Cw Television Network

The CW television network discovered something interesting this season when it aired two-minute commercials that told a mini-story: They got better ratings than the shows on which they aired. So on Thursday the network announced a new magazine-style program that is in effect a half-hour ad. Episodes of "CW Now" will be sponsored by three to four unspecified advertisers whose products will be woven into the show.

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.

The top sales executive for the limping CW television network -- Bill Morningstar -- is resigning to take a job with Major League Baseball, three people familiar with the situation said Tuesday. The move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal's website, comes as the CW scrambles to launch its make-or-break season Sept. 2. The 2-year-old joint venture between CBS and Warner Bros.

The CW network said Thursday that it was dumping its flailing Sunday night lineup -- outsourced this year to independent studio Media Rights Capital in a gambit to boost the struggling network's ratings -- and that it would reassert control over the night's programming. Starting Nov. 30, CW will give the night over to theatrical movies, plus repeats of CBS' apocalyptic drama "Jericho" and the sitcom "The Drew Carey Show."

When you sing along with the Pussycat Dolls -- "Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me? Don't you wish your girlfriend was a freak like me?" -- do you know what you are saying? In case you don't, here's the translation offered from uber-film and television producer McG: "Don't you wish your girlfriend could be free and comfortable to do her own thing?" Yes, dear reader, this is the part when you giggle.

Fans of James Woods' legal drama "Shark," David Mamet's "The Unit" and the Barneyism-filled "How I Met Your Mother," you can rest. Your CBS shows will be back. Those who were enjoying "The Class" and "Close to Home" are not as fortunate. Those shows have been canceled by the network, according to sources. "The New Adventures of Old Christine," which already earned Julia Louis-Dreyfus an Emmy, will air sometime in midseason, probably on a new comedy night the network hopes to develop.

Say goodbye to Veronica Mars, Lorelai Gilmore and the Rev. Eric Camden. They're being replaced by snobby prep school students, a Pakistani exchange student and a bounty hunter for Satan. After an uneven freshman year, the CW is rebooting its schedule with a new class of shows, hoping to corner the market on the elusive 18-to 34-year-old audience with a mix of oddball comedies and teenage pathos.

Stevie Ryan, the Los Angeles actress whose tough-chick character, Little Loca, emerged as one of the first stars of YouTube, is making the leap from the desktop to the small screen. Ryan was named Thursday one of four hosts of the new CW reality series "Online Nation," making her the first YouTube star to land a paid TV gig. "This was inevitable," said Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

Kristen Bell acknowledges that it's tough to let go of Veronica Mars, the wisecracking teenage sleuth she portrayed for three seasons on the TV series of the same name. "It feels sort of like graduating high school. You really only recognize how special it was once it's gone away," Bell said in an interview. "And of course everyone graduates from different jobs, then they move on, but I don't know I'll find as special a show ever again. I think I'm only truly realizing that now."

THERE'S a unicorn protruding from the wall in the lobby of the CW's headquarters in Burbank. A colorful gummy bear sculpture occupies a corner nearby. Dozens of trendy terms -- such as "freeganism," "ghost riding" and "VM-ing" -- are written on one wall in the form of a subway system map. This is not what the offices of a broadcast TV network typically look like. White walls are usually covered with giant photographs of hot stars, such as Kiefer Sutherland and Eva Longoria.