Remembering The WB 15 years later
Click to view-It's been 15 years since TheWB signed off and was merged with UPN to birth The CW.
-The network officially launched in 1995 and became the go to channel for up and coming stars and dominated the teen genre/young adult for majority of its run.
-The Wayans Bros. would be the first primetime program that they aired followed by shows such as Unhappily Ever After, Jamie Foxx Show, 7th Heaven, and The Steve Harvey show.
-By 1997 they started to expand into the teen market with Buffy The Vampire Slayer originally on Mondays where it was a ratings hit. Wanting to capture that success again they came out with shows such as Dawsons Creek, Felicity, and Charmed. Each of them were top each other in ratings with Charmed premiering to a record 7.7 million viewers at the time.
-Angel would see the networks first major spin off which garnered 7.5 million viewers, the 2nd highest debut after Charmed before Smallville came and premiered to a record breaking 8.4 million viewers.
-By 2003 the ratings for all their shows started to dwindle significantly to the point of UPN beating it and Univision beating it in demographics. By 2005 they announced that they would be closing up shop and merging with UPN which was owned by CBS in an effort to even out profits.
-The WB was successful in making their viewers feel at home with their shows and the actors as they would hold yearly promotional events where all of the stars from all of their shows would get together and party along with multiple WB lot promotional work. It could be felt with them doing an entire goodbye event with airing the pilots of their most well known shows and doing a Goodbye promo unlike UPN which just went dark.
-Stars like Sarah Michelle Gellar once threatened to quit BTVS if it moved to UPN as she enjoyed the family atmosphere she had grown accustomed to behind the scenes.
-Lets take a trip down memory lane shall we?
Source 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
