The CW & My Network TV

[SterlingNorth]

The problem is that the network is now well within a vicious cycle. There's little chance that any show that tries for a broad audience base will survive since there's no place on the network to promote it. Each year as they retrench, the cycle gets more and more vicious. Losing wrestling was a huge blow as with it they threw away a megaphone to folks whose concern is removing bras as opposed to using them to achieve the perfect shape. Repeat again with the end of "Chris" and "Game", shows that couldn't be promoted elsewhere on the lineup. Actually, I still believe this began even before The CW itself as the WB was femmed up and UPN U-turned to grab that audience with "Top Model".

The tragic thing is that the mission for next year wouldn't have been completely impossible. As they still have Smallville and Supernatural, they should have developed a sci-fi or action-adventure show a la "Heroes" or "Chuck". Those shows got numbers that, while they should have gotten Zucker fired, would be celebrated at the CW. Of course, the CW is trying to game in with "Nikkita", but the network has managed to turn breasts into a warning flare. Do not dock here lest the Amazons imprison you. (Though now I wonder if "Themyscira" would be a better prospect than "Gotham" as a spin-off, in this situation.)

At best (and only if "Nikkita" somehow attracts a significantly broad following, or if "Vampy Diaries" turns its critical accolades into such a following as well), they can only hope to have not homogenized its audience any more than it is already. But that means they already made their job all the more harder in the year following when they lose Smallville as a lure.

Spring 2011 will be an ugly one at the CW, as they'll be left with nothing to build upon. Or maybe those chemical byproducts will have feminized us all by next year, leaving the CW as the only appropriate broadcast network. It might be cheaper for them to go into chemical research.

[kjohnson]

Sterling, great analysis. Now that I'm out of school, I'll get to watch the death spiral of CW continue. This should be entertaining this fall.

I may even give "Vampy Diaries" a shot.

[detroiter313]

Looks like The CW has gone all "Lifetime/WeTV/Oxygen" on us, isn't it?

[SterlingNorth]

For years I've mocked how long they've kept running Smallville. Maybe not often here, but on some of the other places I inhabit online and off. "Geriatric Superboy" I've called the show. That said, I've always assumed that they were keeping the show alive until they could figure out a viable spin-off. . .
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Wonder Woman issue #600 went on sale today. Having been renumbered back into the 3 digits to be with her contemporaries, (Superman hit #700 last week) author J. Michael Straczynski and artist Jim Lee are trial-ballooning a reboot and costume redesign (something that's frighteningly common in the funny book business). Reviews are .... shall we say "mixed". Anyway, TVWeek floats a theory that the design was made with TV in mind. That sounds plausible. The only living person who pulled off the classic costume as designed was a beauty pageant winner who would go on to play the principal in the Disney movie Sky High, and Chloe Sullivan's mother in Smallville. And the log line and costume seems to track with a long line of darker and grittier reboots like the Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica, and the WB's own Birds of Prey. Of course, most of those failed; the big exception was Battlestar Galactica.
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I joked that Themyscira would be the only viable idea for a spin off -- provided, of course, that someone from there actually appears on the show. (And if such a show comes to pass and it is titled "Themyscira", I want something for the suggestion, Time Warner. I dunno, a tote bag or something.) While Graeme McMillan does lay out a some good reasons for it, I still think the CW needs to man up. I would have suggested they end the Bat-embargo and let someone do a Batman series. Another obvious suggestion would be to let the series shift into its take on the Justice League. Some less obvious ideas would perhaps try to make a series out of some of the Milestone characters DC has rights to use, like Icon or Static. I'd do that only to add a little bit of color to the world of supers.
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Notice that Summit is doing its damnedest to make men want to see Eclipse -- or at least not be embarrassed when their girlfriends take them to see it. I figure that is mission that the writers of the Vampire Diaries and Supernatural are going to have to embark on for the next season. Likewise Nikita will need to pull an Olivia Munn/Michael Bay -- be cute and disarming while making stuff blow up real good. And while we're on it, they might consider advertising Nikita and any future broad reaching programs in places like G4 or Wizard Magazine or Maxim or places where men are known to be, since men won't be watching the CW to see these promos in their natural habitat.

[SterlingNorth]

And here we go. . .
Breaking TCA 2010 News: THE CW WANTS TO FIND A NEW DC COMIC BOOK HERO TO REPLACE 'SMALLVILLE' NEXT YEAR

This would have been something to be working on before ending Smallville.

[ColumbusNewsFan]

By what I was reading, It's looks like the door is opening for a Wonder Woman series revamp on The CW. Thinking about it that is the most logical choice for them.