Network's pursuit of youth falters
This was going to be the CW's breakthrough year.
The little TV network was full of promise five months ago on the eve of its second season. Advertisers and even curmudgeonly TV critics were gushing over its new fall shows. Buzz on the Internet was wild in anticipation of the much-hyped "Gossip Girl," a soapy drama about pampered prep school students in Manhattan.
But instead of catching fire, the CW's new crop of shows flickered in the ratings. Then came the strike by Hollywood writers, which halted the production of programs including CW's "Smallville" and "Supernatural."
"The strike is a threat to the entire broadcast television business but particularly so for the CW because they were struggling already," TV historian Tim Brooks said.
The CW could be a canary in the coal mine for the broadcast television industry. Declining viewership, shifts in consumer tastes, increased competition from video games, cable TV and the Internet, as well as the rising use of digital video recorders, are affecting ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. But they are hitting the CW harder.
The CW's challenge is to figure out how to quickly build a bigger audience of young viewers who are just as comfortable clicking on their computers to find entertainment as they are plopping down in front of a TV. It must also keep its advertising clients in the fold.
This season, the CW's ratings are down 21% among its target group of young adults aged 18 to 34 compared with the previous season. One reason is the rise of digital video recorders such as those from TiVo Inc. that allow viewers to watch programs on their own schedule, not the network's, and zip through commercials.
Ratings would increase by at least 8% if the CW was allowed to count people who recorded a show and watched it within seven days of its broadcast, according to a network analysis. However, advertisers refuse to pay for viewers who watch an episode that long after its airing.
Complicating matters, Nielsen Media Research doubled the number of homes with DVRs in its sample audience to 22% to better reflect the growing use of the technology. That sudden shift exacerbated the ratings decline for networks compared with last season. It also magnified the problem for the CW, which has a smaller and younger audience that is more inclined to use DVRs.
