city Dennis, county Miller: Celebs Rumors

Nexstar grew revenue 9.7% for the September quarter to $1.29 billion for the three months ended in September, as the new CW owner cited growth in political advertising, distribution and digital revenue.

Bill Belichick’s post-New England Patriots dance card is filling up.

CW President Dennis Miller acknowledges the revamped network must still “prove ourselves” to local affiliates, which are still “absorbing” the amount of change.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter It’s been less than two years since the close of Nexstar’s acquisition of The CW and the network’s primetime slate could not look more different. In addition to the broadcaster’s shifted focus to sports, unscripted fare and foreign imports/co-productions, The CW will soon be getting into the original TV movie business.

The CW Network is adding to its sports offerings, announcing today that it will be the broadcast home for 11 Pac-12 football games featuring Oregon State and Washington State during the upcoming 2024 season.

Brad Schwartz, President of Entertainment at The CW, has “ambitious” goals.

Adam Sandler is teaming up with his Uncut Gems director Benny Safdie on a new comedy special for Netflix.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter WWE‘s weekly NXT show is heading to The CW. NXT, which serves as a showcase for WWE’s developmental talent, currently airs on USA Network but will move to CW in October 2024 in a new five-year deal. NXT will air weekly throughout the year on CW, marking the first time the show has aired on broadcast television since it launched its weekly format in 2012.

The CW will become the official broadcast home of WWE NXT in a new five-year deal that will see the showcase for WWE’s up-and-coming stars move from USA Network in October of 2024.

Carole Horst Writer/director David Ferino’s feature directorial debut, “Wardcliffe,” starring Joel McKinnon Miller (“The Staircase,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” “Big Love”) and Shane Coffey (“Pretty Little Liars,” “Good Girls”). Inspired by real events, Ferino’s script takes place over the course of a single day as Dennis (Miller) and his son Ronnie (Coffey) quarantine together during the 2020 pandemic lockdown. Decades of tension escalate to a boiling point when the two find themselves confined inside.

The CW systematically stripped away its superhero dramas and teen-centric soaps during the 2022-23 television season, taking the foundation of its primetime programming slate down to the studs. Now comes the reveal of a renovation that leans heavily on niche sports, noisy unscripted series, procedural dramas and broad-skewing comedies. The change comes a year after Texas-based Nexstar Media Group acquired a majority stake in The CW from its founders, CBS and Warner Bros.

The CW and Sinclair Broadcast Group have reached an affiliate renewal deal spanning 35 markets, including the launch of the broadcast network on stations in Seattle and Pittsburgh.

The CW Network and NFL Films have set a cast of former football stars for the upcoming season of the Emmy-winning weekly studio series Inside the NFL.

Ethan Shanfeld The CW’s “Nancy Drew” aired its final episode on Wednesday, following last year’s news that Season 4 of the detective series would be its last. At the time, showrunners Noga Landau and Melinda Hsu Taylor said they were “full of gratitude, knowing that we were able to bring this chapter to a close with intentionality,” but executive producer Larry Teng is telling a different story.

Dennis Miller, who took the helm of The CW after Nexstar Media Group bought majority control of it last fall, has been re-upped as president of the broadcast network through 2027.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Dennis Miller has extended his contract as president of the CW Network through 2027. Miller (pictured above left) joined the network as president in October 2022, following its acquisition by Nexstar Media Group from Paramount Global and Warner Bros.

The CW is expanding its live sports portfolio with the NASCAR Xfinity Series, composed mainly of young up-and-coming drivers. The network will become the exclusive home to the series beginning in 2025 and extending through the 2031 racing season.

Atlantic Coast Conference college football and basketball games are heading to The CW. The network announced today it has secured exclusive broadcast rights to 50 games each season through 2026-27. The CW acquired the rights from Raycom Sports who sublicenses the rights from ESPN.

The CW continues it push into sports.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter “Inside the NFL” officially has a new home, with the long-running sports show now set to air on The CW. The 47th season of the series will begin airing on The CW on Sept. 5 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, marking the first time the show has aired on a broadcast network. It will also be available to stream on The CW app and website. The show comes to The CW from Paramount+, which aired it from 2021-2023. Per The CW, new hosts and producers for the new season will be announced at a later date. “We are excited to partner with NFL Films and welcome ‘Inside the NFL’ to the CW Sports family,” said Dennis Miller, president of The CW. “For almost five decades, ‘Inside the NFL’ has been an industry leader in showcasing can’t-miss weekly highlights, unprecedented behind-the-scenes content, exclusive access to players and lively discussion. By combining this premiere NFL content with our robust broadcast audience, we look forward to bringing this legendary sports series to more fans than ever before and to advertisers for the first time.”

After living on cable for decades, “Inside the NFL” is coming to broadcast thanks to The CW. Starting this fall, the network will be the weekly sports show’s broadcast and streaming home.“Inside the NFL,” which is about to enter its 47th season, will debut on The CW Tuesday, September 5 at 8/7c p.m. Episodes will be available to stream on The CW app and on cwtv.com.

Dana Carvey!The “Saturday Night Live” funnyman and “Fly On The Wall” podcast host is embarking on his brief ‘The Faces. The Characters.

The CW that audiences see when they tune in this fall won’t look like the CW of years past – but it also won’t look like the CW that new owner Nexstar actually intends to offer consumers moving forward.In a move similar to its broadcast competition, the CW released a fall schedule meant to be practically immune to the effects of the ongoing writers strike. It’s an acquisition-heavy lineup that’s a mix of comedies (Canadian sitcoms including “Children Ruin Everything” and “Run the Burbs”), dramas (former AMC series “61st Street”) and unscripted fare (the salvaged HBO Max hit “FBoy Island”). The only potential hiccup would be a strike-related production delay for “All American,” one of two CW shows that new network president Dennis Miller and entertainment president Brad Schwartz have decided to keep moving forward.As much as Schwartz doesn’t like the perception that there is anything wrong with an acquisition, he and Miller told Variety that isn’t the center of their scheduling strategy, but rather a path they had to take this first year because of production uncertainties.Here, Variety speaks with Schwartz and Miller about the network’s plans for adult dramas, programming to Black audiences following the success of “All American,” going hard on unscripted with “FBoy Island,” and the path to making the former Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery-owned channel profitable for Nexstar.

“This is not exactly the show we expected to do today,” said Warner Bros Discovery ad boss Jon Steinlauf in opening his company’s second Upfronts presentation as a merged company.

The CW held its first upfront week meeting with the press since the Nexstar acquisition closed last year, presenting a schedule heavy on foreign acquisitions and unscripted fare. Brad Schwartz, president of entertainment for The CW, took questions after the presentation alongside network president Dennis Miller. They laid out their plans for the network going into its new era, how the acquisitions play into their overall strategy, and the future of scripted development at the network. Read on for Variety‘s takeaways from the event. Superheroes Flying Off into the Sunset?

Nexstar CEO Perry Sook says the Hollywood community has “responded” to the company’s overhaul of The CW, and sports rights conversations have been “steady” since the company started airing LIV Golf this year.

The CW has tapped Roku Senior Director Ashley Hovey as its first chief digital officer, the network announced Tuesday.Hovey, who will begin responsibilities for the newly created role April 17, will oversee business strategy and day-to-day operations of the network’s digital operations and streaming platforms. She will report to The CW Network president Dennis Miller.After serving in roles across the entertainment industry at Comcast, where she served as senior director of advertising strategy and development, as well as British Telecom and Nielsen, Hovey joins the network from Roku, where she spent five years overseeing ad-supported business for The Roku Channel, encompassing both on-demand and FAST channel content as well as audience engagement and growth.In her role as a senior director at Roku, Hovey is credited with building and managing the Kids and Family, FAST, Music and Espacio Latino businesses, as well as driving overall partner strategy and monetization.“We are thrilled to have an all-star digital business strategist like Ashley Hovey join our senior leadership team,” Miller said in a statement. “Ashley is a trailblazer who knows what it takes to build a successful entertainment brand from the ground up and we look forward to having her play a vital role in helping us expand and monetize The CW Network’s digital footprint.”The CW App, which has logged over 92 million downloads to date, features the network’s primetime programming, livestream of sports content and other on-demand TV and film content.

The CW Network has named Ashley Hovey chief digital officer, a newly created position, starting April l7 reporting to President Dennis Miller.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The CW network has tapped Roku exec Ashley Hovey as the broadcaster’s first-ever chief digital officer. Per the the Nexstar-owned CW, in this new role, Hovey will be responsible for overseeing the business strategy and day-to-day operations of the network’s digital operations and OTT streaming platforms, including the CW App. An AVOD platform, the CW App has over 92 million downloads to date and serves as home of new episodes and seasons of the CW’s primetime programs, live streaming of its sports content and on-demand library. Hovey, who most recently served as senior director of the ad-supported business for The Roku Channel (TRC), including both on-demand and FAST channel content, will begin her duties at the CW April 17. She will report to Dennis Miller, president of the CW.

Well this is something: All of the CW affiliates have agreed to air the 2023 LIV Golf League season. The network made it official today by announcing the first official full season of the Saudi-backed golf will air on 100% of the CW affiliates, as well as Nexstar owned and operated stations in key markets including Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Tampa and Hartford.

The CW has a new business affairs boss.

EXCLUSIVE: Before Nexstar appointed former Pop TV boss Brad Schwartz as President of Entertainment at The CW earlier this month, there was much talk that the network would bulk up its unscripted slate.

As Nexstar announced Wednesday morning, former Pop TV president Brad Schwartz is returning to the network executive ranks as President of Entertainment at The CW. Reporting to new CW president Dennis Miller, he will be starting at the network in two weeks as he winds down his current role as CEO of The Capra Project, a startup entertainment venture focused on “authentic stories of family, faith, joy and hope” which was launched last year with investment from Lionsgate, UTA, Blumhouse and Tyler Perry.

EXCLUSIVE: As the dust has settled on the wave of layoffs that hit the CW yesterday, we are hearing more names of senior executives in multiple areas who were impacted.

Brad Schwartz has been officially named as President, CW Entertainment.

Less than a month after Nexstar Media closed a deal to take 75% ownership of The CW, the broadcast network has been hit with dozens of layoffs.