The CW is undergoing another round of staff cuts, sources tell Deadline. More than 15 people were affected, with the marketing/promotional team impacted, along with finance. The laid-off employees are said to include mid- and high-level executives, including some in SVP roles. A rep for CW parent Nexstar Media declined comment. Thursday’s staff reductions come a month and a half after Chris Spadaccini joined the CW as chief marketing officer.
Under new ownership, the CW will be going for broader and cheaper programming, including syndicated fare acquisitions, with the goal to make the network profitable by 2025.
Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global to retain minority stakes and produce original, scripted content for The CW. Mark Pedowitz will continue as The CW’s chairman and chief executive officer
Declaring “Enough is enough,” former Batwoman star Ruby Rose has come forth with a new wave of allegations about the circumstances leading to their exit from the Warner Bros. TV series — while also insisting they didn’t “quit” but was forced out.
Exclusives
CW Expects To Notch Upfront Volume Gains
Advertisers attracted to a growing slate of superhero dramas and a revival of the long-running drama Dynasty helped boost upfront volume at the CW, another signal that the 2017 market for TV advertising could be more robust than had been previously expected. The CW expects a gain in volume of advance ad commitments of between 3% and 5%, according to a person familiar with the matter. This means the network, owned jointly by CBS and Time Warner, could have collected commitments worth between $490.9 million and $549.4 million.
The CW is packing all of its fall premiere dates into the week of Oct. 9, a departure from recent years when its series launches were staggered across several weeks. It all starts with the third season of Supergirl.
Last Shoe Drops: CW Sets Fall Schedule
The CW is the final Big 5 broadcaster to unveil its 2017-18 schedule, and here’s the major headline: the network is moving roughly half of its established shows to new time slots this fall.
The CW has posted a nearly four-minute, stand-alone epilogue wrapping up Frequency and an extended series finale for No Tomorrow, both of which resolve key plot points and character arcs so as not to leave fans of the canceled shows hanging.
It’s good news for the two midseason CW series whose fate had not been decided. The Vampire Diaries’ spinoff The Originals and Rob Thomas’ iZombie both are getting another season on the CW. The Originals will return for a fifth season and iZombie for season 4.
The CW has axed freshman dramas Frequency and No Tomorrow. The news isn’t really a huge surprise: Neither show got an order for additional episodes last fall, capping their freshman seasons at 13 episodes each. Both shows wrapped up their initial runs in January, but CW President Mark Pedowitz promised that fans of both shows would get closure “on the digital side” if they weren’t renewed.
CW Loss Spells End Of Local News On XETV
Chris Brooks has been promoted to The CW’s executive vice president, network distribution. He is responsible for all network distribution, and also oversees affiliate relations and affiliate marketing activities at […]
The CW has ordered an additional four episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, bringing the current Season 2 order to a total of 17 episodes.
Continuing to pursue TV-related ad deals, Twitter disclosed an “upfront” deal with The CW and Ford Motor Co. for its Twitter Amplify effort. Starting Oct. 4, The CW is creating social media videos — weekly recaps, highlights, via fan tweets and CW sneak peek content — for a number of its shows.
The honing of the CW’s focus has brightened the picture for the network as it marks its 10th birthday Sept. 20. The CW’s emphasis on properties drawn from the DC library, and such unconventional comedies as Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, has helped it compete in the multiplatform universe where brand-name titles thrive. But it was the dawn of the digital era that shored up the CW’s future as a business for parent companies CBS Corp. and Warner Bros.
After renewing nearly all its shows, the network basks in long-sought stability with a roster of superhero programs, such as The Flash, Arrow and a new arrival from sister network CBS.
Why The Upfront Is Upside-Down
“As the Upfront season winds to a close, press reports are heralding advertisers’ return to network television, spurring both volume and cost-per-thousand increases. However, there are behind-the-scenes realities that tell a more complex story,” says Jack Meyers. “Yes, this year’s Upfront picture appears to be more robust than the past few years. But in my opinion, the data as reported is highly unreliable. Trying to get an accurate apples-to-apples read on stand-alone broadcast network television advertising economics fails to reflect today’s buying and selling dynamics.”
ABC and Fox have signed off on the last of their advance ad commitments, joining CBS and The CW in the “effectively done” category, while NBC enters the home stretch.
The younger-skewing network today announced that it is sticking with its staggered fall premiere date rollout schedule in October, where it avoids competing with the Big 4’s crowded September push.
The new agreement extends affiliations of all of Tribune’s CW outlets except WGN Chicago, which moves to Fox-owned WPWR. The deal covers 28 million television households across 25% of the U.S.
In a rare change of network affiliations in Chicago, the CW Network will move this fall from Tribune Media’s WGN to Fox-owned WPWR, sources said Sunday. The switch, expected to be announced Monday, will return WGN to an independent station with a strictly local programming lineup, starting in September.
CW Upfront Promotes Appeal To Both Sexes
The CW positioned itself at its upfront presentation on Thursday as a network capable of offering advertisers an audience divided evenly between men and women. At the center of this positioning was a new addition to its prime-time lineup that the network hopes will appeal equally to both sexes — Supergirl.
CW Chief On His Network’s Fall Plans
Mark Pedowitz discusses Supergirl‘s move, DC crossover plans, the future of Vampire Diaries, Riverdale‘s promise and the downside of reducing ad loads.
‘Supergirl’ Stays On Mon. In New CW Schedule
Supergirl will fly on the CW this fall at 8 p.m. on Monday nights, officially kicking off the primetime week for the youngest-skewing broadcast network, which revealed its 2016-17 schedule this morning. The CBS superhero export will serve as lead-in for Gina Rodriguez’s Jane The Virgin.
After weeks of rumor and speculation, the CBS-Warner Bros owned network confirmed they are picking up the DC comic book adaptation starring Melissa Benoist for a second season, after its freshman season ran on CBS.
CBS boss Leslie Moonves is deep in talks with Warner Bros. Television about the fate of its super-expensive comic-book series starring Melissa Benoist, which wrapped up a less-than-superlative first season last month. That has set the stage for a last-minute stare-down between Moonves and Warner Bros. TV chief Peter Roth. However, both sides have a potential out. Moonves could push Supergirl to The CW, a joint venture between CBS and Warners.
The station group is balking at renewing its affiliation with the CBS-Warner Bros. network, objecting to paying higher reverse comp and insisting on another long-term deal, according to sources. If a deal can’t be reached, streaming CW is among the options.
CW Wraps Up Upfront With Strong Growth
It’s hard to say whether this indicates that the ad market is more robust than expected, or that The CW is simply taking business from its rivals. But the network co-owned by CBS and Warner Bros. just became the first broadcaster to complete its upfront selling with unit prices up about 4% and volume up between 12% and 15%, according to sources. CW picked up 30 new clients, including automakers, finance and retail companies.
Watch The CW’s New Series Trailers
Here’s the first look at The CW’s new series trailers for 2015-16: DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, Containment and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
