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The CW Network may no longer be the CW that Gen X and Millennials knew and loved, but it’s still sticking with its original name — no matter how far its current programming and strategy continues to stray from its “Riverdale” and Arrowverse roots.
“If there were three pages of strategy, [a rebrand] not on any of those pages,” CW network president Brad Schwartz told Variety on April 29. Prior to joining the CW in 2022 as head of entertainment following its acquisition by Nexstar, Schwartz’s last gig was as the top exec at Pop TV (formerly TV Guide Network), the small cabler responsible for the big hit “Schitt’s Creek.”
“I’ve rebranded a lot of networks. I have a lot of experience with it, Pop TV being the most recent one,” Schwartz said. “You know, give me $100 million of marketing, and maybe there’s a conversation to be had about changing the name, because you need to go tell everybody about this thing that they’ve never heard of. What’s a little easier is, we have something that everyone’s heard of and we’re just trying to make it mean something different to you. And in a very short amount of time, we have brought a whole bunch of new people to the CW, and the CW now means something different to them.”
Schwartz has been faced with the rebrand question ever since he joined the Nexstar-led team taking over the CW from former owners Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery. For a long time, he and Dennis Miller (who stepped down as president of the network in October 2024, making way for Schwartz’s promotion) said no. And now, just ahead of broadcast TV’s traditional upfronts week in New York City, Schwartz is underlining that no.
“Our path right now is just to make the CW mean something different than it has in the past, as opposed to rebrand,” Schwartz said. “There is no plan to rebrand.”
Schwartz uses the example of how the CW has approached promoting its run of the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which has included developing new graphics, hiring new talent and producing the sporting event differently. “We’re taking ownership of this thing. And the social media people have really, really respected our production of those races, and that now makes us mean something different to them,” Schwartz said. “And so the path that we are taking is making the CW just mean something bigger and broader and impact people locally.”
“Go sports!” is a big new theme for Nexstar’s CW, which has grown to include more than 400 hours of live sports programming annually this year, or more than 40% of the CW’s total programming hours. This includes, but is not limited to, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, ACC football and basketball, ADP volleyball, HBCU all-star basketball, PAC 12 football, and WWE’s “NXT.”
On its most recent quarterly earnings call last week, Nexstar executives boasted the fact that the January-March period marked the CW’s strongest primetime performance in eight quarters. That was in large part due to WWE’s “NXT,” which a 19% increase in audience versus last year’s first quarter results on cable.
“If you look at the mix from a network perspective that we’ve orchestrated at the CW, scripted entertainment programming comprises the lower percent of the total hours of primetime and total hours programmed by the network,” Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said during the May 8 call aimed at analysts and investors. “That wasn’t just to cut costs, it was to mirror more what the television audience is looking to consume, which is live programming, event programming and sports programming.”
While Nexstar remains focused on turning the CW into a profitable network (something the broadcaster never was under its previous owners), Sook says: “We’re not abandoning scripted we’re just evolving the programming mix to represent marketplace realities.”
As it has for the past few years under Nexstar leadership, the CW is foregoing a splashy upfront presentation to advertisers in New York this week in favor of closed-door meetings and more intimate sales pitches to Madison Avenue regarding its plans for its 2025-2026 schedule. With no schedule yet released, there are a few questions about what’s going to make the cut beyond all those slots filled up by sports — the biggest being what is the future for “All American,” the network’s last remaining show from the former CW era.
“We rebooted that show this year,” Schwartz said, noting the changes made to the long-running CW show. “A lot of the main cast went off and we brought some new people into the show. You never know how that’s going to go. ‘Friday Night Lights’ did it a couple times. You never know how that chemistry is going to be and how the show is going to perform. And it has been absolutely amazing in this past year. It started off a little slow, and then people have really come to attach themselves to this new cast. And social media has been great, and it’s been building. It’s been surprising how well this rebooted.”
Following last week’s season finale, Schwartz says that the CW is in talks with “All American” studio Warner Bros. TV now regarding a potential renewal for what would be “one final season to let it go out the way it should,” but no decisions have been made.
Looking beyond any one program, Schwartz’s top mission is to reach the point where the CW is truly held in the same regard as broadcast competitors ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. That strategy doesn’t include Schwartz’s need to find the next “Schitt’s Creek” to bring him the same critical acclaim he’s received in the past.
“Our goal is for you to no longer call it the Big Four [networks], but call it the Big Five,” Schwartz said. “And for us, we need to play in the broadest way possible. Now that doesn’t mean that sometimes huge shows aren’t also prestigious and get awards but I think for us, right now, we’re trying to build shows that are easy for people to find, easy for people to watch. So broad procedurals that broadcast has done forever, those tend not to win awards usually. So no, I don’t think prestige TV is something we’re aiming for. Streaming does such a good job of owning that space, being digital and no commercials and all that kind of stuff. We’re focused on trying to to program things that just capture as many people as possible.”
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