Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Brian Richards | TV | October 23, 2026
In January of 2006, the Powers That Be in charge of UPN (a.k.a. the United Paramount Network) and the WB (a.k.a. the greatest television network in all of existence) decided that, due to declining ratings and popularity for both networks, they would announce that both of them would be permanently shut down, and combined into one network. And that network would be called the CW.
From the Los Angeles Times:
Over the last 12 years, UPN has lost more than $1 billion and the WB has lost about $700 million. Since its launch in 1995, the WB has turned a profit only two times; it was expected to lose about $35 million this year. CBS-owned UPN has never had a profitable year. "UPN was approaching the point ... where we were hoping to break even," CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said Tuesday at a news conference announcing the deal in New York. "Looking down the road, this is a much better thing than keeping the UPN alive the way it was."Later, in an interview, Moonves boldly proclaimed: "We expect to make a profit in our first year." Moonves hammered out the deal with Barry Meyer, chairman of Warner Bros. Entertainment. Moonves once worked for Meyer when Moonves was in charge of Warner Bros. Television.
"We saw coming down the line a challenged landscape for keeping small networks alive," Meyer said. "That wasn't for us a prescription for building a long-term successful outfit."The new venture probably will result in significant layoffs, including the departure of the top two executives at the WB. Executives involved in the deal said they were not sure how many of the approximately 300 people who work at the two networks would join the CW. Moonves said it would employ fewer than 240 people.
Fast-forward to May of 2006, when it was announced that the fledgling network's starting lineup would include seven shows from the WB, and six from UPN. On September 18, with the help of a huge premiere party held at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, the WB Television Network bid farewell to its audience, and the CW arrived to take its place.
The thirteen shows used to launch the CW included 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill, All of Us, Girlfriends, The Game, Reba, Beauty and the Geek, America's Next Top Model, Everybody Hates Chris, WWE Smackdown, Smallville, Supernatural, and Veronica Mars. (Fun fact: the season 2 finale of Veronica Mars included a scene in which Aaron Echolls is shot and killed by Clarence Wiedman, the head of security for Kane Software. The hit was arranged by Duncan Kane, whose sister, Lily, was murdered by Aaron before the series began, and the following conversation between Duncan and Clarence was seen as a cheeky reference as to whether or not Veronica Mars was going to be cancelled after two seasons, or allowed to join the CW to continue its run.)
Some of the original shows created for the CW included the unfortunately titled Hidden Palms by Scream writer and Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson, and starred Taylor Handley, Amber Heard, and Tessa Thompson.
One of the most addictive and entertaining teen dramas on the CW, or on any other network was Gossip Girl, based on Cecily Van Ziegesar's book series of the same name, starring Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley, Jessica Szohr, Chace Crawford, Taylor Momsen, the late Michelle Trachtenberg, and Ed Westwick.
(As someone who was hooked on watching Gossip Girl, I am a proud member of Team Blair, Team Dorota, Team "Dan and Blair was the best couple on that damn show, second only to Eleanor and Cyrus," Team "Tights Are Not Pants!," and Team "Dan being Gossip Girl made no f-cking sense whatsoever.")
What if you're a twentysomething slacker who finds out that you're not only the son of the Devil, but you're also offered a job as a bounty hunter finding and catching souls that have escaped from Hell? That was the premise for Reaper, starring Bret Harrison, Tyler Labine, Rick Gonzalez, Missy Peregrym, and Ray Wise.
The classic teen drama Beverly Hills, 90210 was remade for a new generation of teenage viewers with 90210, starring Shenae Grimes, Tristan Wilds, Annalynne McCord, Matt Lanter, Rob Estes, Lori Loughlin, and the late, great Jessica Walter. But despite guest appearances from original cast members, the series wasn't nearly as successful as the original, even with its decent ratings.
Melrose Place was also remade for the CW, and this remake turned out to be even less successful than the CW's version of 90210. Then again, trying to follow in the footsteps of the show that gave us Marcia Cross as Dr. Kimberly Shaw is a nearly impossible task to successfully accomplish.
Nikita, based on the groundbreaking 1990 action drama by writer/director/problematic f-ckboy Luc Besson, which was then adapted into a USA television series starring Peta Wilson, starred Maggie Q as the newest version of Nikita, who is determined to take down the black ops organization that recruited her and murdered her fiancé when she attempted to quit.
One of Sarah Michelle Gellar's early attempts at a television comeback after Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the series Ringer, about a young woman who adopts the identity of her recently deceased twin sister, and soon learns about her many dark secrets she had attempted to keep hidden, and that someone is trying to kill her.
I'll be the first to admit that I had plenty of doubts about the CW's adaptation of The Vampire Diaries, based on the late L.J. Smith's book series of the same name. Seeing the posters and billboards around New York before its premiere convinced me that it wasn't going to be the same level of quality and entertainment that I got from watching True Blood, and that it would be more like Twilight. But after I decided to watch a couple of episodes in its first season just to satisfy my curiosity? I quickly realized how wrong I was, and before I knew it: Bonnie, Caroline, Stefan and Lexi's friendship and mutual love of Bon Jovi, Team Stelena vs. Team Delena, "Ancient Greece, two thousand years ago," Katherine motherf-cking Pierce (especially after her debut in the Season 1 finale), Stefan in Ripper mode, and the way it went through plot twists like a rollercoaster moving at full speed while its brakes collect dust had me hooked, and from that point on, The Vampire Diaries was appointment television for me every Thursday night.
(P.S. Julie Plec, you already know that there are many fans of The Vampire Diaries who will never forgive or forget how you treated Kat Graham, or her character Bonnie.)
Long before we had the pleasure of seeing Wilson Bethel kill people onscreen with guns, knives, billy clubs, and even lobsters as Benjamin "Bullseye" Poindexter on Daredevil and Daredevil: Born Again, he was one of the leads opposite Rachel Bilson on the romantic comedy-drama Hart of Dixie, about a New York doctor who suddenly inherits a medical practice in the small Southern town of Bluebell, Alabama. It also starred Scott Porter, Jaime King, Cress Williams, and Tim Matheson. (FYI: If you haven't heard this interview with Wilson Bethel conducted by Bim Adewunmi and Nichole Perkins on their podcast Thirst Aid Kit, please fix that immediately. You'll be glad you did.)
Inspired by the CBS fantasy drama from the 1990s that starred Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman, Beauty and the Beast starred Kristin Kreuk as an New York homicide detective trying to uncover clues of her mother's murder from nine years earlier, and Jay Ryan as a former U.S. Army doctor whose DNA was modified in a secret military experiment that turns him into a deadly and terrifying creature depending on his mood.
Before she was Mary, Queen of Scots, she was Mary Stuart, a teenage girl caught in the heart of numerous power plays, political maneuvers, and sexual shenanigans, in the series Reign, starring Adelaide Kane, Megan Follows, and Rossif Sutherland.
Not only was Arrow (which I wrote about for its tenth anniversary in 2022) successful and popular enough to give viewers another weekly superhero series to watch and enjoy, it also led to the creation of what is now known as the Arrowverse, thanks to the many spinoffs that followed: The Flash, starring Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, and Jesse L. Martin; Legends of Tomorrow, starring Caity Lotz, Victor Garber, Dominic Purcell, and Matt Ryan; Supergirl, which originally aired on CBS before moving to the CW starting with its second season, and starred Melissa Benoist, Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, and David Harewood; Batwoman, starring Ruby Rose (who left the show after its first season, and was replaced by Javicia Leslie); Black Lightning, starring Cress Williams (sadly, the series did not re-enact this classic moment between Black Lightning and Livewire from the animated series Young Justice); and Superman and Lois, starring Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch, which turned out to be a much better Superman adaptation than expected, despite the mixed response I had when I originally reviewed the pilot for Pajiba.
Ninety-seven years after a nuclear apocalypse wipes out nearly all human life on Earth, the remaining survivors have made their home in a space station called the Ark. To find out whether or not Earth is habitable, the survivors send 100 juvenile delinquents to the planet's surface, which soon becomes a fight for survival between them and the people who survived Earth's near-destruction to claim the planet as their own, in The 100, which was based on Kass Morgan's series of young adult novels of the same name, and starred Eliza Taylor, Marie Avgeropoulos, Bob Morley, and Ricky Whittle. The series was the subject of some very intense discourse on the Internet during its seven-season run, much of it centered around Whittle accusing showrunner Jason Rothenberg of bullying behavior directed at him, and how the death of a major character was another unfortunate example of the "Bury Your Gays" trope.
Jane the Virgin was a critically acclaimed, award-winning hit that launched the careers of its creator/showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman, and its two leads, Gina Rodriguez and Justin Baldoni. Two actors who never went on to say or do anything offensive or problematic that would make the public and the media talk about anything else other than their work. Not. At. All.
There are many things for us to talk about when it comes to Riverdale: the talented young cast; the parents of the teenage characters being just as attractive and irresistible, if not more so; the late, great Luke Perry as Fred Andrews, who brought wisdom, maturity, and his years of experience on Beverly Hills, 90210 to his performance, which helped make his scenes and the series as a whole even better, and the beautifully done tribute to both Perry and his character after the actor's death. But it goes without saying that one of the most memorable things about Riverdale was that it made sure to not take itself too seriously, as evidenced by this moment that remains one of the greatest things to ever happen in the history of television, and I say that without any hyperbole:
Another classic primetime soap remade by the CW was Dynasty, starring Grant Show, Nicollette Sheridan (who left the series after its second season, and was replaced by Elaine Hendrix), Michael Michele, Alan Dale, and Elizabeth Gillies.
Two classic shows from the WB were remade for the CW, but with more diversity and representation aimed at people of color, as well as the LGBTQIA+ community, resulting in both remakes dealing with their own share of controversies and heated responses from fans: Charmed, starring Madeleine Mantock, Melonie Diaz, Sarah Jeffery, and Lucy Barrett; and Roswell, New Mexico, starring Jeanine Mason, Nathan Dean, Lily Cowles, and Michael Trevino.
What do you do when you're a medical student who goes to a party, gets scratched by a zombie, and realize that you will lose all of your humanity if you don't eat people's brains on a regular basis? If you're Olivia "Liv" Moore, you get a job at the local morgue as an assistant coroner, eat the brains of the corpses that are brought in for autopsies, quickly realize that you experience flashbacks of the person's life (along with their skills and personality traits) upon eating their brains, and decide to use your abilities to help the police solve murders. So was the premise of iZombie, based on the DC/Vertigo comic book series of the same name, and starring Rose McIver, Malcolm Goodwin, and Rahul Kohli. (Along with Hannibal, this was the other show I liked to watch while eating dinner, and the fact that both shows regularly featured consumption of human flesh and brains is both a coincidence, and something that did nothing to deter my appetite.)
Rachel Bloom developed quite the following on the Internet in the early 2010s with songs like "F-ck Me, Ray Bradbury." But it was Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which she co-created with The Devil Wears Prada screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, about a woman struggling with her mental health, while also dealing with her sudden decision to move from New York to West Covina, Californina to follow her ex-boyfriend from high school, that helped make her into a household name. It showed both critics and audiences that she was a force to be reckoned with when it came to acting and performing in weekly episodes that were practically hour-long musicals crafted alongside the late Adam Schlesinger.
Other shows that aired on the CW were Stargirl, Nancy Drew; Walker; In The Dark, Kung Fu; and All American, which ended its run this year to become the longest-running original series in the network's history. As part of the CW agreeing to add some international programing to its lineup, they also aired the shows Joan, Wild Cards, Family Law, Sullivan's Crossing, Law and Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, Sherlock and Daughter, Good Cop/Bad Cop (although Kayla from Hacks would immediately call bullsh-t on the first part of that title), and Private Eyes: West Coast.
There were many other shows that aired on the CW, which unfortunately didn't last longer than a season or two, and your mileage may definitely vary as to whether some of them deserved to stay on the air longer than a season or two: Runaway, The Beautiful Life, Hellcats, Privileged, Life Unexpected, The Secret Circle, Emily Owens, M.D., Cult, The Carrie Diaries, The Tomorrow People, Star-Crossed, The Messengers, Containment, Life Sentence, Valor, Life Is Wild, Pandora, Katy Keene, The Republic of Sarah, a remake of the USA series The 4400 which was simply titled 4400; Naomi, Tom Swift, The Winchesters, Walker: Independence, and Gotham Knights.
In October of 2022, Nexstar Media Group purchased a 75% stake in The CW, and it wasn't long before discussions began about how the network needed to broaden its appeal, and focus on making programming that would appeal to bigger and wider audiences, and not just young women. The following year saw the demand for scripted programming at the CW drop exponentially, and the network pivoted to focusing on mainly sports and reality-based programming. The shows that CW viewers used to watch and expect from the network quickly became a thing of the past, and most recently, streaming services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix (when they're not canceling most of their shows, particularly those that appeal to an older, female audience) have begun filling that gap with shows like Off Campus, Crew Girl, and Sterling Point.
When it came to promotional campaigns, the CW didn't give viewers anything as memorable as "Faces I Remember" and "Oh, What A Night". But the "TV Now" and "Dare to Defy" promos were nothing to scoff at, and they're still better than the "Dubba-Dubba-WB" ads that we got back in the day.
Seeing the CW become a shadow of its former self has been a shot to heart for television fans, especially for those who already saw this happen to the WB, and especially for those who have been clamoring for television to go back to being more like television again, and be proud of it. For networks and cable channels to regularly give us shows that air longer seasons with 12 to 13 episodes on cable, and 22 to 24 episodes on network, because no matter how good or great your show is? Having to wait two to three years for a new season, and for that new season to have a single-digit episode count is some bullsh-t.
Much like its predecessors UPN and the WB, the CW helped to create a generation of die-hard television fans who would go on to write about their favorite shows and characters on and off social media, and in some rare cases, who would go on to write for those shows and characters after being noticed and approached by showrunners on the lookout for new additions to their writers' rooms. The network also served as another training ground for many actors, writers, and directors at the start of their careers who would use their experience to move on to greater success in bigger projects. Unfortunately, The Paramount/Warner Bros. merger just went into effect earlier this month, despite many artists hoping that it would never become a reality because of what would happen if it did: Hundreds, if not thousands, of lost jobs, less creativity and artistry being allowed, even in the projects that are greenlit; and artists having to answer to billionaires who are perfectly content with watching the world burn (and doing their part to add plenty of gasoline to the flames) as their bank accounts grow even larger. It's another example (of which there have been far too many) of a beloved and well-known company that provides art and entertainment to the public that ends up being ruined, if not completely eliminated, by those in power who only care about the power they have, and the money that often comes with it.
The day will soon come when we see what will actually happen as a result of this merger, how it will affect what we all see in movie theaters and on our television screens, and how/if the film and television industry will recover when the merger turns out to be a complete and utter failure. Which it will, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually soon. For now, we can take a moment to look back at how the CW provided numerous hours of joy and entertainment to viewers at home, before we look forward and do all that we can as we dare to defy those who would tear apart everything that matters to us, in fiction and in real life.
