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What We Lose When We Lose the CW

It’s amazing that the linear network lasted as long as it did. But in this Peak TV era, it’s worth analyzing how the growth of streaming necessarily comes with contraction elsewhere, and, most importantly, who wins and who loses in the process.

Greg Berlanti
Photo by Gregg DeGuire/Getty
Matthew Belloni
January 18, 2022

For months, Greg Berlanti and his WME agents braced for the inevitable. As the producer of CW shows like Arrow and All American, Berlanti knew the network was for sale, so when the news finally broke on Jan. 5, he wasn’t blindsided. But he wasn’t exactly thrilled, either. Berlanti has built a half-billion-dollar business at that network—with, at one point, an insane-sounding ten series on the air or greenlit there. His current $400 million-plus deal with Warner Bros. Television, signed in 2018, was premised in part on placing shows at the CW, which is co-owned by Warner Bros. and CBS. Berlanti is part of a group of writer-producers—Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, Julie Plec, Kevin Williamson, etc.—who have made fortunes shepherding young adult and genre series onto a unique and lucrative conveyor belt through the TV business.