The new vision for ratings presented yesterday left some questions. “We are playing to our strengths and programming to women 18-34,” Dawn Ostroff, CW Entertainment President said. Some media analysts compared this new direction with one at The WB. After all, the 18-34 female demographic is a sought after group that lets The CW demand a premium from advertisers. The CW can then focus on its demographic and not overall ratings.
The problem is this same strategy didn’t work for UPN and The WB. How can it work now?
To add to the confusion, The CW just outsourced Sunday nights to Media Right Capital (MRC). Financially it makes sense, since The CW can’t afford to fill those holes in its schedule and can focus on Monday through Friday programming. However, MRC wants to show two comedies and two dramas of their choosing and use those shows to broaden the network’s audience by targeting the 18-49 demographic. They believe a broader audience will attract a wider mix of advertisers. That sounds great, but doesn’t that go against The CW’s new focus? The CW will have no say in what MRC chooses to program, so it will be interesting to see how these two schedules mesh or if this night will attract viewers to the other nights on The CW.
The writer’s strike hurt The CW, but it hurt all networks (except cable). The truth is that ratings cannot be achieved without running promotional campaigns for the network as a whole and letting viewers know when shows are on. The CW takes the stance that for a small cash strapped network, veteran shows don’t need the promotion and their loyal audiences will watch. That logic is flawed at best, and the decline of ratings of all their established shows proves that. Take for example the main network of half-owner CBS. Even though CSI is that network’s top rated show and in its eighth season, CBS still promotes it. Smallville rarely gets a mention. The CW promotes most of its shows by running promos during other CW shows. The network needs to find a way to bring in new viewers, not tap into its dwindling base.
Ms. Ostroff also expressed the desire to produce pop-culture brand shows that generate plenty of buzz. This strategy was first introduced this year for Gossip Girl. The media blitz for the show did effectively create plenty of chatter and buzz about Gossip Girl, but it hasn’t exactly resulted in huge ratings, even though it’s the number one rated show among female teens 12-17 and does extremely well in its timeslot for 18-34 females. Some advertisers are debating whether the premium rates for the show are worth it because they’d still like to see higher ratings.
Article comments
1 - Jeffrey
Excellent analysis! Really enjoyed reading it, and you really pulled a lot of divergent info together really well.
I think the only thing you missed was not drowning Dawn Ostroff in blame for her years of mismanagement at both the WB and the CW.
2 - DG
The new Tribune honcho Sam Zell must be furious at this new lineup. He's already on the record as saying the CW needs to do a better job of delivering 18-49s to his prime-time newscasts in NY, LA, Chicago, etc. Wonder if he's consulting with lawyers on ways to get out of the affiliation contract...