The CW at TCA: Executive Session with Dawn Ostroff

Accentuating the positive, the good news for The CW is having a specific five-night focus, and that target is young females. For the first time in the network’s short history, each night of the week (including the unnecessary America’s Next Top Model repeat on Friday) is themed to that demographic. “In three short years, we have carved out a niche in the marketplace programming to young women, and we feel that this network is starting to resonate across all platforms,” said Dawn Ostroff, The CW’s President of Entertainment. “As a network born in the digital age, it’s vital that our brands extend beyond TV, and we’ve had a lot of success reaching our viewers everywhere they are. We’ve had over 200 million video streams on cwtv.com.” Young skewing The CW is, indeed, the broadcast network most digitally driven. But the bad news, of course, is the ongoing deteriorating ratings. Year-to-year the numbers are down by double-digit percentages; there is no way to mask that. But eliminating deadly Sunday means the network can focus on the weeknight sked. “The economy was taking a big turn, and I think it just made a lot of sense for us, as well as for our affiliates, to give back the night and for us really to focus on Monday through Friday, which is really where our bread and butter is and where we know we can migrate all of our viewers across the schedule,” noted Ostroff. Since the success of any given network can ride on the heels of one big hit (which could, no doubt, lead to other successes), The CW has four new opportunities to keep it afloat: dramas Melrose Place, The Beautiful Life and The Vampire Diaries this fall, and Life Unexpected in midseason. The odds are stacked against any new show breaking out of the box, but the most likely to take a bite out of the competition, so to speak, is Vampire Dairies, which has shades of two former huge WB successes: Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Charmed. The network has no plans in the immediate future, meanwhile, to get back into the sitcom business. “I think women are probably very interested in sitcoms,” said Ostroff. “I just don’t know if we can do sitcoms that are loud enough or noisy enough to get the attention that we’re able to get with the dramas and with some of the reality shows.” In other news at the CW, there are plans to move forward with the proposed Gossip Girl spin-off (Lily) or drama pilot The Body Politic; veteran Smallville may not be ending next season if it produces positive results in the new Friday 8 p.m. time period (anything would be an improvement over recent occupants Everybody Hates Chris and The Game); and the new season on The CW is launching before the competing networks. “Because of the strike a lot of our shows had gone later the season before, and could not get back up to start earlier this year, so it became a real nightmare for us logistically,” noted Ostroff. “But we’re starting three weeks before the season.” Keep in mind that the official start of the season is Sept. 21. The CW’s 90210, Melrose Place, America’s Next Top Model, The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural all roll out the week of Sept. 7. One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl and The Beautiful Life are one week later.Related: The CW at TCARelated: The Vampire Diaries Panel

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The CW at TCA: Executive Session with Dawn Ostroff

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