UPN, WB to Become “The CW”
Posted by Chief Oddball around noon on January 24th, 2006Interesting news in the television industry today. The WB and UPN networks are slated to merge, in a new joint venture between CBS and WB. The result will be a new over-the-air network called “The CW,” which will combine both studios’ resources to go after the young adult demographic. The individual UPN and WB networks will be phased out after this fall.
And so, twelve years after it was created to hearald the introduction of Star Trek: Voyager, UPN is toast. My reply? Good f’in riddance. Enterprise was lame, and looking back, it’s hard to believe I ever watched that show at all (with the exception of the truly lovely, in a fanservicey way, In A Mirror, Darkly). With the Trek franchise having been kicked to the curb by UPN’s fearless leader, now the only popular property that network can lay claim to is the stagnating America’s Next Top Model. Wooowww. And what else is there, really, besides two-bit sit-coms? Put a bullet through your head, UPN — you’re done.
Since properties from both CBS and Warner will be combined on the new CW network, expect many of the popular current WB shows to make the jump. In Detroit, the local UPN affiliate, WKBD (formerly Channel 50), will play host to The CW this fall. WDWB (formerly TV 20), meanwhile, will be left to drift without programming. Hey, here’s an idea — how about you revert to your old call letters, WXON, and start airing independent programming again? Wouldn’t that be a novel idea!
Just no more Small Wonder, Gimme a Break or Mighty Ducks, please.
The resulting amount of SUCK that would arise from combining the shabitude of the WB and UPN could quite possibly wipe out humanity.
I wonder how they’ll deal with the existing programs currently competing in the same timeslot? Maybe merge properties? I can see it now — “From the minds that brought you Everybody Hates Chris and Smallville: a new sit-com dealing with Chris Rock’s childhood, telling the story of what it’s like to be a super-powered African-American kid in an otherwise normal American family in the suburbs in the 1980s! We call it Everybody Hates Smallville. It’s hip! It’s edgy! It’s hilarious! And it’s coming to you this fall on the CW!”
And I totally second turning WDWB back into WXON and showing nothing but shoddy, low-budget crap again. Mama’s Family, here we come!
Shabitude indeed. Hah, I loved your clash of Smallville and Everybody Hates Chris. The conglomerate title was oddly appropriate in its own right, hee hee. Perhaps “The CW” stands for “The CrackWhore.”
According to the news, the new network will air on only 6 out of 7 days, leaving (probably) Sunday open. I suppose WKBD could go back to airing reruns of Little House on the Prairie like they were in 1986 or whatever that year was when my class went on a field trip to their studios and got to meet the weatherman.