The WB Television Network

The WB Television Network
Image:TheWB...logo.gif
Type	Defunct broadcast television network
Country	United States
Availability	National,  Canada, and  {{{shortname alias}}} (Northern)
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.

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.

1995-1997

The WB's first programs were mostly sitcoms targeted at an ethnically diverse audience. Even though three of the inaugural four shows (The Wayans Bros., The Parent 'Hood, Sister, Sister, and Unhappily Ever After) 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.

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.

2000-2002

Outside of the aforementioned series, other large successes included Gilmore Girls, Everwood, Smallville, and one of its hit sitcoms, Reba, which was the number one sitcom on the network for all of its years on the network.

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.

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 The 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] Michigan J. Frog was brought back one last time, and a silhouette of him taking a last bow was the last image ever broadcast on the network.

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] One reason for this may have been due to certain areas whose WB affiliates became MyNetworkTV affiliates.

Children's programming

Main article: Kids' WB

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.

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!.

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.

2006

As Kids' WB! shared more and more of its programming with Cartoon Network, because of the 1996 Turner-Time Warner merger and the fact that Cartoon Network was outrating Fox Kids, airing Kids' WB! became financially unattractive as broadcast stations started showing only live-action talk shows and sitcom reruns in the afternoon to compete and go after a different audience, figuring children had all moved to watching cable networks in the afternoons.

On May 31, 2005, The WB announced the discontinuation of the weekday Kids' WB! block as of January 2, 2006. Kids' WB! continued to air weekdays after this, but with redundant programming and theme weeks until January, and more promotion of Cartoon Network's afternoon Miguzi block and Kids' WB! Saturday during the transition. After Daytime WB started, Kids' WB! Saturday morning lineup was expanded by one hour.

The block continues on The CW, which replaced The WB in their merger with UPN beginning September 18, 2006. It has been unofficially dubbed The CW Daytime, however, on-air promos for the block do not give it an actual name.

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.

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.

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".

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/Region's WB" scheme.

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, How the Grinch Stole Christmas began airing in the late 1990s on The WB, due to its ownership by Time Warner's TBS division, after a long run on CBS. The special moved to ABC in the 2006 holiday season.

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

Footnotes

Wikipedia information about The WB Television Network This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The WB Television Network". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.