Thursday, January 26, 2006

Down With The Swirl

If you haven't heard by now (and if you are like me you miss large events in current pop culture) the WB and UPN have decided to take the plunge and go half on a baby. Their new network, the CW, will be born from the WB and CBS owned UPN. Interestingly, in an odd twist this new station will be mostly controlled by the staff from the lesser regarded and more ethnic UPN.

The CW ambitiously plans to air 30 hours of programming each week, including two hours of prime-time fare every weeknight with three on Sundays, afternoon blocks, and five-hours of pure Saturday morning cartoon goodness.

I swear, it was just 10 years ago that those crazy kids came into our homes for the first time... yet... it seems just like yesterday.

What is interesting about this is each has very distinctly different cultural identities. UPN makes really bad sitcoms for African Americans and the WB makes predominantly really bad dramas for young whites or sellout blacks (KIDDING!!!!!). Between them they have had some winners though: Tyra Banks' America's Top Model, Girlfriends, Veronica Mars, Everybody Hates Chris, Gilmore Girls, etc. (I never said any were good... and don't start with the finer points of Gilmore Girls). But all of the aforementioned shows will be brought back to this newborn channel for next season so your fanboys and girls can change .

(Sorry fans of Everwood, One Tree Hill, and uh.. whatever other shows UPN had between reruns of Fear Factor)

The offspring of this unholy matrimony could be either very good or very bad. On one side currently they have one of the hottest line ups for young viewers. The kind of young and not yet brand loyal viewers advertisers drool over. On the other side (conservatively) 95% of these shows suck. Then again, quite frankly, compared to much of the rest of popular TV, these shows are the entertainment equivalent of gummi bears... cheap, fun, light, not to be taken serious (or mass consumed) romps. (Except for Tyra... who, with her motley crew of debatable talented cronies, seem to take modeling a smidge too seriously) This instantly makes many of them better than most of the shows of dubious quality on the big four networks. (And, yes, I'm looking at you, Desperate Stankin' Housewives.)

In cherry picking the quality shows, a ratings bonanza is created where underrated shows like "Everyone Hates Chris" can be properly promoted and grown. Many of these shows that have succeeded on each of these channels have also suffered from many of the mainstream viewers not giving the shows a proper chance due to network prejudice. Not a racial thing more of a crappy network thing, people ignore those stations altogether. I mean, I don't know WHEN was the last time I watched the WB.

Ultimately, the potential to use this ad revenue creating monster may mean more hipper younger and fun shows skewered towards minorities and women. This is a good thing. Most of which will be as memorable as Bean Baxter in the early Fox years... That is a bad thing. Still, I'm sure there'll be one I will enjoy sufficiently. The potential is truly great for a union such as this one. Just one warning: GOD help them if they have a My Name Is Chris / Gilmore Girls crossover. GOD HELP THEM ALL!!!!!

1 comment:

Shawn said...

Veronica Mars is not a hit...it's hype. The numbers for that show are average. aarrggh!!!

This CW merger is just weird. I think it's only a matter of time before the urban programming is completely removed from the lineup. CBS had been trying to 'mainstream' (produce more white shows) on UPN for the last 2 to 3 seasons before this deal came about. I can't wait to see what happens.

You remember The Adventures of Bean Baxter? Man, that was my show. I still haven't gotten over it's cancellation nor the cancellation of Parker Lewis Can't Lose. Those shows were gems.