The CW is aiming to go where few broadcasters dare travel these days: Saturday nights. The netlet plans to add a two-hour Saturday primetime block to its schedule this fall, programming a full seven nights a week for the first time in its 15-year history.
The CW chairman/CEO Mark Pedowitz announced the expansion on Thursday. The additional two hours will bump The CW’s programming output up to 14 hours a week. (And it might be noted, because The CW doesn’t air news or sports programming, that puts its entertainment programming output either on par or far ahead of the other four major broadcast networks.)
Saturdays will launch on Oct. 2 with night one of the “iHeartRadio Music Festival,” which airs at 8 p.m. ET (and will conclude on Oct. 3, with night two). The CW will announce its regular Saturday programming line-up when it reveals its fall 2021 schedule on May 25.
“Becoming a seven-night-a-week network has been a long-standing goal for everyone here at The CW,” said Rob Tuck, executive vice president, national sales for The CW. “In an extremely tight broadcast environment, the ability to expand our primetime by two more hours each week is a dynamic shift that will be gladly welcomed by our clients and the agencies. Following the recent industry trend which has seen considerable contraction on a linear basis, The CW will buck that trend this season by adding a new night of original programming, creating new opportunities for us going forward.”
A joint venture between WarnerMedia and CBS, The CW launched in 2006 with a six-night-a-week schedule that mirrored the final primetime footprint of predecessor The WB: Five hours on Sunday (a two-hour repeat block at 5 p.m. ET, and then primetime starting at 7 p.m.), and two hours on Monday through Friday. (UPN had aired two hours on Monday through Friday). The merged network didn’t air on Saturdays, just as The WB and UPN had never ventured onto that night either.
But as The CW struggled to find an audience in its early years, in 2008 it decided to lease its Sunday night block to production company Media Rights Capital. Those MRC shows quickly flopped, however, and The CW took back the night, airing repeats on Sundays until May 2009. That’s when The CW handed back all five Sunday hours to affiliates.
Flashfoward to fall 2018, when The CW — buoyed by a stronger lineup of shows, including several from the DC universe — returned to Sundays with a two-hour lineup, once again making it a six-night network. The CW has touted its multi-platform role, launching shows that have gone on to a long tail of success on AVOD and SVOD streamers (most notably, of course, Netflix). That’s allowed the network to bulk up its fare in recent years, and now those two additional hours can expand The CW’s footprint even more.
Now, at seven nights, The CW joins ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox with a full week schedule — albeit it, Saturday nights have been a bit of an asterisk for years with the major broadcast networks. (In comparison, Fox — which launched its primetime in 1987 — achieved a seven-night schedule in 1993, six years later.)
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety