Upfronts 2022: The CW Downsizes As It Faces Transitional Year Amid Ownership Change & Business Strategy Shift

deadline.com:

When the dust settled after a frantic day today, the CW was left with 11 original scripted series — new and returning — on tap for next season.

That is down from from 19 (including Stargirl whose future is unclear) picked up for the 2021-22 season last year.While there is contraction across the board on linear networks, the drop at the CW is significant and follows years of expansion that resulted in the network adding two extra nights of original programing on Sundays and Saturdays and also years of the CW rubber-stamping its scripted portfolio with the vast majority of series automatically returning regardless of their ratings performance.That all came to an end this year, ahead of the CW’s pending sale to Nexstar.

Only the strongest ratings performers made the cut, and there were a slew of cancellations, including same painful ones like veteran DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Vampire Diaries offshoot Legacies and freshman Naomi.In the biggest transformation in the history of the CW since Mark Pedowitz took the reins 11 years ago and turned the fledgling female-focused CW into a gender-balanced network with a thriving superhero franchise, the net is fundamentally changing the way it operates and makes decisions.Having functioned as an extension of its parent companies’ studios, Warner Bros.

TV and CBS TV Studios, the CW’s role had been to help launch series which the two studios can exploit in streaming and international.