CW president on merger results: still too early to tell - TCA Report

The CW decided to go for the funny in its TCA press tour executive session this morning. They played a video clip of an over-eager Adult Swim-style Chyron screen (instead of white on black, though, it was yellow on the ubiquitous CW green), apologizing for technical difficulties and making some interesting jokes. They even name checked Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle, who in an ironic twist, wasn't there to see it.

The message of all this? "We're The CW! Watch us! We're doing something different!" And that was also the theme of the presentation from the network's president of entertainment, Dawn Ostroff.

While the network's buzzword before its launch last fall, "patience," is still in effect, they now have a new buzzword: "momentum." They feel that their established shows have re-found their audiences after the WB/UPN merger and are becoming steady performers. "Veronica Mars, America's Next Top Model, and Beauty & The Geek had their best ratings ever, and One Tree Hill had its best ratings in two years," crowed Ostroff. However, she did say that, four months after the network's launch, it was still "too early to tell" if the merger was a success.

While Ostroff does not regret starting the network with already established shows -- and the inherent problems of telling old WB and UPN watchers where their new shows would be on the dial -- she now thinks it's time for the network's personality to come out through the new shows they're developing. Included in that is Hidden Palms, which will premiere later in the spring; it's a "cross between Scream and Dawson's Creek," said Ostroff, which makes sense since Palms was created by Kevin Willamson of Scream and Dawson's Creek fame. (Kevin reviewed the pilot a couple of weeks ago.) She also cited Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll and Crowned, a reality show where mothers and daughters (of "voting age," Ostroff took pains to mention) participate in a beauty pageant, as development highlights.

She was non-committal on the returns of two veteran shows, Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars, though she didn't see any reason for VM to not come back: "We are proud of it, and all of your support for the show has meant so much for the survival for the show. Hopefully we'll have good things to talk about (in the fall)."

Ostroff did acknowledge that the first Palladino-less Gilmore season has been "a little rocky." She said that new show-runner David Rosenthal "was painted into a corner into with a storyline that he got out of. The second half of the season is much stronger, and I think viewers will be surprised."

She also got peppered with questions about the network's underperforming lineup of Monday comedies, despite the news that Everybody Hates Chris will be renewed for another season. She feels that, though the shows may end up changing, the block of comedies will stick around. "We employ more African-American producers than any other network," she was proud to say. She especially reserved praise for Girlfriends, calling it one of the best comedies on TV and really encouraging the critics gathered to take another look at Chris: "The show, which was so well-received last year, is as good, if not better, this year," she said.

When she was asked if they ever considered taking on The O.C. after Fox dropped it, Ostroff said, "It came up but didn't make sense for several reasons." But she mentioned that creator Josh Schwartz is in the fold, as he's working on a pilot called Gossip Girl for them.

Finally, she introduced the network's new streaming video player on the Web, where episodes of various shows will play for free. The player will also allow users to put any size version of it on their desktop as they IM friends or do other work, and will also allow users to e-mail clips of any size to friends. As to why it took so long to get the player done, Ostroff blamed it on the complexities of a network launch. "You can't underestimate how much work went into launching the network itself," she said. "It was impossible for us to be everywhere and do everything at he same time." They are also launching into the new media world with audience-participation contests (like one where people send in videos to prove why One Tree Hill should shoot in their town; the winner gets to be on the show when it comes to their town to shoot), cell phone avatars, and content wraps ("little CWs" was the sales executive's term for that).