Back when the CW launched in 2006 with the combined assets of the WB and UPN, it had five half-hour comedies on the air, the multi-camera Reba, Girlfriends, The Game and All of Us and single-camera Everybody Hates Chris. That genre quickly disappeared as the CW focused on the coming-of-age dramas and subsequently added superhero series for the slate that it is known for today.
The CW chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz hopes to bring sitcoms back on the network, which is close to being acquired by Nexstar, owner of its largest station group. While he refrained from a straight prediction what the CW’s schedule will look like in 2-3 years because of the fast pace the world is moving at, he did share his vision during the network’s pre-upfront press call Thursday morning.
“I think you will always see a decent amount of scripted programming on the network, I think you’ll see — and we already began the transition to — more alternative, and we will be bringing more acquired programming,” he said. “I do hope that we will enter the world of half-hour sitcoms being produced for the network, and I do hope should there be a sale and if there is a sale, that it will open the avenues of other producers and studios to come to us besides Warners and CBS, which means more opportunities.”
In the current setup, the CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. and Paramount, with their TV studios, Warner Bros. TV and CBS Studios, as the network’s sole suppliers.