Is this the end of The CW as we know it?
New owner Nexstar plans to shift the network's demographic, move away from the "C" and "W"
Aux News The CW
When one thinks of “The CW,” it conjures images of mid-budget superhero action, soapy teen scandal, and whatever fresh hell is going on over at Riverdale (we say affectionately). But that vision of the network is becoming a thing of the past, as Nexstar Media Group has plans to take the CW in a different direction.
As previously reported, Nexstar’s opening gambit was to announce that actually, the average CW viewer is 58 years old–not the young person that it has been catering to all this time. Unsurprisingly, Deadline now reports that the goal to make the famously broke network profitable involves catering to the older audience.
It’s not an out-and-out goodbye to the programming the CW does best (or at least most), but expect “not as many” genre shows and teen soaps moving forward. Meanwhile, the network will broaden its scope by “adding procedurals and other older-skewing dramas as well as half-hour comedies including multi-camera sitcoms.”
According to Deadline’s sources, Nexstar’s message to the creative community while buying new programming is, “bring us what you would’ve brought to the CW before but also bring us what you wouldn’t have brought to us in the past,” which is pretty much as wide of a net as can possibly be cast.
In defense of the old CW, the network took some interesting and ultimately successful swings with critically acclaimed series like Jane The Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, so it was already a place where other kinds of shows could exist. And speaking of CXGF, creator Rachel Bloom is executive producing a period drama from Elissa Aron, The Hatpin Society, about suffragist vigilantes in 1909 New York. It was sold directly to the network and is being held up as an example of the new CW’s “broadened” future.
Nexstar’s strategy for the future also involves exploring a world beyond its former co-owners Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, which now each own a 12.5% stake in the network. While that partnership remains in place for the coming season, the situation is “in flux” and executives are reportedly open to “outside suppliers.” But if the CW isn’t receiving its programming from CBS Studios and WBTV, is it even “the CW”? The letters literally stand for “CBS” and “Warner”!
All in all, the CW isn’t yet over (Deadline reports no changes to the unscripted lineup), but the planned shift in demographic focus and possible move away from its parent companies probably indicates a slow death to the network as we know it. It’s the beginning of the end, people. Kiss your Arrowverse and beautiful 20-somethings playing high schoolers goodbye.
67 Comments
If it’s any consolation, I feel fine.
Why is the average age 58? If there are older people that enjoy Teenage Soaps and Mid Brand Super heroes, wouldn’t you just turn them off by running “Old People” content? They can watch CSI on the network is actually comes on now, but don’t.
The world needs another 15 CSI clones.
CSI Smallville.
I mean, isn’t Batman mostly just CSI: Gotham City?
Theoretically yes, but even in the new movie the detectiving he did didn’t really help solve anything.
Alfred did, though. :)Despite both of their less than stellar grasp of Spanish.
Tbf DC stands for Detective Comics. Last I checked detectives tend to investigate crime scenes. The Flash, Batwoman, Superman & Lois, etc those are all DC characters. They don’t need to toss the baby out with the bath water just change the water (direction of a show’s plotting *) and keep the baby(keep the show).Hell Barry Allen on The Flash? is a CSI in addition to being the Flash.
The ideal approach is obvious: a CSI show where they only investigate crimes that occurred on the sets of other CSI shows.
Only Murders in the CSI
CSI-zy Ex-Girlfriend, please
Barry Allen CSI
If the current demo watching the shows on the network is 58, then why change the types of shows on the network? Clearly the current programming slate is already attracting them….
The theory is that the average broadcast age is 58, and the younger people are watching on streaming. That works when the CBS and WB parts of the company make and own those shows, put them on the CW, and also license them out to streaming. But with the new ownership, they won’t own any of the shows they put on, so they need stuff that they can get people to watch on the actual network.
“catering to the older audience”Except that the older people already watching CW apparently like it the way it is. If they try to win over the NCIS crowd, they’re gonna lose the older viewers who prefer teen dramas and superheroes.
It’s almost like the people making decisions are not capable of understanding the nuanced concept that “age group” is not a homogeneous monolith.
Beat me to it.
“If you like superheroes, you’ll surely love our Old Man Solves Crimes programmes too!”
I mean they are still having Rachel Bloom produce a show and lauding that so maybe they will just tone down all the teen dramas. It doesn’t sound as severe a change as HBOMax. Most of their best stuff has ended anyway- and Walker seems like it would fit fine with the 58 year old demographic
I know most of the replies here are going to be snarky and mean-spirited about the content on the CW. And I get why. But personally, I enjoyed the network overall – they had a lot of shows that were / are fun to watch, starting with Supernatural and going on to this day with Stargirl. And before recent developments, they generally had a strong commitment to having a large quantity of original programming and giving the majority of their shows extended runs.It reminds me of when USA shifted its programming strategy away from blue sky shows. It’s not that the old USA shows were the best shows on TV but there were comfort shows that were fun to watch that served as a nice respite from the more serious fare on other networks. I’ll miss the old CW when it is gone for good.
I agree. The shows airing on the CW were never going to be winning Emmys, but they certainly had some fun ones. Season 2 of Arrow is still one of my favorite seasons of television-just enjoyable from start to finish. The network had a lot of entertaining stuff like that.
Season 2 of Arrow is probably the high-water mark of network superhero tv shows for me. I know there are a lot more “prestigious” superhero shows on right now, but carrying that level of quality through 23(!) eps is just unthinkable these days. That’s like 3 seasons of a Disney+ Marvel show.
Could not agree more. Every second of Arrow Season 2 is riveting. I still watch “The Promise” sometimes all these years later.I am a big fan of the MCU, but for TV it is still Arrowverse all the way for me.
Yeah Stargirl is really good, Legends was great from season 2-5 or 6 and now that I’m finally watching Flash I can say that the first 3 seasons are quality, though season 4 is very quickly becoming a soap opera.
Sorry pal but after season 3 (arguably after season 2) you got nothing but a slow fall to go.
I suppose there are highlights here and there but by the end you’ll be like the rest of us thanking God that the end is in sight.
Oh yeah I’ve already started using the skip ahead button during the soap opera conversations. The Flashing itself is still good and Tom Cavanaugh is fun but yeah, it started getting a bit that way in 3 🙁
Swapping out Harry for HR was really the shark jump moment
“…going on to this day with Stargirl”I appreciate the literal truth of this phrase (S3 starts tonight, 8/31).
This.
CW is gone. This coming season will be the last remnants playing out. Next season they will try their new shows, realize running a network is freaking expensive, and on their third year as owners switch to cheap reality TV and re-runs. By year four if the network isn’t mostly re-runs of NCIS, CSI and news, I will be shocked.
I watched a lot of the CW for the reasons you list. It also had a lot of genre content that other networks either lacked or canceled after four episodes.
I always appreciated that they would just renew everything. They knew they were making shows with 0.5 million viewers per episode and stuck to it.
So instead of making shows for the young people who might stream them later, they’re going to start making shows for the old people whose TVs are on between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m. And then ultimately sell the network again in a few years when that doesn’t work either. Good luck.
The reason the average age of the CW viewer is 58 is all the Generation X geeks who didn’t have Arrow, Batwoman, Black Lighting, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Stargirl, and Supergirl, etc as TV shows growing up.
I feel seen.
Yeah…agreed. I used to wonder why I liked the shows that seemed to be geared towards a younger group. Then I realized it was because this is the stuff I wished had been on in the 80s. If we did have anything “different” that I wanted to watch back then (Quantum Leap, Alien Nation, Max Headroom, The Greatest American hero) my parents weren’t watching any of “that weird stuff” and since there was only the one TV in the house so you watched whatever the parents watched.
That sucks about not being able to watch “that weird stuff” growing up. At least now you can watch some of those shows on disc or streaming.
My dad certainly liked Legends of Tomorrow for a bit. And my mom liked the crazy ex gf songs on youtube though she rarely gets control of the remote at their house
Does your Dad fall asleep right after deciding what the entire family is going to watch, only to wake up when someone changes the channel too?
No he mostly falls asleep in front of youtube live streams of bird houses
If the average age of current viewers is really 58, doesn’t that mean that the 58 years olds watching the CW right now like the programs that are currently being produced by CW? If they wanted to watch CSI or some shit they could be doing that on another network. I think your best bet is to continue to cater to the people who have already decided to watch the stuff you make.For the record, I’m 55 and I have never seen a full episode of CSI, or Law and Order, or NCIS, or any of the clones. Just because you get older doesn’t mean you automatically like that kind of thing. I have watched several CW-produced shows, although I am not a dedicated fan of any of them.
I literally turned 58 in July, and yes.
The explanation that I saw was that it was off-hour programming that they factored in for the “58″ number. Reruns, news, general background noise… so really it’s total BS.
By 58, the execs are referring to those that watch TV “live”. They are tossing the numbers on streaming, DVR recording for later, etc. Their only interest is the live numbers. So yeah that would remove pretty much anyone under the age of 50 from their metrics.
I did not realize there were still people who watched TV “live”, unless it’s sporting events I suppose. Even my 80-year-old mother does not consume episodic TV that way.
And you hit the nail on the head on how 1999 those in charge of the CW are. I don’t see it going well at all.
Not exactly. But as Variety has independently confirmed with measurements from Nielsen, the Nexstar exec was correct: the median age for the CW’s primetime viewer throughout the 2021 calendar year was 57.4, according to Live + 7 Day data. That counts initial linear viewership and a week’s worth of delayed (mostly DVR) viewing where available. When looking at total day numbers, which includes not just broadcast primetime content, but everything viewed on a network outside of the primetime window as well, the CW’s average viewer ages up to 58.4. And those numbers make the CW audience not just older than some expected, but also no longer the broadcast network with the youngest audience.Now, obviously that won’t include later streams on Netflix.
While the average age of their audience for their over the air broadcasts might be 58, that doesn’t factor in that almost all the younger people watching their shows were watching it on Netflix when they still had that deal or the CW app. The CW shows were and some still are the most popular shows on Netflix. The CW should have renewed their agreement with Netflix and they wouldn’t have been sold if they did. Moving their shows to their parent companies’ own streaming services was a mistake.
The CW has been courting older viewers before Nexstar was in the picture. The Walker reboot was made specifically for that purpose.
I think it’s more surprising that they actually SAID it. A lot of CW stuff that was trying to get older audiences was either the daytime programming that nobody even notices the CW has, or stuff like the Walker reboot that plausibly felt like it was trying to have feet in both the ‘older viewers’ demographic and the younger one that we associate with the Supernatural and Riverdale stuff.The reality had been present for a while, but it was very easy to convince yourself otherwise because the more apparently teen-centric stuff was much louder.
Muddying the brand identity, hey, that’s always a great way to stand out in a world of more outlets pushing more content than any human being could possibly keep straight, right?Let’s look at a counter-example: FX may not be the most successful cable network in terms of either raw viewership or whatever demographic ad mavens are targeting this year, and I may not watch every show on FX either, but after 15+ years as an audience member I know what an FX show is probably going to be like and I know to check there for new content that will satisfy that appetite. Isn’t that worth anything anymore?
This whole acquisition has been annoying. Nexstar made public statements that The CW operated its broadcast division at a constant loss, meanwhile never discussing that the The CW shows on Netflix were constantly the top most watched, and I would imagine their CW app is popular too. Unfortunately the C and the W both have streaming services they want to prop up, so the lucrative deals with Netflix and other streamers had to end, causing the direct money flow to end, which put The CW up for sale.But I get it. The business is in linear, and if linear isn’t doing well enough, something has to be done.
As long as they don’t cancel Fool Us or Whose Line, I’m fine.
Here comes the Waltons reboot!
Good news for the Babylon 5 reboot. The audience for that surely skews older, we original fans are getting up there. Lol.
This supposed change in demographic feels a bit like Warner/Discovery wanting to shift the focus back to ‘Middle America’. As someone outside the US can someone explain the obsession with this supposed demographic? Why are they more likely to invest time in a show than other demographics? Is it a nostalgia thing?
In case anybody missed it, the remainder of Killer Camp season 2 is playing! Just noticed it last night! Weekly episodes though so no binging.
For me, the glory days of the CW, or, as I knew it, the Dubba-Dubba-Dubba-Dubba-Ya-Bee ended when the Charmed Ones(Phoebe, Paige, and Piper) disappeared in a puff of smoke. The Arrowverse was good, but BUFFY, SMALLVILLE, ANGEL,and of course, CHARMED, (TOS) were GREAT.
I fear this is the end for my beloved Nancy Drew. Alas.
I suspect some amount of that weirdly older demographic than we think comes from the CW’s daytime programming; everything we actually know it for comes from primetime, but a brief glimpse of the CW daytime programming (especially weekend) was a VERY weird window into the kind of television that I was convinced no longer existed.
As someone based in the UK (a poor excuse, I know) I never knew that “The letters literally stand for “CBS” and “Warner”!”, and, er, thought it had started off as a country and western channel that had long ago branched out in to different areas. Yet do I feel shame? Yes, yes, it appears I do.
It seems like saying the average CW viewer is 58 doesn’t really tell the whole story. Because it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that the average network TV viewer in general is in their 50’s. Because I doubt that CW is averaging 50 year olds and mostly 20 year olds are watching ABC. Like I’m in my 40’s and hardly ever watch network TV unless it is a show my wife and I watch together and there are maybe a handful of those.Plus without knowing how CW shows are produced it’s hard to see if their system is working. Like do they produce their shows in house and then make money off DVDs and selling them to streaming or do they just license shows made by someone else.
You’re correct. Fox has the youngest median age of the broadcast networks, but it’s still 56+ y/o.
I sure hope Wellington Paranormal doesn’t go away, I love that show. It belongs on FX with its more famous cousin.
I wonder what the demographics of that are. My parents were the first in our family to watch that one
You have failed this network
If their main audience is already 58 year olds, then why would they change the programming? Wouldn’t that alienate their audience?
I don’t suppose that the new CW will be showing reruns of old ABC shows like Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Private Practice and Revenge. You know, I could be wrong about that.