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Logo used from 1995 to 2006, tilted version introduced in 1999
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United States
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Defunct Broadcast Television Network
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National, , and (Northern)
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The CW (in joint venture with CBS )
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Time Warner 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%) Published reports in early 2006, dealing with the launch of The CW, suggested Tribune was at the time the only minority shareholder, with just 225%, which it would be relinquishing [http://abcnewsgocom/Entertainment/wireStoryid=1536479 in order to avoid shutdown costs for The WB [http://wwwtribunecom/investors/transcripts/thecw_06html]
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David Janollari, President
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January 11 , 1995
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September 17 , 2006
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Jamie Kellner
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wwwthewbcom (redirects to The CW's official Site)
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, casually referred to as '''The WB''', 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 its replacement, the new
CW Network.
Much like its competitor '', as well as the erosion in ratings suffered by independent television stations due to the growth of cable television and movie rentals.
The WB began its life in January of 1995, programming just 2 hours one night a week (Wednesday). The WB's first programs were mostly
Sitcom s targeted at an ethnically diverse audience. Even though four of the five shows shown in the netlet's first nine moths (''
The Wayans Bros. '', ''
The Parent 'Hood '', ''
Sister, Sister '' (picked up after being cancelled by
ABC ), and ''
Unhappily Ever After '') were renewed beyond the first year, none of them made a significant impact.
The WB began programming on Sunday nights in the 1995-1996 season, but none of the new shows (including the Kirk Cameron vehicle
Kirk and night-time soap opera
Savannah ) managed to garner much viewing interest. Still, the network continued to expand in the 1996-1997 season, adding programming on Monday nights. This season gave the WB modest hits in the family drama
7th Heaven and comedies
The Steve Harvey Show and
The Jamie Foxx Show .
The WB also added the '''', all of which originated either on FOX, ''
Fox Kids '' or in
Syndication ) with new productions and original shows.
The WB first began to taste success with ''
Buffy The Vampire Slayer '', which became a hit with critics when it appeared as a mid-season replacement in March of
1997 . It debuted with the highest Monday night ratings in the network's history, attracting not only new teenage viewers, but new advertisers as well.
{Link without Title}
Inspired by ''Buffy'''s success, The WB intentionally shifted the focus of its programming, trying to capture what it perceived to be a heavily fragmented market by marketing to the under-courted teen demographic. While the
FOX network, the previous destination for teen television, began to court older audiences with shows such as ''
Ally McBeal '', The WB began to craft its identity with teen-targeted programs. The network's breakout hit and, arguably, its signature series was ''
Dawson's Creek '', which debuted in January of 1998 to what were then the highest ratings in the network's history. It quickly became the highest rated show on the television among teenage girls, and the most popular show on the network. The popularity of the show helped boost other network shows, such as ''Buffy'', which served as its lead-in on The WB's new night of programming, known as "New Tuesday," and ''7th Heaven'', which enjoyed a massive 81% increase in viewership that season.
With three hit shows in its roster, The WB continued to build its teen fanbase the following season with college drama ''
Felicity '' and the wicca-themed ''
Charmed '', both of which set new records for the network when they premiered with 7.1 and 7.7 million viewers, respectively. The network also expanded by beginning to program on Thursday nights. That season, 7th Heaven garnered The WB the highest ratings it would ever see. The episode airing
February 8 ,
1999 attracted 12.5 million viewers. That season also saw ''7th Heaven'' overtake ''Dawson's Creek'' as the network's highest rated show.
In the
1999 -
2000 season, The WB expanded once again, adding Friday night programming. New shows that season included ''
Roswell '', ''
Popular '', and ''
Angel '', which premiered with 7.5 million viewers, the second highest premiere for the net at the time. During this season, The WB was the only network to have gains in its audience and each key demographic.
As the teen boom of the late 90's began to wane, The WB attempted to broaden the scope of its line-up. Although teen fare like ''Popular'' and ''Roswell'' had premiered to strong ratings, both series saw serious ratings erosion in their sophomore seasons, leading the network to cancel both (''Roswell'' would end up being revived by rival network
UPN ). Meanwhile, ratings for flagship series such as ''Felicity'' and ''Dawson's Creek'' also began sagging. The WB realized that it could no longer rely merely on the tastes of young teenage girls, and thus began moving into more family-friendly fare, attempting to launch a successful sitcom, and generally targeting a more diverse audience.
Despite the slight downturn in the network's fortunes, there were a few bright spots during the era, namely the premieres of two new hit series. ''
Gilmore Girls '', which debuted in
2000 , netted meager ratings when it debuted in a tough Thursday timeslot, but subsequently grew into one the network's most successful shows. In
2001 , ''
Smallville '' debuted with 8.4 million viewers, the highest premiere in the history of The WB. The latter show was also important because it was one of the few shows that drew a substantial male viewership. In its sophomore season, the show overtook ''7th Heaven'' to become the network's most watched show.
2001 also saw the launch of ''
Reba '', arguably the network's only successful comedic series. Other series to gain attention during this time period were the family series ''
Everwood '' and the short-lived but critically-acclaimed soap satire ''
Grosse Pointe ''.
Despite some early success, the network struggled to shift its focus from the female 12-24 demographic to the more broad 12-34 range. In 2005 The WB abandoned its trademark mascot,
Michigan J. Frog , as the network's iconic emblem. David Janollari, The WB's President of Entertainment, 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."
Still, the move did not seem to help the network. The period from 2003 to 2005 produced only three viable new series, ''
One Tree Hill '', ''
Beauty And The Geek '', and ''
Supernatural '' (all of which have since moved to successor network The CW), and even still their ratings paled in comparison to the ratings peaks of ''Dawson's Creek'', which had signed off in 2003. Ratings dropped for shows like ''Angel'' (which was canceled in 2004), and the network failed to launch new hit shows to take their places. Although The WB's well-known inability to launch successful comedy series was nothing new, this period saw the network struggling to establish new dramas as well. High-profile failures included
Birds Of Prey ,
Tarzan ,
Greg Berlanti 's
Jack And Bobby ,
The Mountain ,
Jerry Bruckheimer 's
Just Legal ,
Marta Kauffman 's
Related and the
Rebecca Romjin vehicle
Pepper Dennis .
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.
In 2004, Warner Brothers filmed a one-hour pilot; the pilot was based on the soap opera
Dark Shadows . It was to be in the 2004-2005 season, but the WB decided not to pick it up and was not produced. The pilot aired at a Dark Shadows festival.
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.
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):
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.
{Link without Title} 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 affiliates, leaving The WB's final two weeks of programming unavailable in those areas.
See Also: Kids' WB
The WB added the '', 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.
In
March 1999 , 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! '', also sharing the phenomenon that ''Pokémon'' left behind.
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.
''Main article:
The CW Daytime
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 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 , however, on-air promos for the block (which are quite rare) do not give it an actual name.
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.
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.
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 within the right curve of the station's "9 as an upside-down G" logo at the network's start, and next to a boxed "9" after the station re-imaged in 2001. 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".
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,"
WLVI in Boston was called "Boston'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 "Hawaii's WB" for
KFVE in
Honolulu, Hawaii and "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.
Despite its closure, The WB lives on in a number of ways:
- Kids' WB continues to preserve the WB name.
- The "W" half of The CW stands for Warner Bros. ( The "C" stands for "CBS", which owned UPN).
- 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.
