CW Ratings Hit New Low

The CW is CBS Corp.'s version of the WB... except that it's not.

The CW's ratings dropped a whopping 27% this season in its major focus group - adults aged 18-34 (that's us - just barely) - and Yahoo! has a whole host of suggestions to get them back up to snuff. But there's no sense linking to that article because Yahoo! drops its content within hours and most of the suggestions are pretty basic stuff. And by "basic," I mean trite and stupid.

My Yahoo! Horoscope said not to get on a soapbox today, but after reading their advice to the CW ("be edgier," "stop showing reruns - start doing remakes," - basically, recycle your content), I think I'm on pretty safe ground when I remind everyone that there was a little bustle in the hedgerow this past season: the writers' strike. That little fiasco set the entire TV world back a bit and hit the new CW, still struggling to find its way, quite hard. Add to that the departure of their ratings giant, The WWE, and you've got yourself a tasty recipe for disaster.

Still, the CW has two of the strongest shows on the tube today - neither of which were even mentioned in Yahoo!'s little advice column - I'm talking, of course, about Smallville and Supernatural. Both of which, by the by, are backed by highly-successful comics series, as well - both by DC, which is owned by Warner Brothers, which is what the WB was before it became the CW and has recently relaunched online. See how this all comes kinda full semi-circle?

No?

Well, me either - it's 6:00 in the AM and I haven't had a wink of sleep! Besides, my horoscope told me to shut up, so... Oh!

Yes, regardless of what Yahoo! said, the CW's heaviest-hitters just so happen to have more than a few things in common, including a fantastic, double-barreled line-up on a really tough night to crack (Thursdays), a touch of the paranormal, fatally-attractive casts, and superlative writing and direction. There's no recycling, no low-road taken; the CW's strong-showing Thursdays proves that the only reason "syndication is king" in TV is because the executives make it so; when we viewers have our druthers, we go straight for the good stuff.

In fact, the only suggestion I saw in Yahoo!'s article that I agree with is that CBS needs to make sure the fledgling network has more seed-money - but not to spend on insipid "OMFG" Gossip Girl twitters. Where was the CW when Joss Whedon came a-calling? Though NBC-owned, why has Smallville and/or Supernatural not been syndicated to Sci-Fi Channel?

The article ends with the reporter saying the CW won't really make it until it has that one, big break-out hit to call its own, yet the Smallville (originally airing on the WB) pilot remains WB's highest-rated series premiere ever! CW knows a good thing when it has one; it threw us a clever curve by following this season's reruns with reruns of Reaper (also a great show). But I think that plan backfired, as we regular viewers were looking for our weekly fix o' Sam and Dean and we'd already seen those Reaper episodes.

Final analysis: yes, the CW needs a little nudge from its parent company, but the strike hit it harder than most and WWE's leaving didn't do it any favors, either. But - and I know what my horoscope said about soapboxes and I know I don't know Shinola from... that other stuff when it comes to programming - but let me say it again: we make the world in which we live.

"Syndication is king" in TV - "ratings are king" in TV - because They make it so. Stop confusing "edginess" and shock value with talent. For years, They complained about competing with The Sopranos, and how network TV just couldn't do it because the mobster show was just too edgy. But if The Sopranos had been a one-trick pony full of curse words and grisly mob-hits, its novelty would have worn-off by season three; The Sopranos succeeded because it - like Smallville, like Supernatural, like Reaper - was quality programming. And while I might not know if that's Shinola you're waxing my shoes with, the numbers prove that!

The CW already has a hit formula: the scripted paranormal seems to work quite well for them. But there's the rub: they need to avoid the formulaic at all costs.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008