The CW and the White Girls
By Guest Contributor Melissa Silverstein, orignally published at Women and Hollywood
The CW is a combination of the old WB and UPN. It’s a couple of years old and is jointly owned by CBS and Warner Brothers. If you were familiar with UPN you will know that a lot of their shows targeted African Americans like Everybody Hates Chris and Girlfriends, and the WB shows were more family oriented like The Gilmore Girls and Seventh Heaven.
When the two networks combined most of the shows targeted at African Americans went bye bye. But there was still The Game and Everybody Hates Chris. But the CW announced this winter that it was a) getting out of the business of half hour sitcoms, and b) focusing remaking shows from the 90s like Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place that appeal to young white women aged 18-34.
The three-year-old television network is betting its future on the whims of young women, almost to the exclusion of everybody else. By designing a schedule that appeals to them, the CW hopes to build an identity where there really hasn’t been one in the three years that it’s been operating.
Mara Brock Akil, the creator of Girlfriends and its spinoff The Game, is trying a seldom used tack to keep her three year old show on the air. She’s going to pitch a remake of the show as an hour long dramedy to the network this week. According to the Hollywood Reporter:
…for “The Game,” such a transformation would actually make sense creatively. The Game” already plays like a half-hour comedy-drama, mixing the genres more than a traditional sitcom does.
I hope it works. I don’t really want BROADcast networks to be in the niche business and focusing only on these trendy remakes and Gossip Girl type shows.
“Game” creator pitching makeover to save show (Hollywood Reporter via Reuters)
The CW bets its future on young women viewers (AP)
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
CrzyCatDC wrote:
It’s interesting that you point out that the WB had more “family oriented” shows, but you don’t point out the race as with the UPN shows. The WB definitely targeted a specific type of family–the WHITE, middle-class suburban family.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 1:26 pm ¶
Amused0472 wrote:
In that Reuters article, I just cringe at how they say The Game won’t mesh with the less “urban” shows on the network. Everyone knows urban is code for “black.” Just fess up with that ish. I rarely watch the CW, but I will say that I actively do not watch any show that does not feature PoC in substantive and recurring roles. So I hope they are happy with their very narrow demographic.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 1:29 pm ¶
Eva wrote:
I remember when the WB began. The thinking at that time was to have a network for all the young women who went to see “Titanic” over and over again.
No wonder the audience for network TV is going down, while the audience for cable goes up. Most of the shows I watch are on cable.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 2:02 pm ¶
Asada wrote:
I used to hate Seventh Heaven because my mom loved that show and it interfered with my cartoons!! Big family, great kids, minister husband and a wife who was ambitious. I should buy her the DVD set when I get some mu-lah.
I doubt they should bet their future on the whims of young women, or else they will be done in about 5 years. I would suggest they focus on an older demographic, but with a youth obsessed culture I don’t know how that would work.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 2:43 pm ¶
deathblossom wrote:
Gossip Girl, 90210, and now Melrose Place 2.0. On one hand, I have no idea how anybody watches this crap, especially when it’s just a bunch of rich, white teenagers. I tried to watch an episode of Gossip Girl and I almost threw a remote at the television. On the other hand…I rep Supernatural hardcore, even with its gender and race issues, so I have very little standing leg.
But I am bothered by this catering of networks to the young, white female demographic. It’s even gone on to infect the Sci-Fi-soon-to-be-SyFy network. I guess it’s the ultimate culmination of diluting every single little thing so that we’re left with nothing but Dancing With the Stars and Wii shovelware.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 3:01 pm ¶
Tracey wrote:
Grrrr. @deathblossom: I also love supernatural though I haven’t been keeping track lately.
Yeah, I am quite sick of this. I believe transgriot did a post about how some networks have a history of targeting black audiences to boost ratings for a while then canceling them. Girlfriends was a great show, and while I didn’t care too much for it, it was a show that was well written and managed to be a sitcom while still saying realistic and never really going over the top. Same thing can be said for Half&Half.
I really hope this backfires (targeting one demographic), and while I am hopeful for The Game, but I don’t know how it’ll work in an hour format. I think Girlfriends would do better as it’s story line seemed to have enough drama to carry an hour show.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 3:55 pm ¶
Kaonashi wrote:
The only thing I watch on this channel regularly now is Supernatural. Girlfriends and ANTM both noticeably went to shit right after the merger and the show I absolutely LOVED never made it there (Half and Half) due to Hollywood power trips. The only thing that makes the new 90210 watchable is the blissfully crazy grandmother, and sadly she’s not been given enough screentime as of late.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 4:33 pm ¶
it's advertising wrote:
Rich white girls got the $$$ to go on a shopping spree at Target all day long. And the advertisers know that.
How many of you actually bought something cause you saw an ad? I never have.. I always wondered. Do ads even work? Does it really make sense to isolate entire groups for a concept that doesn’t even work.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 5:15 pm ¶
Andrea R. wrote:
Girlfriends would do really well if this is the reality. Too bad they canceled it. I miss it, super smart and funny! I just don’t understand how the network is going to move forward with such a narrow demographic. Once the digital switchover is universal, I won’t even be watching tv any more, so its a mute point for me, but I’d NEVER watch Gossip Girl or any of those teeny boper shows.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 6:53 pm ¶
Jamerican Muslimah wrote:
I love “The Game” and I hope it goes to an hour long show.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 8:58 pm ¶
Brigitte wrote:
The writing on The Game has gone south, especially since it was moved to Friday night. I really can’t imagine it becoming a drama but I hope she can pull it off.
The current crop of all white rich teen shows doesn’t appeal to me at all. I will admit to being a devoted Melrose Place fan back in the day but there’s no chance I’m watching the new one.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 9:18 pm ¶
DomiX wrote:
Damn shame…..my roommates last year (two Asian girls) watched Gossip Girl, and while the drama was titillating, I don’t understand the appeal of it. You have these teenagers, they’re rich, they have sex, they do drugs, they dress well and they backstab each other to achieve their means. Who cares? Really, in the grand scheme of things, who cares? How is this going to affect me, especially since my life is so far from it.
The Game is a good show and it sucks that it has been faced with this decision.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 10:19 pm ¶
Taryn wrote:
I might get people mad at me for saying this but I personally have never watched The Game, but I used to watch Girlfriends and Half & Half, but not because they were great or amazing shows. I basically watched because it was nice to see some sistas on t.v. and I wanted to support that. T.V. is tired though, I can’t seem to watch any of it anymore without cringing or talking back to the t.v.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 10:53 pm ¶
Rchoudh wrote:
I thought they already targeted the white female demographic! Now they have to publicly announce this? And what makes them think this targeted demographic is more likely to be appealing towards ads? During these economic times do they really think anyone is willing to go out and mindlessly shop till they drop?? Speaking of I’ve read recently that the crisis has caused some shows to address it with characters being affected by it. Wonder if CW will allow its rich white teeny bopper shows deal with reality right now…I very much doubt it!
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 11:23 pm ¶
JBigAdventure wrote:
I really liked Girlfriends and I liked The Game early on–but they totally lost me when they dropped the story line about Malik being attracted to women of size. That pissed me off and then the writing of the other storylines went bad too. I’m actually white, but I always thought those two shows were really ‘real’ whereas GG is very much not.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 11:23 pm ¶
Hibbs4Prez wrote:
But I am bothered by this catering of networks to the young, white female demographic. It’s even gone on to infect the Sci-Fi-soon-to-be-SyFy network. _______________________________-
The SyFy is still targeting the white male demographic. That’s why it can have shows like Eureka in which the leading male studs are white and the main women are black and Latina. As long as the male leads are white it doesn’t matter to many white guys what the race of the females are. That’s why it can have a show like BSG in which the men were almost all white but the females were more racially diverse (one black and two Asian ladies to go alongside with the white women) and the white guys got to screw all of them. That’s why the crappy cheap films that debut on the channel during the weekends are always starring white males and dominated by a white male cast. How can anyone suggest the Sci Fi Channel is becoming a network for the white female demographic? Men will always gravitate more to that channel than women.
As for the networks increasingly trying to woo the white female demographic and thereby make shows for them, what’s the big deal? It makes sense. To you women of color who are uncomfortable with it let me point out that us men of color have dealt with TV and films being a white man’s world forever. So we can feel your pain. But its the reality of the situation. Most TV viewers are women and the biggest group of TV viewers are white women. They also tend to have more income than other women in this country. So its a no-brainer. In fact networks have been slow in appreciating the white female viewers who carry their shows. Its overdue that these women get catered to.
Besides…Sex and the City proved that women of color would watch a crappy show about the glamorous lives of white women even if none of the characters were black.
Of course I agree that diversity on TV is horrible and getting worse. Actually I’ll take that back somewhat. Asian and Hispanic characters are getting more opportunities and that’s a great thing. Unfortunately black characters are on the decline. And in terms of substance they still get very little development, are rarely the leads, and are rarely at the center of the action. There has not been true or steady progress. Its all stagnation or a step back for black characters overall. And the last year and a half has been brutal for black characters on TV. All the black people were wiped out on Heroes (though the son reportedly is back). Doakes was killed on Dexter. Duala ws killed on BSG. Warrick was killed on CSI (though Fishburne has now joined the show). The black coroner on CSI Miami departed. All the black characters on Lost were apparently dropped/killed off. Pratt died on ER. Burke is no longer on Grey’s Anatomy (of course that probably couldn’t have bee avoided). The Wire is off the air which means 85% of the working black actors on TV went with it ( I kid….somewhat). I think I’m missing one other example.
Posted 13 Apr 2009 at 11:38 pm ¶
justelise wrote:
I hated all of the CW/UPN/WB shows that were specifically geared to people of color, and mind you I’m Black. I actually made it through one episode of Girlfriends without being completely disappointed, but the rest of the shows were garbage and remain to be garbage. I grew up in a very diverse part of NYC, so a show with a predominantly Black cast is unrealistic to me. Top that off with poor writing and a string of stereotypes and I’m really not interested.
I love Supernatural even though it thoroughly lacks diversity because it’s a damned good show. Anyone who is watching shows just because their race is represented regardless of the quality of the show is daft. Wake up. Support shows with decent writing, and push for a more diverse cast (write to the networks, blog about it, suggest casting — the CW is always in last place and they may actually listen to you).
You can mock the new 90210 for the mediocre writing and for the fact that half the rating points are from old 90210 fans waiting for scenes with Kelly, Brenda, or Donna in them, but there is actually one permanent Black cast member. Yes, he was adopted by a white family, but he’s also not written as a stereotypical black teenager (surly, thuggish, etc.), which is a lot better than a predominantly black cast full of walking stereotypes. I’m sure the real world equivalent of West Beverly High has about as much diversity as is actually reflected in the show.
I hope that the new Melrose Place will be more diverse than the old show, but we’ll see.
To whomever made comments about ER and GA — ER has a rich multicultural history, and has probably had the best ethnic mix for the 15 years it was on than any other show on TV. Eriq LaSalle’s character was one of the first black surgeons on TV and paved the way for the original cast of GA having THREE black surgeons, one being female, on the same show. Anyone who complains about these shows is daft. Sure Pratt died on ER, but it was in the FINAL season — gimme a break. Isaiah Washington is a lunatic and shouldn’t ever be on TV, imho. You can’t really complain about the diversity on GA or Private Practice, because Shonda Rhimes wants it that way.
The CW is doing everything in its power to stay on the air at this point, and that’s in its best interest. Maybe if it survives and starts competing with the big networks we’ll see more diversity. For now, I’d rather see better writing.
Posted 14 Apr 2009 at 9:15 am ¶
thejoyprincess wrote:
CW is betting on the fact that society will always have extremely dedicated teenybopper girls of all races who love these sort of predominately-white soap opera-y shows. This is why boy bands will never die out! Teenyboppers are die-hard fans of whatever they latch on to; and when one cohort graduates and grows up, there is another cohort of little sisters on their heels who will move into viewing place.
They may claim an 18-34 demo, but they know they are banking on tweens and teens. I remember learning that you write such teen/young adult-oriented shows knowing your audience will be 5-7 years younger. It’s like teen mags. seventeen year olds don’t really read 17 mag. Eleven and 14 year olds do. 17 year olds are reading Vogue and Cosmo.
I speak as a former late 80s/early 90s teenybopper who grew up in a grassroots intellectual activist home, lol, and not even that could stop me from being sucked in to 90210, Melrose Place, Model’s Inc, Dawson’s Creek, Friends, Saved by the Bell, California Dreams, etc. I also watched the original DeGrassi High, NY Undercover, City High, A Different World and Living single.All that to say that if I were between the ages of 13 and being a sophomore in college, CW would have me and half of my middle school or classmates at Hillman on lock!
Posted 14 Apr 2009 at 10:26 am ¶
ceecee wrote:
Now I see why the last few episodes of The Game were really bad, all the real life tension can screw with one’s creativity.
I hope the pitch works, they’ve got a lot of people hyped up about it. And CW really needs to rethink it’s target market strategy and be more inclusive of the racial makeup of their target demographic. Just look at Disney…
Posted 14 Apr 2009 at 11:17 am ¶
napthia9 wrote:
What creeps me out about the way CW is headed with their marketing plan is that the audience they want is created. Most of the people I know think of CW’s current for-white-girls lineup as a guilty pleasure, something they watch merely for pretty visuals, or complete and utter trash. It’s sort of the same way that the Disney channel creates Disney princesses etc who then must run out and buy all related merchandising. CW is banking on being able to tell teens that they ought to like the shows CW puts on, and that process starts with what gets marketed to kids.
It’s difficult for me, as a white female fan, to see connections between stuff like Gossip Girl, Seventh Heaven, or Gilmore Girls (which I see as playing into and supporting constructed gender roles relatively strictly) and sci-fi/fantasy shows like Supernatural (where I am used to deconstructing problematic gender-things and where many potential problems simply aren’t present because the main cast is predominantly male or because they’re in space or something.) However, just because white female audiences have been devalued in comparison to white male audiences doesn’t mean white female fans like myself never have any power over networks. Gossip Girl and Supernatural ARE on the same channel and they’re both problematic. So yeah, I agree with Hibbs4Prez that SyFy doesn’t really care about their pre-existing female audience, but I totally don’t understand his second paragraph, because haven’t we all had to deal with it being a white man’s world? There’s no reason to be happy that the CW and other networks are trying to get white female viewers at the expense of all other women, because they’re still making assumptions about who is the ideal audience and apparantly in order to be a good audience you oughta be white.
For that matter, in order to have a story worth telling, it’s apparently necessary that you and most of your companions be white. I’m A-OK with networks swapping out sitcoms (I hate ‘em), but it seems like all over TV this has resulted in majority white casts and fewer and fewer important characters of color. (And white sitcoms aren’t dying off as rapidly either.) When racial diversity is present, it’s usually in an ensemble show like Dollhouse, Bones, or Dexter where white is either a slight majority or no race is in the majority.
Posted 14 Apr 2009 at 2:15 pm ¶
grateful listener wrote:
Good points@napthia9. In regards to The Game, and other black shows, it seems there is an ebb and flow to this story. The one that goes, while we need placeholder shows, we build it “they” will come, until we get the attention we want. About 10 years ago, or there about, FOX dumped Living Single and New York Undercover in order to attract a less “urban” audience (these shows performed well too). FOX was angling to blow up to take on the big 3 networks and UPN, (affectionately referred to as “under-paid negroes” for one), moved on up when it merged with the WB. Black shows, and audiences are convenient, but not the desired choice, which I think we knew. But it still makes eyes roll.
Posted 15 Apr 2009 at 12:12 pm ¶
Louise wrote:
Because black people don’t watch tv, or enjoy visual entertainment!
this sucks, they have assumed that we only watch BET!!!!!!!
Posted 15 Apr 2009 at 1:28 pm ¶
JC wrote:
I guess to Hollywood there’s only two major segment out there – young white guy (win!) and young white girls (not as good but also we’ll take it). Clearly they are the fastest growing segments of American society and deserve all the attention possible. This will ensure the growth of TV ad dollars and thus expanding the reach of the networks. Oh wait…
Posted 15 Apr 2009 at 3:13 pm ¶
Jay wrote:
I’m not sure what shows Justelise were watching but shows like Girlfriends, Living Single, Half & Half and Everybody Hates Chris were far from being “garbage”. They were and are (since EHC and Game are still on the air) riveting shows that had/have smart writing, good acting and went far above portraying “a string of stereotypes.” I’ll admit, when Girlfriends first came on i was hesitant to watch due to what i thought was just a ghetto attempt to rehash SITC in “blackface” but upon continued watching i realized it actually went way beyond that. As diverse as NYC is, even here groups socialize with their own and so such portrayals are not so “unrealistic”yet most of those “black” shows continually showed diversity. I can’t help but wonder if elise had these same feelings towards shows like “Friends” or “Cheers” or “Melrose Place”?Perhaps elise could/should watch more than just one episode of a show before making judgements?
Posted 15 Apr 2009 at 7:19 pm ¶
Moni wrote:
I can’t relate to what Justelise said either cause in my neck of the woods, folks self segregate when socializing. Yes people may have a couple of friends of different races, but their main “clique” is of the same race. Not saying its the ideal, but it is a reality for many people in many parts of the country.
I am “right there” with thejoyprincess cause I was watching all of those mid 80’s-mid 90’s shows…I remember hearing about a “new show”, probably in Seventeen Magazine”, about some kids in Beverly Hills…my dad flipped the channel cause he did not want to watch Dylan surf in the ocean, but I was hooked!
My son, a tween black boy, watches the shows on Nickelodeon…they show more diverse casts in their kids shows than we see in the adult sitcoms…
Posted 16 Apr 2009 at 5:38 pm ¶
Nin wrote:
deathblossom -> Gossip Girl and 90210 not only show rich, white teenagers, they show rich/white teenagers that are wholly uninteresting and boring. I stopped watching Gossip Girl five episodes into the second season. Absolutely abysmal. 90210 couldn’t keep my attention for much longer. Thing is, I try to the give the CW a chance but they have terrible shows about the same thing!
Supernatural is a fantastic (sometimes even brilliant) show. I do wish for more black/brown/Asian characters, but at least the ones their one shot black characters have been well written. Tamara was awesome. That’s more than I can say for anyone else.
Posted 16 Apr 2009 at 6:14 pm ¶
Rob wrote:
I used to watch Gossip Girl, but now can’t even tolerate it as a guilty pleasure due to the race stuff that jumps out at me constantly (the one latina is virtually unrecognizable as such, and her ethnicity is never referenced, and the black and asian girls are sidekicks). I really, really want to watch the new Melrose Place, but I’ve yet to see a single cast member of color announced, and as a fan of the old one I was really hoping that it would be more diverse, but we’ll see. I will say as a semi-insider in TV, the CW is in big trouble, and they don’t seem to get that this aggressive targeting of young (white) women is to blame, because their shows are virtually interchangeable. I attended the upfronts last year, and while the party was great, their presentation and schedule was a joke. Last year the buzz was 90210, this year, it’s Melrose Place, both remakes of shows from the 90s. What people don’t realize is that Gossip Girl’s numbers are pathetic, even in that targeted demo. GG’s “buzz” is all smoke and mirrors drummed up by some very hardworking PR people at the CW, and even in year 3 the formula is waning.
Posted 16 Apr 2009 at 6:23 pm ¶