Wednesday, January 25, 2006

The CW changes the landscape

With the announcement of the new joint venture between Time Warner/Tribune and CBS to create the CW from the ashes of the WB and UPN, the lives of many shows suddenly look to be shorter. In no particular order, I think the 'death watch' is on for the following shows:

  • Love, Inc (UPN)
  • Living with Fran (WB)
  • Twins (WB)
  • Related (WB)
  • Eve (UPN)
  • Cuts (UPN)
  • What I Like About You (WB)
  • Charmed (WB)
  • South Beach (UPN)
With only 13 hours of prime time programming available (from the combined 23 hours), I think we can see the following shows make the cut:
  • Smallville (WB)
  • Gilmore Girls (WB)
  • Everwood (WB)
  • Aquaman (WB pilot will most likely make it to air)
  • Veronica Mars (UPN)
  • Everybody Hates Chris (UPN)
  • Reba (WB)
  • Top Model (UPN)
  • Supernatural (WB)
  • Girlfriends (UPN)
  • Beauty and the Geek (WB)
  • All of Us (UPN)
  • Smackdown (UPN)
Wait a minute, you're asking. What about those new midseason shows? And some of those you listed, like 'Beauty and the Geek' might only be 13 episodes -- what else will go on in its time slot? There are also a smattering of other shows I didn't mention -- 'One on One', 'Half & Half'...and then there are the other pilots in development. Exactly why this will be interesting to watch. I'm going to wait it out a few days until we start to hear more about shows that might not make the cut before I update the Watch List, but expect this merger to impact the list in a big way.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully Rebecca Romijn's WB show "Pepper Dennis" will NOT go the way of "Emily's Reasons Why Not."

I think it'll start in March.

Christian Lindke said...

They were discussing the implications this would have for the non-Fox owned affiliate stations who will now become "unaffiliated" on KPCC this evening.

On the upside, the 50+ unaffiliated channels nationwide will be clamoring for programming to syndicate. On the downside, it is rare that new show are the ones syndicated. Of course this merger opens the door for Fox, or someone else, to create a new broadcast network.

Interesting dilemma all around.