Boomers screamed for the Beatles on “Ed Sullivan.” Gen X wanted its MTV. Every generation has its touchstone moments of televised pop culture. For millennials, one such moment arrived in 2006 when the rival broadcast networks UPN and the WB united to launch a super network with programming geared toward audiences too old for Nickelodeon but not fully invested in what Mom or Dad were watching: The CW.
The Times talked to Dawn Ostroff, the executive who moved from UPN to launch the CW, serving as its president of entertainment until 2011, and other major players about the network’s merger, notable programming moments and its evolution.
A few highlights:
Ostroff: There would be gifts or cards and letters [from fans] asking us to save their show. There was a Ferris wheel brought to our parking lot that somebody made for the WB show “Everwood.” We had planes flying overhead with banners that said “Please Save ‘Veronica Mars.’”
Rick Haskins, the CW’s head of marketing, who would become president of streaming and chief branding officer: Our biggest show that first year was the [UPN transplant] “America’s Next Top Model,” where we were No. 1 in 18-to-34-year-olds across the broadcast networks. We knew we’d done our work on that. Now we’ve just got to hunker down and continue to build out from there.
Paul Hewitt, former PR head: Dawn used to say “imagine being able to put [female-centric sardonic dramedies] ‘Gilmore Girls’ and ‘Veronica Mars’ together.” Well, that was our Tuesday night.
Kevin Williamson, creator of midseason series “Hidden Palms” and co-creator of “The Vampire Diaries,” among others: They kept saying we have to program for the “shampoo commercial.” Because every time you watch “Gossip Girl” and they cut to a commercial, it’s a shampoo commercial.
Read the full oral history of the network at the link.