Yes, I’m sure the success of Twilight played heavily into the decision to pick-up Diaries. I’m not arguing that. I’m just arguing the “rip-off” part. It’s kind of like when Lord of the Rings movies came out and Harry Potter fans were accusing them of copying ideas from Rowlings…

Now, they do sell ads closer to the air date and those are called scatter inventory. Broadcasters hold back, on average, 10% to 15% of time normally sold in the upfront for Scatter inventory. On average those Scatter prices are mid to high digit percentages above the upfront ad rates.

On other nights of the week the difference between the CW show ad rates and the other networks ad rates are sometimes more than 6x higher.

Oh, Supernatural has the lowest ad rates for the CW and Vampire Diaries only gets about $5,000 more per ad then Smallville.

On the other hand Tuesdays has picked up with CBS’s NCIS:LA, and now ABC’s Lost will air directly aganist it.

Except the part where The Vampire Diaries is based on a book series that was written before Twilight…

Also Smallville was beating VD last season for a good bit and seasons before, lets see if the TVD can last 9 seasons and still pull them ratings, I seriously doubt it!

Yes they can sell different ad for each individual program (I don’t think anyone ever said they couldn’t), but advertisers in general pay more for the adult 18-34 then the adult 18-49, and that more then the 25-54, and that more then the the 50+ demo (that you never, never hear about).

Its the reason that a show on CBS can have 15 million viewers and the Office with half its audience total still brings in far, far more revenue.

Trust me if Smallville and SN (their two biggest scripted guns for the two previous seasons) were bringing in the most viewer for viewer ad dollars then the CW would have been all over them.

I’ve been saying this since they launched several years ago. Unfortunately Veronica Mars or Reaper would fit very well with the current CW slate… too bad they were a bit too early. Or rather, CW was a bit too slow to figure out what made The WB work back in the day.

While I agree with you that the old WB had the better of the primetime programs, UPN actually beat the WB in viewership (however limited it may have been). Unfortuantely, whatever viewership UPN got came from urban (i.e., African American) comedies, Trekkies, and WWE fans. America’s Next Top Model was actually somewhat of a uber-successful fluke for UPN, and Veronica Mars was a WB-type show on the wrong network. The problem with the merger of UPN and the WB into the CW was that it was the UPN management which oversaw the merger, and they mismanaged or jettisoned much of the successful WB programs. They also moved their urban comedy block to Sunday nights, where it got killed by the other networks. And while WWE Friday Night Smackdown was still a huge ratings grabber for the CW, it skewed heavily male and lower-income, so it was no longer a good fit for rest of the programming which was aimed at the 18-34 primarily female demo.

Smallville, Supernatural, and Gossip Girl are the only shows that have any hope of crossover appeal. GG is safe because it’s strong with women; the other two are on tenterhooks because they skew male. Bad thing on a network like this.

Smallville is the No. 1 series on Fridays 8pm in male demos, and so its advertising slots reflect that. You get banking ads, car ads and insurance ads, even viagra ones, that aren’t broadcast on the CW on any other day.

Why doesn’t TVbytheNumbers acknowledge this? It’s a contemporary practice originating from cable.

Then comes TVD which goes in a competitive slot and scores impressive numbers for a freshman show without any lead-in. That’s a success for the CW, especially in W18-34 numbers, which are VERY important to their success.

People complained about Smallville moving to Friday as though the CW was trying to kill it. Newsflash… if they wanted to kill it they could have. CBS cancels shows that pull 11-12 million viewers if they have low demos. CW moved a show that used to be a big hitter to a night that they have trouble with. It did well. They WANTED IT TO! If they wanted to “kill” smallville they’d have just canceled it… which they easily could have done. The same applies when they eventually ship Supernatural to Fridays. It won’t be because they want it dead, it’s because it is a natural fit with Smallville — and would help them build that night as a M18-34, M18-49 destination.

Dawn Ostroff may be moronic… but she has no AGENDA with Smallville.

TVD may be crap (and it is…) but the ratings for it are not — at least for CW standards.

As for now, CW should recognize that their newest successes appear to be shows that aren’t pretty 20-something sluts backstabbing each other. People will flock to CW to see more shows like Buffy, Felicity, Dawson’s Creek, Gilmore Girls, etc… and with Life Unexpected and The Vampire Diaries (which may suck, just not as hard as Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, 90210, etc) they’ve proven that the old WB formula works… and they need to program accordingly to get viewers.

I’ve been saying this since they launched several years ago. Unfortunately Veronica Mars or Reaper would fit very well with the current CW slate… too bad they were a bit too early. Or rather, CW was a bit too slow to figure out what made The WB work back in the day.

Right now they need to start getting show-runners that know how to tell a freakin story — and allow them to hire actors who aren’t just pretty — but can act as well. It isn’t hard… WB did it all the time.

Seriously, how many big actors did the WB create? How many will be remembered from what the CW has given us? The kids on Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, etc… they’re all one trick ponies. They’ll be forgotten in 5-10 years.

Now here comes all the fanboys and girls rushing out to tell me how great Blake Lively and Chad Michael Murray are at acting — and how one particular episode of OTH or GG just showed how amazingly talented they are. Excuse me, I just threw up in my mouth.