The CW systematically stripped away its superhero dramas and teen-centric soaps in the course of the 2022-23 tv season, taking the inspiration of its primetime programming slate all the way down to the studs. Now comes the reveal of a renovation that leans closely on area of interest sports activities, noisy unscripted collection, procedural dramas and broad-skewing comedies.

The change comes a 12 months after Texas-based Nexstar Media Group acquired a majority stake in The CW from its founders, CBS and Warner Bros. (the “C” and “W” in “CW”). A brand new proprietor inevitably brings new priorities and a brand new regime, and The CW’s freshly appointed management staff of president Dennis Miller and leisure president Brad Schwartz have a nail-biter of a season forward. There’s little doubt that The CW will see a rankings drop, at the very least early on, because it implements a radical shift in content material technique.

The new CW staff can solely hope that Nexstar, led by native TV information anchor-turned-investor Perry Sook, reveals as a lot endurance with its makeover because it has over the previous three years with NewsNation, the cable information channel that Nexstar revamped from entertainment-focused channel WGN America.

Birthed in 2006 by the merger of The WB community and UPN, The CW is taking a tough pivot into new programming lanes at a time when conventional ad-supported networks are struggling to take care of an viewers.

“We’re broadcast; we’re not a niche cable channel. We have to reach the largest audience possible, and we need those audiences to fall in love with us and want to spend a lot of time with us,” Schwartz says.

According to Schwartz, The CW has greater than a dozen unscripted collection in manufacturing within the U.S. and 5 scripted collection which might be both worldwide productions, together with the Sophie Turner-led “Joan,” or indie tasks, like spiritual collection “The Chosen,” which acquired a SAG-AFTRA strike waiver.

For most of its 17 years, The CW has been dominated by scripted collection. Now, the slate is targeted on unscripted collection together with “FBoy Island,” the provocative courting collection that beforehand ran on HBO Max. It additionally picked up extra Canadian-produced dramas and comedies, notably “Sullivan’s Crossing” and “The Spencer Sisters,” and sports activities, together with LIV Golf and the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

But with each “Riverdale” and “Nancy Drew” P.28 ending on Aug. 23, following a slew of cancellations all through final season, the brand new CW regime dares to defy what was laid out by then-chief Mark Pedowitz. Over Pedowitz’s 12-year tenure, the community helped seed large collection belongings for CBS and Warner Bros. And it reached profitable licensing offers with Netflix in 2011 and 2016 for reruns of collection after every season completed its first-run airing on The CW. Those offers made all of the distinction in The CW’s revenue assertion.

That all modified, nonetheless, when the 2016 Netflix pact led to May 2019. At that time, CBS mother or father ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia determined to funnel unique content material to their very own streamers, CBS All Access and HBO Max, respectively. As peak TV turned the business’s focus from constructing curated cable networks to pooling inside assets round subscription streamers, it turned clear that CBS and WarnerMedia each had much less curiosity in sticking with the CW three way partnership.

Add to that broader turbulence within the TV enterprise, together with mergers, debt issues and cord-cutting, and it’s no shock that Paramount and what’s now Warner Bros. Discovery putThe CW on the public sale block final 12 months (each ex-parents preserve minority stakes). The most sensible purchaser, Nexstar, was the lead horse all through the sale course of, clinching an settlement in August 2022.

Now on the helm, Schwartz says he desires the community to tackle extra of an “underdog” and even “contrarian” vibe. And the exec is aware of how difficult the programming enterprise could be within the period of world streaming. As president of CBS-owned cable channel Pop TV from 2013 to 2020, Schwartz discovered “Schitt’s Creek” in its infancy and championed it within the U.S. — solely to observe the quirky Dan Levy comedy collection grow to be an Emmy-winning hit for Netflix in its ultimate seasons.

The CW’s new focus is supposed to be a greater match with Nexstar’s native information fare, which skews towards an older viewers. For years, there’s been a major disconnect between The CW’s programming, meant to enchantment to a youthful viewers, and the wants of the native TV stations that carry that programming. Warner Bros. and CBS have been in a position to rake in licensing charges from after-market gross sales of reveals that launched with fanfare on The CW, however none of that on-line buzz did a lot for Nexstar’s linear 10 p.m. information numbers.

The CW, although, is now positioned for positive factors because it advantages from clear strategic focus beneath unified possession. But Schwartz nonetheless has to satisfy two distinct mandates with programming: Help The CW’s linear affiliate stations (these owned by Nexstar in addition to different broadcast station teams) and enchantment to a youthful crowd by means of on-demand streaming.

A brand new on-air search for The CW can also be coming quickly. Schwartz says, “It will be elastic enough where all of these things make sense all together.”

Schwartz speaks with confidence, however he’s going through a tall order for a channel with an “Under New Management” signal hanging out entrance.

“The CW had a very distinct brand. It’s definitely not going to be that brand going forward. But what is it going to be?” a CW alum says. “Usually, that is defined by what you put on the air. So right now, with all these different acquisitions, it P.29 still doesn’t feel like it’s a cohesive ‘This is what we are to our viewers,’ other than what they say they’re going for — older and broader.”

Nexstar is valued at round $12.5 billion, with The CW estimated to contribute $250 million of that sum, per Wells Fargo media analyst Steven Cahall. When Nexstar acquired The CW, the corporate agreed to soak up its losses for just a few years fairly than hand over money in a proper gross sales transaction. Sook and different Nexstar executives have instructed traders in current months that they count on The CW to grow to be worthwhile for the corporate by 2025.

A giant a part of Nexstar’s rebrand of The CW has concerned “moving very quickly into the sports business,” says Schwartz. The community has snapped up rights not solely to LIV Golf and the NASCAR Xfinity Series but in addition ACC soccer and basketball and even the stalwart pigskin recap collection “Inside the NFL.” Now that The CW is scooping up such rights, “every other sports league” has began calling to debate future offers.

“If we did see a really significant piece of sports content end up on The CW, that increases the earnings power of other assets within the Nexstar portfolio,” Cahall says. “The CW can play a lot of roles within the Nexstar portfolio — but the biggest one is really still earnings power.”

The CW hasn’t fully deserted programming that beforehand fueled its primetime. Long-running reveals like the highschool sports activities drama “All American” and its spinoff, “All American: Homecoming,” in addition to the Jared Padalecki action-drama “Walker” and the DC collection “Superman & Lois,” all have been renewed for the upcoming season. However, these reveals received’t doubtless be on air till someday subsequent summer time on account of Hollywood’s WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

“Our big boss, Perry Sook, likes to say, ‘I want to play smart TV. … I’m not interested in peak TV,’” says Miller, previously a senior government at Sony Pictures, Lionsgate Television and TNT. “It’s time to play smart TV right now.”

Key to enjoying sensible TV is overhauling The CW’s digital operations and its app. That job has been taken on by Roku veteran Ashley Hovey, who signed on as chief digital officer in April. The probability to invigorate the app is “one of the biggest growth opportunities for The CW overall,” Miller says. “You’re going to see over the next one to two years a very aggressive content acquisition strategy for The CW digital. It was a bit of an afterthought under the previous owners. So we’re going to really focus on that 25-to-40-year-old spot. The app is being upgraded dramatically.”

The CW hopes to claw again among the bragging rights it misplaced as its high reveals turned synonymous with Netflix as soon as they landed on the platform. “All American,” “Riverdale” and the CBS-produced redo of “Dynasty” are among the many reveals that discovered a lot bigger audiences on Netflix than they ever did on linear. Along with the digital revamp, Hovey’s staff is engaged on tips on how to higher deal with streaming licensing partnerships.

“One of the biggest challenges of the previous CW,” Schwartz says, “is they didn’t have the rights to the content. The content was fabulous, but they were CBS rights and they were Warner rights. All the new content we’re doing, both scripted and unscripted, all those rights are ours.”

Amid the tumult, Schwartz is conscious of attempting to retain some connection to the CW of the previous, and even flavors of The WB and UPN.

“We don’t want to alienate an audience that we spent 20 years cultivating — keeping our connection to our old audience just can’t be the only thing we do,” he says. “It can be one of the five things that we do.”