CW President Dawn Ostroff leaving after season

[TMC1982]

http://bit.ly/hO6PtO

After almost a decade in Hollywood as the head of UPN and the CW, CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff may be going back to New York. I hear Ostroff would be leaving the CW at the end of her contract in June to relocate to New York with her kids. While the decision is not final, sources indicate that Ostroff is leaning heavily in that direction and is expected to make it official early next year.

The main problem with The CW is that Dawn Ostroff treated it like she was still at Lifetime. She really came across as sexiest and narrow-minded by proclaiming that she would only target young women. It didn't help that the promotional campaigns for The CW, often focused seemingly, on sex, meleodrama and materialistic things. In general, the main problem with Dawn Ostroff is that she treated The CW with a niche, basic cable mentality (like she was still at Lifetime as I said before). She took a fairly golden opportunity with the merger of The WB and UPN and completely botched it and watered it down. Miss Ostroff really lacked common sense in terms of what the target demographic for The CW should be. You don't program the schedule based on your own personal interests for the most part (at least if I were running a major TV network).

 

[SrsBsns]

Truth be told:

There are very few articles I've ever read that have made me literally yell, "**** YEAH!"

This is one of those articles.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

It didn't help that the promotional campaigns for The CW, often focused seemingly, on sex, meleodrama and materialistic things. ).

You mean like a teenage girl?


I'm not sure what the merger of UPN and the CW was supposed to accomplish. I don't remember what the ratings were but I remember more people liking CW programming. UPN was already a niche within a niche. A small network combined with a smaller network makes a less small network. Congrats.


I think the problem and true legacy of the CW will be the branding. After 5 years will they be able to convince people that hear that channel name to tune in if they have a "Modern Family" or "Desperate Housewives" level quality shows?

 

[Jennifer Walters]

The woman did give them a FEW quality shows. Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, and Nikita are all good.

Smallville has a legacy for some bizarre reason, even though it's probably one of the worst shows I've watched in terms of cast, construction and everything. So I guess you can give her that too.

She also tried to keep Veronica Mars afloat and I won't forget her for that, but for the most part, she just didn't know how to program a network.

 

[Superfreak]

She really came across as sexiest and narrow-minded by proclaiming that she would only target young women. It didn't help that the promotional campaigns for The CW, often focused seemingly, on sex, meleodrama and materialistic things

um, and what other things are young women interested in?

 

[Warhammer]

um, and what other things are young women interested in?

The sad thing is, that certainly says alot about young women.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

i liked that station better when it was the WB. it had a much better variety of shows and good Saturday morning cartoons.

but yeah, i have noticed how much they market the hell out of Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Hellcats, and all those other girly shows. while a great show like Supernatural is tossed aside and forced to air on Friday nites when not too many are home watching

 

[Dr. Evil]

The CW is like Fox circa 1992, a minor network that is barely on the radar of the American TV watching audience. Fox in 1992 and 1993 had Married with Children, the Simpsons and shows nobody watched, like with CW today, except that CW has Vampire Diaries, Nikita and Supernatural to go along with shows nobody watches (except females).

Of course, we all know what happened to Fox in 1994. The same thing I doubt happens to the CW though. The major acquisition that FOX landed in 1994 made them a major network and would forever change the landscape of broadcast TV. The CW will be nothing more than a minor speck if they don't land a "game changer" like Fox did in 1994.

 

[Ghostvirus]

Oh man. I know this may sound weird. But I hope the next person that takes over lets Supernatural end this season. I still love the show. But I don't want it to get stale. End on a high note I say.

 

[Warhammer]

The CW is like Fox circa 1992, a minor network that is barely on the radar of the American TV watching audience. Fox in 1992 and 1993 had Married with Children, the Simpsons and shows nobody watched, like with CW today, except that CW has Vampire Diaries, Nikita and Supernatural to go along with shows nobody watches (except females).

Of course, we all know what happened to Fox in 1994. The same thing I doubt happens to the CW though. The major acquisition that FOX landed in 1994 made them a major network and would forever change the landscape of broadcast TV. The CW will be nothing more than a minor speck if they don't land a "game changer" like Fox did in 1994.

I could bet my life that the odds of another X-Files type ratings juggernaut appearing on the CW would never happen. Dawn Ostroff has already done near irreparable damage to the CW and with that stigma, the creators and producers of the next big show would never take that gamble.

 

[Orb]

Oh man. I know this may sound weird. But I hope the next person that takes over lets Supernatural end this season. I still love the show. But I don't want it to get stale. End on a high note I say.

CW does not want to end two of it's biggest shows, Smallville and Superantural in one same year so Supernatural is most likely coming back.

 

[Dr. Evil]

I could bet my life that the odds of another X-Files type ratings juggernaut appearing on the CW would never happen. Dawn Ostroff has already done near irreparable damage to the CW and with that stigma, the creators and producers of the next big show would never take that gamble.

I wasn't talking about X-Files as Fox's "game changer." The X Files would have been Fox's own "Supernatural."

 

[Warhammer]

I wasn't talking about X-Files as Fox's "game changer." The X Files would have been Fox's own "Supernatural."

Oh, I see. When you said "The same thing I doubt happens to the CW though," I thought you were talking about The X-Files. Well you shouldn't have any doubt at all. We all KNOW that neither the NFL, NBA, or MLB will even dare to broadcast on the CW.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Oh, I see. When you said "The same thing I doubt happens to the CW though," I thought you were talking about The X-Files. Well you shouldn't have any doubt at all. We all KNOW that neither the NFL, NBA, or MLB will even dare to broadcast on the CW.

Yep. The NFL did change Fox forever though, which helped their shows due to endless promotion of those shows on their NFL telecasts. I think the X-Files would likely have had a similar audience and similar ratings to Supernatural if Fox was still a minor player most likely.

That is why I think CW as the way it is was Fox Pre-NFL.

 

[Primal Slayer]

While she has brought some good to the network, it will be refreshing to get a new pres that can hopefully turn things around for the good of the network. They need better image campaigns and of course some better shows. I still enjoy 90210/GG to a lesser extent so wouldnt mind those staying (though Dawn will still be renewing/cancelling 2010/2011 shows for 2011/2012 season it seems) but OTH needs to go.

They probably need 2 high profile comedy shows and need to break into sunday night prime time.

 

[Phatman]

So happy to hear this. Now the CW can start the rebuilding.

Hoping the new President focuses on developing a more balanced schedule- one with a variety of shows to appeal to a wide variety of audiences. CW needs more sitcoms, less soaps and more shows that appeal to males, African-Americans and teenage boys. And it really needs to bring back it's kids block and wrestling to make it more competitive with other networks. Right now CW is getting curb stomped by everyone including MyNetwork Tv and ION.

 

[Gold Samurai]

The woman did give them a FEW quality shows. Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, and Nikita are all good.

Nikita is also failing because it wasn't grabbing the female demographic. That's why they've had to change the show by giving Nikita a boyfriend for women to get interested in it.

 

[JackIvyGB]

Supernatural was already a WB show, so Ostroff didn't give them that.
Is it too much too hope that we could now get some sort of decent superhero tv show to take up Smallville's slack? I would love a Green Arrow or Justice League show that actually was tied to the Smallville universe, but heck, any DC live action series that is as well written as the last few seasons of Smallville and Supernatural would be awesome. Hopefully Wonder Woman has a better chance of getting to the screen now. Or maybe Geoff Johns' Blue Beetle series (since we'll be seeing the origin of Jaimie Reyes as BB on Smallville and possibly a Ted Kord cameo, it's a perfect set-up). Something to go up against the Hulk tv show and AKA Jessica Jones.

Sorry, tangent. This news excites me. I used to love Veronica Mars, Everwood, and One Tree Hill. She killed otwwo of those shows dead, and the other one is almost unrecognizable to me now
BUT, I am feeling a little more hopeful with this news

 

[Primal Slayer]

She gave life to VM and kept it going for 3 seasons, so that much is thankful for. Though it was a major mistake killing Everwood in place of renewing 7th Heaven last minute.

 

[Sawyer]

Good. Now, for the love of God, get someone in there that knows how to ****ing program a network.

 

[Ghostvirus]

CW does not want to end two of it's biggest shows, Smallville and Superantural in one same year so Supernatural is most likely coming back.

Hopefully since Ackles & Padelecki's contracts are up after this season. They will just walk away. This show is great. & Shouldn't be drug into the ground. In my opinion they got lucky even having this season be as good as it is considering they were planning on ending it last season.

 

[KenK]

Nikita is also failing because it wasn't grabbing the female demographic. That's why they've had to change the show by giving Nikita a boyfriend for women to get interested in it.

Which is sad, if you ask me. Not that it wasn't expected, but dammit if a strong female character isn't enough to bring women in, that's a shame.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

Hopefully since Ackles & Padelecki's contracts are up after this season. They will just walk away. This show is great. & Shouldn't be drug into the ground. In my opinion they got lucky even having this season be as good as it is considering they were planning on ending it last season.

in a way, i agree. i don't want the show to get old and stale kind of like how Smallville got after its 5th season. Angel went out with a bang, albeit forcefully because it still had another solid season or 2 left. so Supernatural should go the same route.

afterwards, it'd be nice to get a Supernatural film. go all out and make it R rated t:

 

[Mr_336]

Now that's what I call the perfect Christmas gift!

 

[wiegeabo]

Which is sad, if you ask me. Not that it wasn't expected, but dammit if a strong female character isn't enough to bring women in, that's a shame.

That's because young women don't want a strong female lead.

They want to gossip and say 'Oh my god, can you believe he/she did/said that?!" And they want to see people get themselves into gossip-worthy situations.