Encyclopedia of Television

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WB Network
U.S. network

The WB Network is widely recognized as the first television network to capitalize on the trend toward increasingly fragmented television audiences. By targeting programming specifically to teens and to young adults, the WB has established a focused and successful broadcast network in an era defined by cable television's incursion into the national television broadcast audience. The network, which reaches 88% of the U.S. audience through both broadcast and cable channels, airs primetime programming Sunday through Friday, and a children's lineup on weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings.

The WB had its start in 1995 as a joint venture owned by Time Warner, the Tribune Company, and the network's founder, Jamie Kellner. The network was established as a direct result of changes in the television regulatory environment that year that allowed television networks to produce and syndicate more of their own programming. Independent studios like Paramount and Warner Brothers (which, at the time, was the largest supplier of television series in Hollywood) were concerned that more products from the studios of NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox would shut out the independent studios or leave them vulnerable to unfavorable deals. Forming a network of television station groups was a way for Warner Brothers to ensure a broadcast outlet for its studio's products. It also opened up the possibility that studios could benefit from the advertising revenue generated by their programs, rather than waiting for returns from their sale into syndication. Paramount established their own broadcast network at the same time for similar reasons, and thus the two fledgling networks entered into a race to become the fifth network.

The number of independent broadcast stations available was limited, however, making it a challenge for the two competing networks to develop their reach while maintaining financial solvency. In an innovative yet risky move, Kellner sought a deal that would require stations to share revenue with the studio when the network delivered increased ratings. Its rival UPN followed a more traditional syndication route, paying compensation to affiliates while withholding national time within programs and allowing stations to sell the remaining time. Initially, the UPN plan was more attractive, and the WB was left with weak broadcast stations or with no outlets at all in some areas. At its launch the network included 45 broadcast stations, and although most of them were new, unestablished, and in medium-sized markets, together the channels reached nearly 55% of the U.S. audience. Cable heavily bolstered the WB's initial reach, as the network relied on the Tribune-owned Chicago superstation WGN to bring nearly 20% of the country to the potential audience. This brought the network's total reach close to 75%. By early in the 1995-1996 season, the purchase of additional stations brought the network to coverage of 83% of the U.S..

The WB's shared revenue policy was reversed in a 1997 deal with the Sinclair Broadcast Group that secured 14 new affiliates, which resulted in some griping from existing affiliates but no withdrawals. In 1998, the network further extended its reach when it entered another innovative joint venture with cable operators and television stations, enabling the network to reach smaller markets where the number of broadcast stations available is limited. When superstation WGN ceased its distribution of the network outside of the Chicago market in 2000, the WB encountered its first ratings slump in its then five-year history. In 2001 when Time Warner merged with AOL, the WB became part of Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc., which included almost all of the AOL/Time Warner broadcast properties.

From its beginnings, WB founder and CEO Jamie Kellner believed that the success of the network would rest on its ability to create a recognizable "brand name." At the request of Warner Brothers studio, Kellner had come to the WB from the Fox Broadcasting Company, where he had successfully tapped the 18-34 audience with programs like Beverly Hills, 90210 and The Simpsons. He brought with him from Fox Garth Ancier, the WB network's first head of programming, and Susanne Daniels, who succeeded Ancier to become the WB's Entertainment President in 1998 (current WB Entertainment President Jordan Levin joined Ancier and Daniels from Disney/Touchstone television as the network's head of Comedy Development and Current Programming). Kellner also brought to the WB some of the talent he had employed at Fox, including the producers of Married . . . With Children and Shawn and Marlon Wayans, brothers of In Living Color stars Keenen Ivory and Damon Wayans. Intent on appealing to the youthful demographic so important to advertisers, the network eschewed a more serious network logo in favor of a mascot drawn from a 1955 Warner Brothers cartoon, Michigan J. Frog.

The network launched January 11, 1995, with one night of comedy programming on Wednesday evenings, largely targeted to racial/ethnic audiences. While the prime time ratings were marginal, the WB's Saturday morning kids lineup was beating the ratings of the ABC kids block by early in the 1995-1996 season. That fall, the network premiered 7th Heaven, a project executive produced by Brenda Hampton (Mad About You), Aaron Spelling (Beverly Hills, 90210), and E. Duke Vincent. Airing on Monday nights, it directly competed with Melrose Place, another Spelling program airing on Fox. Featuring Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks as a minister and his wife with five children, 7th Heaven's teen stars Jessica Biel and Barry Watson quickly gained a youthful following, and the program's positive messages garnered praise among parents' organizations. Despite its tepid reception among critics, the program has been one of the network's top-rated shows since its debut.

In light of the new ownership rules that originally motivated the network's inception, it is ironic that some of the WB's early successes came from programs originally produced by the studios of its rival television networks, 20th Century Fox and Paramount. While 7th Heaven had come from the Paramount studio, it was the Fox-produced Buffy the Vampire Slayer that truly sparked the network's success streak and established the teen audience the network craved. Created by Joss Whedon, who wrote the unremarkable teen movie of the same name, the mid-season replacement quickly established itself as a cult favorite and critics' darling. Buffy, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, was hailed as a post-feminist icon and strong, positive role model for teen girls.

The network hit its stride the next year when it paired Buffy with the coming-of-age high school melodrama Dawson's Creek (Columbia TriStar), starring then-unknowns James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, and Michelle Williams, and created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson (Scream I, II; I Know What You Did Last Summer). WB executives gloated that Dawson's Creek had been rejected by Fox before finding its way to the network. As the Fox network abandoned its initial youthful identity in an attempt to "age" their network with programs like Ally McBeal, the WB became the number one network among teens in the U.S. just three years after its launch, enjoying a 32% increase in ratings among teens 12 to 17 that season.

The network continued its winning streak and its emphasis on strong teen female leads with the fall 1998 additions of the J.J. Abrams-created and critically acclaimed Felicity, starring Keri Russell as a soul-searching college coed, and a second Spelling program, the surprise hit Charmed, starring Shannon Doherty (formerly of 90210), Holly Marie Combs, and Alyssa Milano as three sisters with supernatural powers. With these programs and the continuing strength of Buffy and Dawson's, the WB enjoyed its best ratings in its five year history and more than doubled its advertising revenues between the 1996-97 and 1998-99 seasons. The network also strengthened its afternoon programming block, Kids WB, with the addition of the popular Japanese Anime program Pokemon.

The next season, 1999-2000, saw the debut of Angel (starring David Boreanaz), the successful spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer penned by Buffy's creator, Joss Whedon (and another product of 20th Century Fox Television). For its Friday night lineup of ethnic-oriented comedies, the network also picked up Eddie Murphy's animated series The PJ's, dropped from Fox. Ratings stumbled that year, however, especially among the audiences for Felicity, who infamously cut her long tresses, and Dawson's Creek, which lost its creator to film projects. The loss of WGN's distribution of the network hurt ratings, as well.

The network was able to turn its slide around the following year, and for the first time in 2001, the network reached the coveted 5th place in ratings among overall TV households and in the 18-49 demographic. Adding to the strength of its continuing series, the WB rolled out Gilmore Girls, the critically acclaimed, multigenerational and multiethnic drama about a single mother and her teenage daughter (played by Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel) created by Amy Sherman-Palladino. Gilmore Girls was the first program developed by the Family Friendly Forum, an initiative launched by Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, and other major advertisers in cooperation with the WB, in an effort to develop programming that families could watch together.

The 2001-2002 season was another strong one for the WB despite the move of two of its programs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Roswell, to rival network UPN. Gilmore Girls and Angel achieved increased ratings, 7th Heaven held its place as the network's top-rated program for the fourth year in a row, while the ratings for Charmed remained strong. Smallville, a new fall drama from Warner Brothers' own studio about Superman's teen years, quickly became the top-rated program for all teens. With the addition of Reba, featuring country music star Reba McEntire, the WB strengthened its Friday night sitcom ratings, despite its controversial decision to pull the plug on its comedies featuring racial/ethnic leads. Minor roles for racial/ethnic characters in its centerpiece programs and the promise of other ethnically based comedies like Greetings from Tucson, a fall 2003 entry focused on a Mexican American family, were designed to address this unfortunate turn.

In addition to its programming focus on teen angst and its strong young female leads, the good fortune of the WB can be attributed to its aggressive, innovative, and largely successful marketing ventures. Efforts were taken to new levels when Dawson's Creek was introduced at mid-season in 1998. Before its debut the network spent $ 3.3 million on billboard, television, bus, and radio ads, and had its stars serve as models in the latest J.Crew catalog, all in an effort to bring new viewers to the network. The WB even created a trailer for the program that was paired with teen-oriented films like Scream II.

The WB was also the first television network to offer music promotions in exchange for a break on licensing fees, enabling Dawson's Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and later WB dramas such as Roswell and Smallville to use popular new music in a much more affordable arrangement. Certain songs, featured in each episode following the style of film soundtracks, were highlighted at the conclusion of each episode with a 5-second snippet accompanied by the band's CD cover. The approach gave the program credibility with its teen audience while also saving money for the network.

Naturally, the WB's appeal to the lucrative teen audience has been of interest to advertisers, and ad rates on the network's highest-rated series are triple what they were when the network launched, now besting rates from such venerated programs as CBS's 60 minutes. The WB has also experimented with product placement and advertiser funding for script development. Yet while Gilmore Girls was a successful example of the latter, not all advertiser/network innovations have been so well-received. Critics and audiences roundly balked at the 2002 reality program No Boundaries, the title of which mirrored the slogan of its program's sponsor, the Ford Motor Company (who also provided vehicles for the program). Similarly, the Coca-Cola-sponsored 2000 summer series Young Americans was pilloried for its placement of Coke in the series' romantic scenes.

Regardless of these missteps, there is no doubt that the WB's parent company, AOL Time Warner, has profited from cross-promotional strategies involving other aspects of the Time Warner franchise. The theme song to Dawson's Creek was Paula Cole's "I Don't Want to Wait," featured on the Warner Brothers record label, and the network also regularly promotes films produced by its Warner Brothers studio. In 2000, the WB teamed up with AOL Time Warner-owned TV Guide, MilkPEP and the Dairy Management Inc. to create a series of television spots and posters folded into TV Guide that featured WB stars with milk mustaches. Moreover, TNT regularly airs repeats of Charmed and the after-school block of Kids' WB Programming airs on the Cartoon Network and on its partner web site, while WB programs are frequently promoted on AOL, TNT, and TBS.

Despite its many successes, the WB is the only network that had not yet received a single Emmy nomination as of 2001. That same year, it was also the only network that had shown growth in every demographic when compared to the 1995-96 season when it was launched, and the only network to show an increase in upfront revenue and ad rates. The WB has launched more of its relative unknown actors into television and film stardom than any other network in the past few years, and has also had more of its series enter syndication than any other network since its launch in 1995. Clearly, the people at the WB have been successful in meeting their goals of establishing a well-received brand identity among today's young and highly desirable consumers, and the Academy's recognition for some of its programming is sure to follow.

Lynn Schofield Clark

See Also: Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Kellner, Jamie; Teenagers and Television; UPN.

Network administration:
CEO of WB, 1995-2001: Jamie Kellner
Head of Programming, 1995-1998: Garth Ancier
WB Entertainment President, 1998-2001: Susanne Daniels
WB Entertainment President, 2001- present: Jordan Levin

Chairman and CEO, Turner Broadcasting Systems, 2001-present : Jamie Kellner
Chairman and CEO, AOL-Time Warner, 2001-present: Richard D. Parsons
COO, AOL-Time Warner, 2001-present: Robert W. Pittman

Further Reading

Schofield Clark, Lynn. From Angels to Aliens: Teens, the Media, and Beliefs in the Supernatural. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Collette, Larry and Barry Litman, "The Peculiar Economics of New Broadcast Network Entry: The Case of United Paramount and Warner Bros." The Journal of Media Economics 10, no. 4 (1997): 3-22.

Marks, Rick Brian. "Targeting Families and Teens: Television Violence on the WB." Unpublished master's thesis, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2000.

Wilcox, Rhonda V. and David Lavery (Eds.), Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, Inc., 2002.