I'm not 100% positive about this since I don't have a real WB affiliate in town, but I don't think they program 9-10 on Sunday. 5-7 is their EasyView bloc, though.

They do. I think they actually use it for repeats of other shows (like Supernatural).

I doubt they would put 'fresh' programming in a 5-7 Sunday bloc.

Therefore, I think your Sunday would look more like:

7 Reba
7.30 WB Sitcom (What I Like About You?)
8 Everybody Hates Chris
8.30 Girlfriends
9-10 OPEN (I doubt Related would work here though since it probably shares the same exact demo as Desparate Housewives)

You could put Supernatural in the 9-10 Sun slot (where it is repeated often) and put Related at 9 after Everwood on Mondays.

I just realized we were talking 9-10. I even had that hour accounted for in my block. The 10 PM threw me off. Sorry about that. It's clear that the possibilities for me to see my favorite WB shows when the rest of the nation does and the possibility that Everwood might not make the cut have my head swimming.

Here is a List of confirmed affiliates of the CW Network

With the reduced slots available for new shows, I would expect quite few older and lower performing shows to exit. I also remember there was a falling out rumor last year between Berlanti and the WB. This could be the last season Everwood :-(

They should use the opportunity to fill some of the summer/off-season with shows that they could not fit in otherwise.

I'd rather see a whole season of something uninterrupted in the summer than the huge hiatuses the WB normally has.