CW Chief on Network’s Changing Demo: ‘I’m Just Happy to Have Viewers’

TCA 2014: Mark Pedowitz says CW won’t go down a “genre hole”

Mark Pedowitz
CW chief Mark Pedowitz said the network hopes to keep broadening its audience — and isn’t worried about losing its reputation as a haven for young women.
“I’m just happy to have viewers,” he said at a Television Critics Association panel Friday.
The home of “Gossip Girl” has made a play for men in recent seasons with shows like “Arrow” and “Who’s Line Is It, Anyway?” It announced Friday that it has ordered 24 new episodes of the improvisational comedy show. It also hopes to reach more men with the “Arrow” spinoff “The Flash,” and to reach Latino audiences with the telenovela-inspired “Jane the Virgin,” about a woman whose life is turned upside-down when she is accidentally artificially inseminated.
Pedowitz said it is trying recover male viewers it lost with the end of “Smallville.” Though the network has gained traction with its DC Comics-based superhero shows, and its longest-serving show is the fantasy-tinged “Supernatural,” Pedowitz says the network takes care not to go “down a genre whole” and become known as a “genre network as opposed to a broadcast network.”
He said the network was flexible enough in the way it sells ads to accommodate both young women and a broader audience. “I am thrilled that Captain Kirk tweets, and I’ve actually received a couple of tweets,” he said.
Does his audience know who Shatner is? the reporter asked.

“I believe, based on the broadening out of my audience, they’re aware of who William Shatner is,” Pedowitz said.

Thought the CW has a smaller network than the other broadcasters, its focus on genre makes for sometimes very dedicated fans. They included one reporter who asked three separate “Beauty and the Beast” questions throughout the panel.
“Would you like me to send you the box set?” Pedowitz joked.

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