Netlets fade to black
Execs have little precedent as they struggle with closings
The WB and UPN are about to become the first major programmers to disappear since the DuMont Network went belly up in 1956. Since then, a handful of minor cablers have bit the dust (CBS Cable, CNNfn, the Nashville Network). But the industry has never seen the shutdown of a major national programming outlet in this modern era, let alone two.
"How do you end a network?" asks Garth Ancier, topper of the WB.
It's such an anomaly that Ancier says he hopped on the Internet to bone up on how DuMont pulled the plug 50 years ago.
"I tried to do as much research as I could," Ancier says. "I Googled 'DuMont shutdown' and tried to get some info on how they did it."
But with no real playbook on closing a broadcast web, the execs behind the WB and UPN figured it out as they went along.
Save for original episodes of UPN's "WWE Smackdown," programming on both nets of late has been repeats, or burnoffs of episodes of shows such as the WB's "Just Legal," pulled early in the past season.
The demise of the WB and UPN, spurred a shuffle in the affiliate world as stations switch to new networks CW and MyNetworkTV. Stations have been forced to spend extra marketing dollars to rebrand their identity.
Kansas City's KSMO-TV, for example, is shifting from the WB to MyNet, and will switch its brandname from "The WB Kansas City" to "My KSMO TV."
"It covers everything from stationery letterheads to how you answer the phone to what kind of position you try to occupy in viewers' minds, and how to promote that," says the station's general manager, Kirk Black. "I personally believe that this fall's broadcast season will be the most confusing that we've seen in years."
At the WB's headquarters at Warner Ranch in Burbank, department heads were asked to draft a list of every detail, large and small, that would have to be addressed before turning out the lights.
Over the past several months, Ancier says he's had to deal with major issues -- such as informing staffers whether they'd have a job come summer -- and the minutia, including what to do with a massive, welded metal WB flashing-light sign that was used in most of the net's on-air campaigns (no decision yet).
Across town, shutting down UPN has been a slightly easier affair. For starters, that net's staff was already small, with many of its functions overseen by CBS.
There's also less institutional memory at UPN, which is on its third set of top execs. Many of the WB's brass, on the other hand, had been there since its 1995 launch -- making it a much more emotional farewell.
Still, it wasn't easy for execs at either shuttered weblet to decide which staffers would be asked to join the new CW net, and who would be handed a severance check.
The CW will employ around 150 people; the WB boasted a staff of around 300 and UPN had about 100. That meant a majority of staffers at both weblets were out of a job.
"Many positions had two qualified candidates for one job," says WB chief operating officer John Maatta, who is taking the same title at the CW. "It was a hard process to go through the roster and decide who was going to go with the new venture."
In accordance with California law, staffers at both the WB and UPN were sent letters notifying them of the shutdown soon after the CW announcement was made in January.
"It's the equivalent to a plant closing," Ancier says. "Just like we were manufacturing cars, we'd be finished on a certain date."
That led to an awkward period of time when execs who weren't invited to join the CW were still needed to operate the existing netlets, while others down the hall were working on the new net's first fall schedule.
By summer, only skeleton crews were left at both netlets. At the WB, Ancier has stuck around to help schedule the Frog's remaining weeks of programming (including a final-night retrofest on Sept. 17; UPN has yet to announce its final night.)
And there are still legal documents to sign (such as quarterly company statements) and the tricky issue of figuring out how to make sure the WB is still seen in at least 80% of the country during its last two weeks of programming. That's because Rupert Murdoch's MyNetworkTV launches Sept. 5, taking over many former WB and UPN affils, but the CW doesn't bow until Sept. 18.
"It's important to stay above 80% coverage for national advertisers," Ancier says.
"It's going to be an interesting period in network TV history -- you've never had two networks going off the air, with one launching (MyNet) and another about to launch."
Maatta and Ancier say the WB headquarters have been slowly stripped of Frog mementos, as staffers take a few souvenirs out the door. Remaining WB items may make it into the Warner Bros. archives, or perhaps even onto eBay.
Once the CW's Burbank offices open (in the Pinnacle Building, between Warner Bros. and NBC), the remaining staffers holed up in the WB's Warner Ranch headquarters (which will be taken over by Warner Bros. Animation) and UPN's Brentwood building will leave.
But Ancier, who's also ankling, doesn't intend to let the Frog go quietly into oblivion. He's throwing a wake for all the WB's stars and execs on its last night of programming, when the netlet is slated to broadcast the pilots to several of its signature shows, including "Dawson's Creek" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."
