The CW, owned jointly by
CBS and Time Warner (from whence the initials), is the result of the 2006 merger of
The WB and
UPN. This is a network that is
utterly about demographics. Specifically, that demographic which spends more time online that it does watching the tube. A pretty smooth move, since "reaching" young adults means giving them something to talk about on the internet (hence their 2009–12 slogan "TV To Talk About.") Nearly all of The WB's and UPN's best-known programs —
Gilmore Girls,
Smallville,
Supernatural,
America's Next Top Model,
Everybody Hates Chris,
One Tree Hill,
Veronica Mars — were carried over from those networks.
The network struggled during its first few years, to the point that the Tribune Company, owner of key affiliates like New York's WPIX and Los Angeles' KTLA, dropped CW branding on its CW stations; for example, WPIX (formerly CW11) has reverted to being PIX 11 (the name it carried back when it was an independent station), while Denver's KWGN (formerly CW2) developed a
Dork Age of calling itself "
The Deuce" with a younger image for a couple years, including removing their older news personalities and attempted to make themselves hip (which made it worse; it's now branded as the comparably staid "Colorado's Own Channel 2"). Recently, though, it's finally found its footing, with original hits such as
Gossip Girl,
90210 (a
Sequel Series to the '90s
Fox show),
The Vampire Diaries and
Nikita, in addition to a number of still-popular shows from the WB/UPN days (
Supernatural,
Top Model). While it's still in fifth place behind the "Big Four" networks (though it's more in sixth place as the Spanish language Univision network has begun to expand), one must remember that
The WB and
UPN were also like this even at their respective high points, and the CW seems to be more content aiming for the teen/young adult niche (which they do spectacularly well in) than going for broader appeal like the major networks.
On a less pleasant note, the launch of this network was the death knell for
African-American-cast sitcoms on network television for the foreseeable future, as it removed UPN, the only broadcast network that was still committed to running those types of programming. When UPN merged with the WB, the latter network's sensibilities wound up dominating, causing black-focused shows like
Everybody Hates Chris and
The Game to get lost in their new network home's identity. While
The Game was lucky enough to make a
Channel Hop to
BET (
and became that network's biggest show ever in the process), other shows of its ilk saw themselves getting
bumped off.
Being a newer network, The CW has a few bugs to work out with carriage in some markets, albeit not to the extent of
My Network TV and
Ion Television. Several smaller markets (those in the bottom 100) go for a national feed called The CW Plus, which mixes syndicated shows with network programming. HD tends to depend on the market (some have HD, or at least 480i widescreen, some don't), and many stations are cable-exclusive. It also has a substantial amount of stations that lie on digital subchannels, which again may or may not be HD, and most are CW Plus affiliates.
The CW is also notable for boasting Saban Brands'
Vortexx, the last
Saturday Morning Cartoon block to air new shows.
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