The WB Television Network
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Type | Defunct broadcast television network |
|---|---|
| Country |  United States |
| Availability | National, Canada, and Northern Mexico |
| Founder | Jamie Kellner |
| Owner | Time Warner [1] |
| Key people | David Janollari, President |
| Launch date | January 11, 1995 |
| Closure date | September 17, 2006 |
The WB Television Network, casually referred to as The WB, the acronym for Warner Brothers, or sometimes as The Frog (referring to the network's former mascot, the animated character Michigan J. Frog), was a television network in the United States, founded as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. film studio and Tribune Company on January 11, 1995.
On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment announced plans to launch The CW Television Network in the Fall of 2006. This new joint venture network features programming from both The WB and UPN. The WB shut down on September 17, 2006 followed by the opening of the new CW Network.
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[edit] History
Much like its competitor UPN, the WB was a reaction primarily to new FCC deregulation of media ownership rules under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and partly to the success of the upstart FOX and first-run syndicated programming during the late 1980s and early 1990s such as Baywatch, as well as the erosion in ratings suffered by independent television stations due to the growth of cable television and movie rentals.
[edit] 1995-1997
WB's first programs were mostly sitcoms targeted at an ethnically diverse audience. Even though three of the inaugural four shows were renewed beyond the first year, none of them made a significant impact. The WB also added the "Kids' WB" programming block, which mixed Warners' biggest hit shows (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and later Batman: The Animated Series, all of which originated either on Fox, Fox Kids or in syndication) with new productions and original shows.
[edit] 1997-1999
A few years after its launch, The WB intentionally shifted its programming to capture what it perceived to be a heavily fragmented market by marketing to the under-courted teen demographic. While the Fox Network was intentionally targeting older audiences with shows such as Ally McBeal, The WB's breakout hits during the late 1990s centered around teen/young adult drama with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and critically acclaimed Dawson's Creek. Charmed, Popular, Felicity, and Angel, along with 7th Heaven, The WB's biggest success ever, were the key shows that launched The WB into the spotlight, and not far afterwards, The WB Network was ranked #1 among teenage audiences.
[edit] 2000-2002
Outside of the aforementioned series, other large successes included Gilmore Girls, Everwood, Smallville, and its only hit sitcom, Reba, which was the number one sitcom on the network for all of its years on the network. Its most successful TV show to date was the religious family drama 7th Heaven, which aired its tenth season during the 2005/2006 season. The network suffered in the ratings after its peak in the 2001/2002 season as it struggled to launch brand unique new series, something which it previously had no problem doing.
[edit] 2003-2005
The period from 2003 to 2005 produced only one viable new series, One Tree Hill, and even that was a pale comparison to the ratings peaks of Dawson's Creek and the like. As a result, the network shifted its focus from the female 18-24 demographic to the more broad 18–34 range. To this end, in 2005 The WB abandoned its trademark mascot, Michigan J. Frog, as the network's iconic emblem. WB Entertainment President David Janollari explained in July at the network's summer 2005 press tour, that the animated character "perpetuated the young-teen feel of the network, and that is not the image we want to put to our audience."
During the 2004-2005 season, The WB finished behind rival UPN for the first time in several years, and fell even further behind in the fall of 2005. Both networks fell behind the Spanish-language network Univision in the overall 18-34 demographic.
It was estimated in 2005 that the WB was viewable by 91.66% of all households, reaching 90,282,480 houses in the United States. The WB was carried by 177 VHF and UHF stations in the U.S., counting both owned-and-operated and affiliated stations (the owned and operated stations were not actually operated by Warner Bros. or Time Warner; instead, Tribune owned and operated these stations, thus its stake in the network). The WB could also be seen in smaller markets on cable-only stations, many of these through The WB 100+ Station Group -- available to TV markets below the number 100 in viewership as determined by Nielsen in a packaged format, with a master schedule; the addition of local advertisements and news were at the discretion of the local distributor, often a local television station or cable television provider.
[edit] Network closure
Starting on August 14, 2006 with the Daytime WB block, the WB 'bug' was removed from the lower right corner of the TV screen and was replaced with a countdown of days until the CW launched. Some stations which converted to MyNetworkTV or became independent stations received a logo-free feed of the network, while others took the main feed and overlaid their local logo bug over the CW logo.
The WB closed on Sunday, September 17, 2006 with A Night of Favorites and Farewells, a five-hour block of pilot episodes of their past signature series. The schedule was as follows (times listed are Eastern and Pacific Time zones):
- 5 p.m. - Felicity
- 6 p.m. - Angel
- 7 p.m. - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a two-hour episode)
- 9 p.m. - Dawson's Creek
Commercial breaks featured re-airings of past image campaigns and network promotions. This plan involved promo spots given to the cable networks carrying these shows in off-network syndication, along with ads for each series' TV-on-DVD box set [2].
After the network's closure, The WB's URLs were redirected to The CW's website.
The final night of WB programming netted relatively low ratings. The WB scored a share of 2, meaning just 2% of viewers were tuned in to the WB on its final night. [3]
[edit] Children's programming
The WB added the Kids' WB! programming block, following its launch, which mixed Warners' biggest hit shows (Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs and later Batman: The Animated Series, all of which originated either on Fox, Fox Kids or in syndication) with new productions and original shows.
After the Turner–Time Warner merger in 1996, Kids' WB! formed an alliance with Cartoon Network, and over time, they shared more and more programming.
[edit] 1998-2000
In September 1998, The WB also launched the American version of Pokémon in the Kids' WB! blocks, which they acquired from syndication (TV Tokyo) earlier that year and became a widespread pop-culture phenomenon. WB also acquired the English-language version of the second series Yu-Gi-Oh!.
[edit] 2000-2005
The Kids' WB! aired mainly animated series but also aired some live-action programming. Kids' WB! aired a television version of R.L. Stine's The Nightmare Room in 2001, though it didn't make it past a season. They also aired a live-action movie known as Zolar, as well as the JammX Kids All-Star Dance Specials.
[edit] 2006
In January 2006, the weekday afternoon block of Kids' WB! was replaced by Daytime WB, which was composed of the syndication of What I Like About You and 8 Simple Rules. The Kids' WB block expanded by one hour on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon. As a result, most WB affiliates aired syndicated programming from DiC Entertainment on Weekday mornings.
Kids' WB! moved to The CW on Saturday, September 23, 2006 and has kept the Kids' WB! name.
[edit] Station standardization
When The WB was launched during the mid-1990s, the network began branding most of its stations as "WB" or "The WB", then the channel number, with the call signs nearby. The call signs were minimized to the smallest FCC-approved size by the end of the decade.
[edit] New York and St. Louis
This meant that, for example, WPIX in New York and KPLR in St. Louis were now both referred to as "WB11". Fox originated such naming schemes, and CBS uses the CBS Mandate on all of their O&O stations. NBC and ABC utilize similar, but less extreme, naming schemes.
While Fox and UPN mandated their respective naming schemes on all stations, The WB did not.
[edit] Chicago and Los Angeles
Thus, not all WB affiliates followed the naming scheme. WGN-TV in Chicago (on the local feed only as the superstation feed stopped carrying WB programming feed in 1999) used the name "WGN 9 Chicago" in its ID with The WB's logo next to the boxed "9". Most of Tribune's WB affiliates only used the network logo in their station's logo or use "The WB" name after the calls. An example was Los Angeles affiliate KTLA, whose station ID was "KTLA, The WB".
[edit] Other affiliates
Most WB affiliates also had another standardization name branding scheme: (City name)'s WB. For example, KHCW (formerly KHWB) in Houston was called "Houston's WB," WATL in Atlanta was called "Atlanta's WB," KDAF in the Dallas / Fort Worth area of Texas was called "Dallas/Ft. Worth's WB" and WDCW (former WBDC) in Washington, D.C. was called "Washington's WB." Some stations which followed this scheme used a regional name instead of a specific city, such as "Capital Region's WB" for WCWN in Albany, New York (formerly WEWB), or "East Tennessee's WB" for WBXX in Knoxville, Tennessee while others incorporated the channel number, such as WPHL-TV in Philadelphia ("Philadelphia's WB17"), or Mobile, Alabama's WBPG ("The Gulf Coast's WB55"). Many WB 100+ stations also followed either one of these variations on the "The City's WB" scheme.
[edit] Legacy
Despite its closure, The WB lives on in a number of ways:
- Kids' WB! persists to this day.
- The "W" half of The CW stands for Warner Bros.
- Services offered by The WB carried over to The CW, like Daytime WB (now The CW Daytime) and EasyView.
- Though it did not start on the network, the Grinch TV special was taken over by ABC from 2006 onward.
[edit] See also
- The CW Television Network
- List of programs broadcast by The WB
- List of WB affiliates
- The WB 100+ Station Group
- 2006 United States broadcast TV realignment
- DuMont Television Network
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Sources vary as to the exact composition of The WB's ownership. According to at least one source, as of 2001, the ownership was split among Time Warner (64%), Tribune Company (25%), and Jamie Kellner's firm ACME Communications (11%) [1]. Published reports in early 2006, dealing with the launch of The CW, suggested Tribune was at the time the only minority shareholder, with just 22.5%, which it would be relinquishing [2] in order to avoid shutdown costs for The WB [3].
- ^ [4]
- ^ [5]
[edit] External links
- Kids WB's Homepage
- WB Network from The Encyclopedia of Television
- The WB Image Campaigns
- Farewell video
- A Clip of the final few moments.
