What Killed UPN and The WB TV Networks?

[TMC1982]

I wish that these two networks were still around because in all honesty, the CW has been floundering from the very get so. This is odd because when I first heard about the creation of the CW, I assumed that it would be a stronger version of two seperate networks. Meanwhile MyNetworkTV has been a non-entity.

There's a book called Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of The WB and UPN, which I really want to read if I can find it.

This is what Wikipedia says about the WB's decline:

2003-2006: Decline

Despite some early success, the network struggled to shift its focus from the female 12-24 demographic to the more broad 12-34 range. In 2005, The WB abandoned its trademark mascot, Michigan J. Frog, as the network's iconic emblem. David Janollari, The WB's President of Entertainment, explained in July 2005 at the network's summer 2005 press tour that the animated character "perpetuated the young-teen feel of the network, and that is not the image we want to put to our audience."

Still, the move did not seem to help the network. The period from 2003 to 2005 produced only three viable new series, One Tree Hill, Beauty and the Geek, and Supernatural (all of which have since moved to successor network The CW), and even still their ratings paled in comparison to the ratings peaks of Dawson's Creek, which had signed off in 2003. Ratings dropped for shows like Angel (which was canceled in 2004), and the network failed to launch new hit shows to take their places.
Although The WB's well-known inability to launch successful comedy series was nothing new (Reba being the sole exception), this period saw the network struggling to establish new dramas as well. High-profile failures included Birds of Prey (inspired by the Batman mythos), Tarzan, Jack & Bobby, The Mountain, Jerry Bruckheimer's Just Legal, Marta Kauffman's Related, and the Rebecca Romijn vehicle Pepper Dennis.

During the 2004-2005 season, The WB finished behind rival UPN for the first time in several years, and fell even further behind in the fall of 2005. Both networks fell behind the Spanish language network Univision in the overall 18-34 demographic.

It was estimated in 2005 that The WB was viewable by 91.66% of all households, reaching 90,282,480 houses in the United States. The WB was carried by 177 VHF and UHF stations in the U.S., counting both owned and operated and affiliated stations (the owned and operated stations were not actually operated by Warner Bros. or Time Warner; instead, Tribune owned and operated these stations, thus its stake in the network). The WB could also be seen in smaller markets on cable-only stations, many of these through The WB 100+ Station Group - available to TV markets below the number 100 in viewership as determined by Nielsen in a packaged format, with a master schedule; the addition of local advertisements and news were at the discretion of the local distributor, often a local television station or cable television provider.

Meanwhile, here's perhaps a vague idea on Wikipedia about what happened to UPN:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPN#2001-2006

During the later years of the network's life, UPN's desired demographic was a not-too-profitable demographic; young women and African Americans thanks to the success of Buffy, Veronica Mars, America's Next Top Model and Everybody Hates Chris, unlike the earlier years in which its audience was largely young adult males. This was seen as a contributing factor in the network's decision to drop the Star Trek franchise, and also why it contemplated not renewing its contract with World Wrestling Entertainment, though Friday Night SmackDown! was renewed in 2006 for another two seasons.

Like I said, I haven't read the Season Finale book, but here's an idea of what may have happened to the WB:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08011/848291-42.stm

"Season Finale" suggests many reasons for the demise of The WB: Kellner's departure, the lack of owned and operated stations, a failure to develop many new hits after 2002, the failure of vertical integration between the network and its studio, Time-Warner's decision to merge with America Online and allowing "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" to move from The WB to UPN for its last two seasons.

Daniels, now entertainment president at Lifetime, said in a phone interview this week the primary cause for the network's death was a lack of fervency within Time-Warner to build it into a long-lasting entity. She recalled her job in comedy development at Fox prior to the launch of The WB and the investments Fox impresario Rupert Murdoch made (buying stations, landing the rights to the NFL).

"He made some huge investments in programming, and he said, I'm going to spend money, and I'm going to do this, I'm going to build this network," Daniels said. "Nobody did that at Warner Bros., and it's why I left the network [in 2001]. I didn't see that happening. After [executives] Bob Daly and Terry Semel left Warner Bros., it just wasn't the same. Nobody was saying, 'We're going to make this network work.' If you don't have that, forget it. That's what killed it."

 

[enterthemadness]

UPN cancelled too many shows. And WB was having bad luck. Then they combine and you get The CW. Which isn't much better.

Meanwhile USA Network, TNT, and TBS are all getting more and more original shows.

 

[Phatman]

UPN just had horrible content in its last days. With the exception of Smack Down! and ST: Voyager there wasn't much to watch there. Their sitcoms like Girlfriends, Malcolm & Eddie, Moesha, The Parkers and Everybody Hates Chris just weren't funny, and they never could develop a strong enough drama. ST: Enterprise was totally unwatchable.

It wasn't the audiences they targeted, it was the content they created that led to their downfall. Many of the shows on UPN were wretched. They couldn't even get cartoons right. That Incredible Hulk Cartoon they had was a disaster.


WB- Well, they just relied on teens too much. The audience that watched Dawson's Creek and Felicity grew up and left for more complex fare on cable. Once the WB lost its core shows their executives had no idea on how to develop fresh content for a new audience.

The only strong point of WB network was Kids WB! which had stronger content throughout most of its run than the prime-time network did. More people remember TNBA, STAS, Batman Beyond, Freakazoid! Pokemon The Batman than any Primetime WB show made in the last ten years.

The CW started out on the wrong path of its predecessors UPN and the WB. It started its launch with a bunch of aging hits (any show over five years old is considered too old in TV years) while taking no time to develop fresh material based on an original concept.

Their new shows like 9021BLOW Melrose Place are just re-hash of old FOX hits from 20 years ago. Vampire Diaries is just Buffy lite mixed in with a little twilight. Nothing special. Gossip Girl- gonna start running out of gas this year. Sure it does well with a small audience of teens and tweens, but it's none of these shows are even a blip on the radar in the ratings race compared to How I met your Mother or Big Bang Theory, Monday Night Football, Chuck or Dancing with the Stars. And None of this stuff is pulling the numbers of Buffy, Jamie Foxx Dawson's or even The Wayans Brothers. It's not even pulling in Smallville or WWE SmackDown! numbers.

Affiliates like WPIX here in New York are starting to distance themselves from the CW. I have a feeling it won't be around much longer. Dawn Ostroff's new lineup is gonna be the end of this netlet.



Currently the CW is making the same mistakes WB and UPN made Overrelying on one core audience instead of breaking up into a diverse series of demographics.

 

[Primal Slayer]

What killed UPN and TheWB? Their bad decision making. They just started coming out with more awful tv shows after all of their golden shows ended/were cancelled. Plus TheWB just wasnt as fun as it used to be after they got rid of "The Frog" and tried to be more sexy, mature, and boring.

And TheCWs problem is that DO is trying to hard to focus on teen girls which is alienting a lot of viewers. Not to mention that half of their shows are all about rich teens in NY/CA.

 

[Sawyer]

UPN ruined The WB.

 

[ChickenScratch]

What killed UPN and TheWB? Their bad decision making. They just started coming out with more awful tv shows after all of their golden shows ended/were cancelled. Plus TheWB just wasnt as fun as it used to be after they got rid of "The Frog" and tried to be more sexy, mature, and boring.
And TheCWs problem is that DO is trying to hard to focus on teen girls which is alienting a lot of viewers. Not to mention that half of their shows are all about rich teens in NY/CA.

I totally agree with you, alienated an audience that found a home young male oriented shows or general young adult shows to shows that seem to cater to the rich white girl of 14 audience. I live in NY and have many rich friends, it's still a world I don't understand.

 

[conjob_89]

"What killed UPN?"

Dawn Ostroff running it into the ground and is doing the same to the CW with encouragement from CBS Pres. Les Moonves.

 

[superhero]

I rember when seven days was on upn. I used to watch at late at nite before i go to bed for shcool. They moved it to fox fridays at 11:00pm i never watch the ending of it.

 

[superhero]

sorry didn't meant to post it twice

 

[Jolly Rolly]

I think cancelling the critically acclaimed *snicker* Homeboys In Outerspace is what killed UPN.

And why did WB do away with Michigan J. Frog? man I loved that little froggy.

"HELLO MY BABY, HELLO MY DARLING, HELLO MY RAGTIME GAAAAALLL"

 

[TMC1982]

I think cancelling the critically acclaimed *snicker* Homeboys In Outerspace is what killed UPN.

And why did WB do away with Michigan J. Frog? man I loved that little froggy.

"HELLO MY BABY, HELLO MY DARLING, HELLO MY RAGTIME GAAAAALLL"

I put this in the initial post of this thread:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WB_Television_Network#2003-2006:_Decline

Despite some early success, the network struggled to shift its focus from the female 12-24 demographic to the more broad 12-34 range. In 2005, The WB abandoned its trademark mascot, Michigan J. Frog, as the network's iconic emblem. David Janollari, The WB's President of Entertainment, explained in July 2005 at the network's summer 2005 press tour that the animated character "perpetuated the young-teen feel of the network, and that is not the image we want to put to our audience."

 

[TMC1982]

Another thing that I want to say killed UPN was when Viacom took full control from Chris-Craft Industries. Shortly thereafter, Viacom bought CBS. So basically, UPN from thereafter, became an subsidary of sorts to CBS rather than a true competitor. So naturally, it would be pointless for UPN to attempt to grow by doing a newscast, creating a sports division and behind when big brother CBS already has that.

 

[Trainwreck2100]

that frog was awesome

 

[deathshead2]

What killed UPN was its own brand of suck. They had terrible shows and when they had good ones that canceled them. War planets.

The WB failed the day they canceled Angel.

 

[conjob_89]

I think cancelling the critically acclaimed *snicker* Homeboys In Outerspace is what killed UPN.

Didn't even know it existed.

 

[blueblazer2]

The CW Network is a racist network . Look how fast they canceled The Game was getting more ratings than the new 90210 and they canceled The Game

 

[ChaoticPsylocke]

in my opinion The WB was still going strong. obviously they werent quite pulling in the numbers they wanted but they had several quality shows.

Smallville
Supernatural
Gilmore Girls
Reba
What I Like About You
Everwood
7th Heaven
One Tree Hill
Pepper Dennis *wasnt renewed bc of the station shift
Related *same as ^^

i think if they had held out for a bit, and maybe pushed their promoting or something things would have gone up. as it turned out all of those shows got cancelled when the WB went under minus Smallville OTH and Supernatural. oh except 7th Heaven which really should have.

 

[8wid]

Like all networks in decay it moved away from the central theme that rooted it as a channel and moved to incorporate entertainment blocks in random order just to add it to the list without having it to add to the network.

 

[TMC1982]

I've have just been told in discussion on another forum (elsewhere) is that what really killed or seriously impaired the WB is the fact that they didn't own any stations (as I previously mentioned). I believe that Tribune owned all of the major WB stations, not Time Warner/Warner Bros. Owned-and-operated TV stations provide an important source of income. This is what likely helped kill the old DuMont network because the FCC only allowed them to own about three stations. The book also notes that the WB during its final years, tried to re-create its previous successes with series that directly imitated earlier hits.

Meanwhile, the problem with UPN (according to the book) was that network executives were constantly angry that Paramount gave them failed pilots. They in the process reserved shows with a higher of success to be shown to the other networks. For example, UPN allegedly passed on American Idol.

 

[Manic]

Meanwhile USA Network, TNT, and TBS are all getting more and more original shows.

The USA Network aside (since it's owned by NBC), let's talk about the programming on TNT and TBS. TNT and TBS are both owned by Time-Warner. How the hell is The CW finding it so hard to finding a worthwhile TV series while TNT is getting all these interesting new dramas and TBS is airing new sitcoms? Can you imagine The CW if it had shows like HawthoRNe, The Closer, Raising the Bar, or Leverage? Sprinkle in The Bill Engvall Show and one of Tyler Perry's crappy sitcoms (he has two, apparently), and keep their vapid teenage girl programming for good measure (Gossip Girl, 90210, ect). Maybe create a talk show that comes only early enough to only compete with Jay Leno's new show (and try to target a younger audience), and find a professional sport to air every week.

Bam. I just fixed The CW. Money, please.

 

[3dman27]

The USA Network aside (since it's owned by NBC), let's talk about the programming on TNT and TBS. TNT and TBS are both owned by Time-Warner. How the hell is The CW finding it so hard to finding a worthwhile TV series while TNT is getting all these interesting new dramas and TBS is airing new sitcoms? Can you imagine The CW if it had shows like HawthoRNe, The Closer, Raising the Bar, or Leverage? Sprinkle in The Bill Engvall Show and one of Tyler Perry's crappy sitcoms (he has two, apparently), and keep their vapid teenage girl programming for good measure (Gossip Girl, 90210, ect). Maybe create a talk show that comes only early enough to only compete with Jay Leno's new show (and try to target a younger audience), and find a professional sport to air every week.

Bam. I just fixed The CW. Money, please.

one advanatge of a network having a cabe counter part is that if it has a problem whith finding timeslots for its shows on ONE NETWORK it can put a show one its cable partner and vice versa

 

[BlackLantern]

The USA Network aside (since it's owned by NBC), let's talk about the programming on TNT and TBS. TNT and TBS are both owned by Time-Warner. How the hell is The CW finding it so hard to finding a worthwhile TV series while TNT is getting all these interesting new dramas and TBS is airing new sitcoms? Can you imagine The CW if it had shows like HawthoRNe, The Closer, Raising the Bar, or Leverage? Sprinkle in The Bill Engvall Show and one of Tyler Perry's crappy sitcoms (he has two, apparently), and keep their vapid teenage girl programming for good measure (Gossip Girl, 90210, ect). Maybe create a talk show that comes only early enough to only compete with Jay Leno's new show (and try to target a younger audience), and find a professional sport to air every week.

Bam. I just fixed The CW. Money, please.

because its cable and you can get away with a lot more in terms of content....and there is a "plan" for The CW, its just not working....I like Leverage right where it is....

 

[Phatman]

The difference between USA, TNT, TBS and the CW are that they're run by competent people who understand what quality content looks like. the CW is run by Dawn Ostroff a woman who screwed up Lifetime, UPN and is going for the trifecta with the soon to be demise of the CW. I don't give this netlet much time with all the boneheaded management choices being made.


First she cancels shows with good ratings (Reba, The Game WWE Smackdown!) Then Moves the top-rated show on the network Smallville to the Friday Night Death Slot and replaces them with forgettable re-hashed Fox crap like 9021blow and Melrose Disgrace to appeal to a teenage female audience that is watching oh-other stuff.

I don't know who's more incompetent. Her or Jeff Zucker at NBC.

WB had a little something for everyone when it first came out. As it grew older it got obsessed with the teen audience. While this audience is very coveted by advertisers, it grows very fickle and drops shows very quickly. IMO, they kinda overdid it on the hourlong teen dramass and this led to their decline in the ratings. Also, WB didn't spend enough time developing sitcoms which are the bread and butter of a network when it comes to revenue. Sitcoms provide a steady source of syndication revenue which is used to finance new programing and expansion plans like the purchases of channels. Fox practically mortgaged its expansion on selling Married With Children and The Simpsons in syndication.

It's easier to sell a 25-minute sitcom to local affiliates in syndication and chop it up for commercials than a 45-minute soap style drama which has no repeat value. Repeats of Reba, Jamie Foxx and the Wayans Brothers still sell in syndication; Repeats of Dawson's Creek, Felicity and Gilmore Girls...Well not so much. Some of these master tapes are still collecting dust in the WB vaults. Outside of Sci-fi like Buffy and Smallville most hourlong dramas are HARD SELLS in syndication and on the secondary markets like home video.

UPN was crap from day one. They had no shows that appealed to anyone outside of Voyager. Then they started picking in the garbage grabbing network rejects like Clueless to stay alive. Outside of SmackDown! UPN was in the death throes once Voyager got canceled in 2000.

 

[BlackLantern]

hey hey hey....Im watching Melrose Place...it balances out my Sons of Anarchy viewing at 10

 

[amazingfantasy15]

First she cancels shows with good ratings (Reba, The Game WWE Smackdown!) Then Moves the top-rated show on the network Smallville to the Friday Night Death Slot and replaces them with forgettable re-hashed Fox crap like 9021blow and Melrose Disgrace to appeal to a teenage female audience that is watching oh-other stuff.

While I'm not a fan of the teen girl dramas, it isn't that bad of an idea to cater to that audience, it's probably the most coveting by advertisers. Why do you think Titanic is the highest grossing movie of all time, teen girls swooning over Leonardo DiCaprio, why is Twilight such a success, teen girls. I think the real reason 90210 isn't a big success yet is it focuses too much on the girls in the show, they need a teen heart throb for the girls to swoon at, same with Melrose Place. Look at Grey's Anatomy, big success with all it's Mc nicknamed male doctors.

Also Smallville needs to be cancelled the show has been running on fumes for 3-4 years at least now.