Celebrating 20 Years of The CW

Linear TV for most TV viewers is a thing of the past because of all the streaming options that are now available. In fact, certain generations hardly watch TV at all, choosing to watch their favorite programs on their phone or tablet or just not watching at all.

But back in the day – namely from the advent of major networks back in the late 1920’s – all the way through to the 1980s and early 1990s – TV was the preeminent source of entertainment for most (but, granted, not all) households. As some avid TV viewers may know, NBC is celebrating their 100th anniversary this year while CBS will mark that record next year. ABC, on the other hand, is marking its 83rd year on the air this year while FOX has hit its 40 year mark this year.

The “bastard” children of the four major networks – The WB and UPN (United Paramount Network) – were both founded in 1993, working hard to compete with their older siblings for viewership. While those two networks never reached the level of programming, ratings or even certain acclaim as the four major networks, they did become the home of some memorable programming such as Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, One Tree Hill and Angel on The WB and Veronica Mars, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise on UPN. Those two networks ran for a “lucky” 13 years each before merging and becoming The CW in 2006.

As the youngster of linear TV major networks, The CW is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, but what could have been a monumental celebration for the still “bastard” child of linear TV was cut short when The CW was acquired (or at least 75% of it) by Nexstar Media Group just four years ago.

That was when the network started to make major changes, focusing more on sports, game shows and reality and much less on the DC world of programming that had put The CW on the map from 2012 when Arrow, starring Stephen Amell, debuted on the network and ended with the final episode of Superman & Lois, starring Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch, in December of 2024.

When you look at the weekly schedule for The CW as it stands right now, it is filled with wrestling, game shows, reality and two hour-long dramas that are actually Canadian transplants and that’s it. If you compare this particular brand of programming to The CW when it was in its prime during the latter part of the 2010’s, when every night of the week (Monday through Friday) was filled with actual one-hour dramas that were not transplants from another country, it is lackluster to say the least for avid TV fans who prefer scripted fare to the other forms of programming.

The CW has for the most part shifted to being a “program provider for affiliates,” focusing on NASCAR, college football, basketball and even getting back into bed with the WWE (Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment). Nexstar’s networks president Sean Compton shared with the folks over at Variety that they believe “significant numbers of viewers (are drawn) to our stations (because of this programming shift) and that audience flow strengthens the entire local brand of those stations. That’s the outcome that matters to us the most being a company that owns a lot of local TV stations.”

While that may be the focus of the current powers-that-be at The CW, the network’s overall ratings – while never top 10 material in comparison to their longer running siblings in the past – has suffered significantly losing anywhere between 10% to nearly 37% of its viewership just in the 2025-2026 TV season.

Sadly, Nexstar – again they own 75% of The CW – has “faced an antitrust challenge to its $6.2 billion takeover of rival Tegna; in fact, a federal judge froze the deal after it has officially closed, siding with DirecTV and several state attorneys general arguing it was monopolistic.” An appeal by Nexstar is expected later this year. And the merger of WBD (Warner Brothers Discovery) and Paramount will assuredly have an effect on The CW in more profound ways than even the folks at Nexstar can predict.

Please share your favorite programs from The CW’s schedule that you enjoyed most in our comments section below and share whether you have continued to watch The CW since its recent acquisition.

[Source: Deadline]