Most eyeballs will be on Katie Couric’s debut as anchor on “The CBS Evening News” Tuesday night.
But the late-breaking news locally is that there will be two new television networks hitting screens this month. On Tuesday, KTVD-Channel 20 goes from being a UPN affiliate to being MyNetworkTV or, simply, my20. On Sept. 18, KWGN-Channel 2, the station formerly known as The WB, morphs into The CW.
The more things change, the more they look the same. At least one industry analyst predicts a rocky road ahead.
At my20, owned in Denver by Gannett and affiliated with News Corp., the most noticeable programming change will be two telenovelas, a fancy moniker for nighttime soap operas.
“Desire” and “Fashion House,” the latter starring Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, each will run an hour in high definition weeknights (7 and 8 p.m.) with a recap on Saturdays for 13 weeks, then two new series will begin. “It’s fresh programming 52 weeks a year, no reruns,” said Mark Cornetta, president and general manager of both KUSA-Channel 9 and KTVD-Channel 20.
Also new is a 30-minute, 9 p.m. newscast, the station’s first, featuring anchors Mark Koebrich and Bazi Kanani, who also work news for KUSA. Gannett, which has 21 U.S. television stations, assumed ownership of Channel 20 in July and retained a handful of staffers, said Cornetta. All the station’s day-to-day operations have moved to the Channel 9 headquarters.
The rest of the my20 schedule will look familiar to regular viewers. There will be reruns of “Andy Griffith,” “The King of Queens,” “Frasier” and “Roseanne.”
Meanwhile, The WB bids farewell Sunday, Sept. 17, with a fitting ending, five hours of pilot episodes of the network’s best-known series – “Felicity,” “Angel,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Dawson’s Creek.”
A new day dawns at KWGN-Channel 2 on Sept. 18.
“Most of the programs were either on The WB or UPN,” said Jim Zerwekh, vice president and general manager at KWGN.
In general, shows are aimed at younger, ethnic viewers. The day the merger was announced in January, Les Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corp., 50/50 partner in The CW with Warner Bros. Entertainment, said, “The CW is going to be a real competitor, a destination for young audiences, diverse audiences and a real favorite with advertisers.”
Surviving the merger are “America’s Next Top Model,” “Everybody Hates Chris,” “All of Us,” “Girlfriends,” “Gilmore Girls,” “One Tree Hill,” “Seventh Heaven” and “Veronica Mars.”
In addition, “Scrubs” and “The Shield,” new to syndication, will be added to the lineup, and other shows are “in development,” Zerwekh said. There also will be five hours of original children’s programming on Saturday mornings.
Zerwekh added that Channel 2 will begin an 11 a.m. newscast Sept. 11, right behind the new weekday program “Martha Stewart.” The CW, now known locally as News2, will offer plenty of news, starting at 5 a.m. with a four-hour “News2 This Morning.” The addition of the 11 a.m. news will give the station 5 1/2 hours of news weekdays. Zerwekh hinted that more news may be on the way.
Fans of “Star Trek” and wrestling will pleased to know that The CW hasn’t overlooked their needs. Episodes of the original “Star Trek” will air at midnight on Saturdays, and “WWE Friday Smackdown” will be new every Friday.
The merger of UPN and The WB, neither of which attained the prominence Fox has in its 10 years of existence, gives viewers a fifth network to compete with CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox.
Success of the two new networks, said Marc Berman, senior editor and television analyst at MediaWeek, a weekly industry magazine, depends on viewers finding them, particularly The CW.
“The CW is a legitimate network,” said Berman, based in New York. “What is going to cause some confusion is that viewers will have to get used to channel changes.”
He’s considerably less enthused about MyNetworkTV. “It’s not a network. It’s a farce.”
He’s also skeptical about the highly publicized telenovelas. “No viewer in his or her right mind is going to watch a show five nights a week for two hours.”
Ultimately, he said, both networks and their investors will have to be patient. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”
Staff writer Dick Kreck can be reach at 303-954-1456 or at dkreck@denverpost.com.
