Upfronts 2009: Ostroff Touts CW as "Part of Cultural Zeitgeist"
Network president lauds "strongest development season" and "most cohesive lineup we've ever had"
By Claire Atkinson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/21/2009 3:43:21 PM
Upfronts 2009: Complete Coverage from B&C
This upfront, when The CW president Dawn Ostroff spoke, everyone was listening. Speaking at the network's morning upfront presentation Thursday - with chocolate pretzels for snacks - Ostroff said the shows were the result of "the strongest development season ever and the most cohesive line up that we've ever had."
The network of Buffy is going back to that well; airing portions of the handsome drama, Vampire Diaries, and Juno-meets-Gilmore Girls, Parental Discretion Advised. The network also showed the Ashton Kutcher project The Beautiful Life about fashion models caught in the vicious world of haute couture. CW went back to the future other ways with new launch Melrose Place, starring Ashlee Simpson, paired on Tuesdays, post-90210.
The CW filled the WaMu Theatre at Madison Square Garden on Thursday morning and will host a private invite-only party with the cast tonight, a vast improvement on the noisy party of last year, when the crowds spent the better part of CW's announcements deconstructing ABC's schedule rather than paying attention.
Tyra Banks appeared with the latest winner of America's Next Top Model and the network announced her talk show will be headed to the CW. The next cycle to unspool at CW will be a version for shorter models, which was pushed by Tyra because of the preponderance of models such as Kate Moss who aren't 5 ft 7 inches.
"The CW is the place that young women go," said Ostroff. "CW is part of the cultural zeitgeist and our stars are a huge part of our success." While the network is dropping Sundays, handing them back to the affiliates, it lays claim to programming as much scripted programming as NBC now. "Five nights continues to the flow. It feels like we've really arrived," said Ostroff.
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Dawn Ostrof ,Sam Zell you hope this nework ratings up this time or you're out 2010-11 season.
Daniel Belgrave - 5/22/2009 5:26:15 AM EDT -
abc family has more zeitgeist than cw
lets get this network story straight... we combine with upn to form the best of both worlds, only it is more like a bad car collision than a healthy relationship. so next we claim its the old shows fault, we need something new, people can't find us so we add a mega bug to the screen and new shows; fail again.
now we go back to being the wb, what we should have done all along, of course we've ran away have our viewers in the process and allowed other networks like abc family to not only one up us, but take our viewers too.
the only people who have performed worse than the cw are mortgage brokers.
chad monroe - 5/22/2009 4:39:12 AM EDT -
Well, Dawn Ostroff better be preaching a solid sermon here and hoping her ratings go up for the new shows or else, she'll be next on the unemployment line. I like they got rid of Sundays which will be a huge + for them. As long as they can beat NBC, I'll be happy.
Richard - 5/21/2009 6:57:30 PM EDT
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