CW Upfront Presentation: Vampires, Cheerleaders, Spies and Katy Perry

Perry, whose song 'California Gurls' will be the official anthem of the CW's summer ad campaign, opened the network's upfront presentation this morning at the Theater at Madison Square Garden with a high-energy mini-concert. Backed by her band, who sported light-up ties (a la her LED dress from the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute Gala), and decked out herself in a blinged palm trees tank dress and bedazzled glasses (a la Snooki?), Perry sang her hit 'Hot n Cold,' and when the crowd wasn't mustering up a level of enthusiasm that she found appropriate, she chastised, "Is it too early for you to stand on your feet and have some f**king fun?"

Hey, this is the OMFG! network.

Slowly, the audience did stand, for one song, before hastily plopping down again when Perry and company broke into the infectious 'California Gurls.' Sadly, that portion of the show was over when the pop star cheekily introduced CW sales exec Rob Tuck as "the fine, the fresh, the sexy" Rob Tuck, who tossed to CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff and the network's pitch of its new fall schedule.

And The CW's line-up is one of the easier ones to describe: Except for two new series, both dramas, all the shows will look familiar.

As for specifics ...

- The CW's 'Melrose Place' redo is officially kaput (even though we can all agree it was pretty much DOA, hmmm?).

- 'Smallville's' upcoming tenth season will be its last.

- 'Supernatural' is reuniting with its former Thursday-night tag team partner 'Smallville,' as the Winchester brothers move to Friday nights at 9PM in the fall.

- The two new dramas include 'Nikita,' the latest remake of the 'La Femme Nikita' story, this time with 'Mission: Impossible III' and 'Live Free or Die Hard' star Maggie Q as the titular butt-kickin' spy chick. Maggie -- Ms. Q? -- made the most endearing appearance of any CW celeb, pointing to the backstage area and telling the audience, "You have no idea how good looking it is back there. I had to push the A-cups up a little. We exist." And, like any good female-centric spy TV series should, the 'Nikita' sneak peek suggested the show will be 'Alias'-y, right down to the plot point about Nikita's true love being murdered by her employers. Also starring in the show: 'ER' and 'Once and Again' vet Shane West and '24's' Xander Berkeley.


- The other new drama also looked entertaining, in a 'Bring It On' kinda way. 'Hellcats' stars singer and 'Phil of the Future' star Alyson Michalka, 'High School Musical' star Ashley Tisdale (The Tis!) and 'One Tree Hill's' Robbie Jones as members of the college cheerleading squad at a Memphis university. Expecting lots of catfighting, lots of frisky banter and lots of you-just-got-served-style cheer-offs and dance-offs.


- The very charming Monday night drama 'Life Unexpected' is getting a sophomore season, moving to Tuesdays at 9PM, behind 'One Tree Hill,' and one of the show's stars, Kristoffer Polaha was among the CW stars who popped in for photo ops and, an annual upfront tradition, awkward teleprompter-ed banter.

- Other CW celebs making appearances: '90210's' AnnaLyne McCord, a very bestubbled 'Gossip Girl' star Chace Crawford, 'Smallville' star (and 'Hellcats' executive producer -- go Superman!) Tom Welling, 'The Vampire Diaries' stars Ian Somerhalder, Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley and The Tis.

- Among Ostroff's boasts to the advertisers: CW viewers are the most prolific Twitterers; the network is all about "Generation D" viewers, i.e. Generation Digital; and, with a hearty chunk of the young female demo, "chicks dig us" (our words, not hers).

- And finally, The CW also announced a new summer reality series, 'Plain Jane,' in which the titular mousy-looking females will be given complete makeovers, a la 'Never Been Kissed'/'She's All That'/'Can't Buy Me Love'/'Drive Me Crazy' and several other teen movies that could have starred (but did not all, mercifully) Freddie Prinze Jr. The feel-good trailer suggested the show might be good summer diversion viewing, though just as an aside to the woman who is shown getting a makeover so she can tell her guy friend she wants to date him ... we have a small hunch you might be barking up the wrong tree, for reasons that have nothing to do with you, but have everything to do with a certain anatomy part you don't have. Not that there's anything wrong with that.