What Happens To The CW Depends On Timing
Last month, in place of the usual “Renewal Of Everything” announcement, we heard The CW could instead be sold off. Warner Bros and Paramount, who jointly own the network formed from a merger of The WB and UPN, are now considering offloading it to someone else. Now the big question is, “What happens to my favorite CW shows?”
So far, the only announcements for the upcoming season have been a renewal of one series (The Flash), a spinoff of Nancy Drew (Nancy’s own fate has yet to be resolved) and the production of three pilots. According to a new Variety article, everything else may depend on the timing of the sale.
The deal is, Warner Bros will be officially acquired by Discovery in mid-April. If both WB and Paramount can close a deal with Nexstar (the most interested bidder) before that point, they will likely retain minority stakes in whatever The CW becomes, and continue to produce content to their own liking. If the deal closes POST-Discovery, the terms could be different and Discovery could have a say in what is done with The CW. Less superhero / fantasy shows and more documentaries and Joanna Gaines’s face? Heaven forbid.
The network has had trouble turning a profit ever since they decided to stop making deals with Netflix and foreign markets to license their shows out to other streamers. WB is instead keeping its new shows completely for itself and hoarding them on HBO Max. A lot of us felt this was a bad idea for The CW and we were right. The loss of that revenue is now showing up on the ledgers and making them think “sell,” even though it’s entirely a mess of their own making.
To be continued! Hopefully with a happy ending…