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Long the network for teenage girls, a turn is made toward crime fighters and comedy in push for male viewers
STRATEGY: Count on Arrow spinoff The Flash to draw men to the network, while premiering Whose Line in the fall and keeping a seat warm for another comedy from digital unit CW Seed.
Already a home to vampires, demon hunters and costumed vigilantes,The CW is banking on even more genre programming and a smattering of comedy to help shed what president Mark Pedowitz called its "OMFG image" at the net's upfront presentation May 15.
"You might have noticed, we're a very different CW than we were a few years back," Pedowitz said. "When I first started here in 2011, the perception was we were the Gossip Girl network." Pedowitz touted the network's recent growth-both in hours of original programming aired and in audience.This season in most current Nielsen ratings (live-plus-seven-day, and
live-plus-same-day for the two most recent weeks) The CW is averaging a 0.8 among adults 18-49, up from a 0.7 in each of the two prior seasons. The network is currently averaging 1.9 million viewers versus 1.8 million in 2012-13 and 1.7 million in 2011-12.
"We needed to expand our reach to a bigger and wider group while still...