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The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall '06

The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall \'06

I know the news of UPN & WB merging into one new network, The CW, is a few days old now, but no one here has mentioned it yet. I'm assuming the initial CW are short for Columbia (since CBS owns UPN) and Warners.

I'm just curious if anyone has any reactions to this. Surprise? Worry that your favorite show(s) might be cancelled? Don't care?

Also, I'm curious as to whether the merging carries any potential in the sci-fi realm, particularly with the Star Trek & B5 universes, considering that both Paramount & Warner Bros. might be stronger or more willing to take chances when they can lean on each other.

I'm doubting this more than when I first heard the news. The CW will air 30 hours of TV a week, and originally, I assumed that meant going to a full 3-hour primetime block like the Big 3 networks. However, further news has revealed that they'll still do only 2 hours a night (like Fox), skip Saturday, and instead, do a 2-hour afternoon block from 3 to 5 PM, which I suppose will be filled with either soap operas, talk shows, judge shows, dating shows, or some combination thereof. The only exception is Sunday, in which they'll do a 7 to 10 PM prime time block, plus an extra hour or two before that (repeats of their top shows, perhaps). With fewer prime time hours, I'm guessing has sci-fi has just as much, if not less, potential than it did on the two individual netlets.

I think that's a mistake. They should go for the extra hour of prime time to compete in the mature drama category and skip all the daytime fluff.

The only show I watch on either network is Gilmore Girls, and my fast-growing appreciation for that show is rather late-blooming (didn't start watching until season 5). But, from the buzz I hear about them, I'm assuming the combined network would be smart to keep around the following shows:

From WB:
Gilmore Girls :cool:
Smallville (over-rated)
Supernatural
One Tree Hill (snoozeville)
Everwood
Reba

From UPN:
Veronica Mars (probably the net's current post-Trek flagship show)
America's Next Top Model
Everybody Hates Chris
Girlfriends
WWE Smackdown (blech)

Funny, even if both networks were in trouble, enough that merging was a good idea, at least the WB seems to have a little more class. It just seems kind of wrong to have Gilmore Girls and Smackdown on the same network, but surely they wouldn't dump GG when it's critically acclaimed and most likely has only one year left anyway. As for Smackdown, I read one article that implies that show making it onto CW is a foregone conclusion.
 
Re: The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall

There is normally 2 years between companies merging and any effect on their products.
 
Re: The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall

It just looks like two "meh" channels being merged into a single entity of "meh." Except I still get SmackDown, so I suppose it doesn't really matter to me.
 
Re: The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall

There is normally 2 years between companies merging and any effect on their products.

These aren't widget manufacturers*, these are TV networks. The new combined network will be launching this fall.

(Actually even mergers between widget manufacturers aren't so standardized that a blanket statement like "it normally takes two years for their product lines to change" to mean anything, at least for American widget manufacturers.)

Regards,

Joe
 
Re: The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall

These aren't widget manufacturers*, these are TV networks. The new combined network will be launching this fall.

As for products - when did they perform the programme planning? It takes time to recruit actors and get scripts written.

More importantly, when where the suits that choose the programmes appointed?
 
Re: The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall

Andrew, they already have the infrastructure for the existing shows and those in development. They'll just be under a single umbrella. Everything that both networks have in the pipeline will continue on, except under one umbrella. And slowly but surely, things will be a unified direction.
 
Re: The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall

There is normally 2 years between companies merging and any effect on their products.
In this context, this is a ludicrous claim.

The combined network will simply have fewer hours of prime time broadcast time than the total of the two networks combined. Therefore, as an absolute minimum impact on the two networks "products" (shows that they have produced for original broadcast) there will be shows canceled that would not have been canceled had the merger not happened.

For fans of those shows, that *is* a pretty significant impact, *much* sooner than two years out from the merger.
 
Re: The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall

You guys are ALL right. There will be the immediate effect that PR mentions, but, if there is to be NEW management over the new, combined network, it will be a while before they can get THEIR new shows going into the "pipeline," putting their own stamp on original programming. I don't know enough about the biz to say whether that takes one year, or two, but it won't be overnight!
 
Re: The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall

The two networks between them have more content than the combined network can carry, which means the initial task will be to cull shows. And the new management has already been named (they're people from the current management teams of both networks, mostly staying in the same jobs.) Yes, there will be new product brought into the pipeline for 2006/2007, but that would have happened even without the merger.

There are a couple of WB shows and one UPN show that I actually kinda like, but for the rest I have this fear that the merger will result in a giant blackhole of suck that the entire universe could eventually collapse into. :)

Regards,

Joe
 
Re: The CW: UPN & WB merging into one network Fall

There are a couple of WB shows and one UPN show that I actually kinda like, but for the rest I have this fear that the merger will result in a giant blackhole of suck that the entire universe could eventually collapse into. :)

Regards,

Joe

From my standpoint, I was thinking more along the lines of "They can fall over in the woods, but I won't be around to hear it."
 

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