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WB knows its teens

Deirdre Dolan

First published November 2 in the National Post.

Launched in 1994, the Warner Brothers' USA cable-only network has swiftly grown in popularity amongst certain sectors of the population.

Dawson's Creek had the highest debut in the history of the network.
In the increasingly insignificant world of network television, only one showed audience growth last season. As viewers defected to cable in droves, and network execs prayed openly for a miracle, WB, home of the dancing frog, sat back and watched its numbers leap 20%. Blame it on the zeitgeist, blame it on marketing, WB is doing something right. The season premiere of Dawson's Creek, an hour-long drama in which sexually blase 16-year-olds in tank tops discuss masturbation, delivered the highest-rated debut in the five-year history of the network, momentously beating out Fox network's old faithful, Beverly Hills, 90210, the cornerstone of its former teen franchise.
Television experts believe that, in a TV universe fragmented into hundreds of niche channels, a big part of a network executive's job has become generating new strategies to convince the public to tune in. In the past, programmers have logically assumed the easy money was in broad-focus programming, with shows that appeal to every member of the family, maybe even at the same time. But WB's success is proving teenagers are the real ticket. Advertisers already know older people watch tons of TV; it's the youngsters they're after now. Kids who don't want to watch what their parents are watching, who are as likely to watch a video or get online during the money-making primetime hours.
"The future of marketing in our country is to attack the younger demographics," said WB chief executive Jamie Mellner. And these days the little network that could, home to rating-grabbers Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Seventh Heaven is the most watched among teen viewers. The most popular show among teenage girls? Dawson's Creek.
"We know who our audience is and it allows us to focus all of our developing of programming, marketing and PR specifically to 12 to 34 year olds," explains WB marketing VP Brad Terell. "That gives us a tremendous advantage because that group represents 84 million people who watch more TV than any other sector with the exception of 65+, and advertisers aren't interested in them anyway."

cory the vampire slayer [sub: check]
Sarah Michelle Gellar, star of Cory the Vampire Slayer
Advertisers paid more than $200,000 for a 30-second commercial during the season finale of Dawson's Creek last May, and WB has raised the rent for this season's big hopeful, Felicity. Turell said it was the success of Titanic that provided the insight that 12- to 34-year-olds, specifically teenage girls, are no longer the commercially insignificant category once believed to be (My So Called Life might have even had a shot in today's market).
"In markets like New York and LA, we were getting 70% viewership, and that happened at the same time Titanic was being fuelled in its second and third rounds by female teens between 12 and 34," said Turell. "Titanic gave credibility to our audience, whereas Dawson and Buffy gave credibility to the network. From there, you go to Felicity and Charmed and you start getting respect. Fox experienced the same thing with The Simpsons, Living Color and 90210."
Before launching the frog network, the top five senior managers at WB were the top five senior managers at Fox. Launching Fox taught them a golden rule, said Kellner: "We learned young people are most open to trying new things and calling it their own."
Once the networks caught the wave that 13-year-olds provide big business, all they needed was an appealing formula. They found it. Dawson's Creek and Felicity are full of characters who can express every single one of the ten feelings they're having, who don't appear to have an unconcious moment. This is appealing to kids in junior high who are hyper aware of their feelings, but less prone to the loud and constant analysis. The language and dialogue in these shows touch the same emotional nerve as the writing of perennial teen-lit favorites Judy Blume and S.E. Hinton.

Dawson's Creek and Felicity, the only TV shows anyone seems to be talking about this season.
The transitional, groundbreaking example of this new kind of show was Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, a show about high school that pretends to be about monsters. Because the real subject of the show, the nightmare of high school, was coded, the creator Joss Whedon was able to tackle the emotionally ripe subject matter without worrying the network. "The idea for the show was that becoming a slayer is about finding out the world is just bigger than you," said Whedon. "And that period in adolescence is one of longing and isolation to such a great extent that it touches, I think, everybody. And also it's a period of real fear, which is where I think all the monsters come from in the show. They're designed to be reflections of genuine adolescent angst."
Buffy paved the way for Dawson's Creek and Felicity, the only TV shows anyone seems to be talking about this season. The characters in Felicity, college freshmen in New York City, are so completely articulated it's frightening. There are no codes or metaphors, very little happens, everything is exactly what it appears to be. Of the show he created, J.J. Abrams said, "we have characters that we experience at their core. We experience them from the inside out."

related:
felicity
leo's backlash
The new guard at Fox has certainly had its share of recent successes -- Ally McBeal is the most successful show in Canada -- but it is no longer with its original, hard-earned audience. That audience and those advertisers are being lost to WB. In the meantime, Fox makes millions from such reality shows as When Good Pets Turn Bad and Magician's Secrets Revealed, but they haven't had a live-action comedy hit since Married...With Children 10 years ago. Four weeks into the current fall season, Fox had either cancelled or shelved five of their fall shows: That 70's Show, Costello, Getting Personal, Living in Captivity and Holding the Baby. There's a slim chance Holding the Baby and Living in Captivity will return in December, but the rest have ceased production in an effort to cut already huge losses.
The few creative efforts Fox has made to reclaim their original audience, "rejuvenating" the cast of 90210 with such has-beens as Luke I-don't-look-a-day-over-38 Perry and Melrose Place's Laura Leighton, merely baffle. Do the powers that be actually think we live in an era where people care about Luke Perry? The decision Fox faces is whether it is willing to relinquish the teen audience to WB entirely, and rely on their embarrassing cash cows, or come up with a second act.

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Create: Feb 9 99


	Dawson's Creek had the highest debut in the history of the network.	In the increasingly insignificant world of network television, only one showed audience growth last season. As viewers defected to cable in droves, and network execs prayed openly for a miracle, WB, home of the dancing frog, sat back and watched its numbers leap 20%. Blame it on the zeitgeist, blame it on marketing, WB is doing something right. The season premiere of Dawson's Creek, an hour-long drama in which sexually blase 16-year-olds in tank tops discuss masturbation, delivered the highest-rated debut in the five-year history of the network, momentously beating out Fox network's old faithful, Beverly Hills, 90210, the cornerstone of its former teen franchise. Television experts believe that, in a TV universe fragmented into hundreds of niche channels, a big part of a network executive's job has become generating new strategies to convince the public to tune in. In the past, programmers have logically assumed the easy money was in broad-focus programming, with shows that appeal to every member of the family, maybe even at the same time. But WB's success is proving teenagers are the real ticket. Advertisers already know older people watch tons of TV; it's the youngsters they're after now. Kids who don't want to watch what their parents are watching, who are as likely to watch a video or get online during the money-making primetime hours. "The future of marketing in our country is to attack the younger demographics," said WB chief executive Jamie Mellner. And these days the little network that could, home to rating-grabbers Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Seventh Heaven is the most watched among teen viewers. The most popular show among teenage girls? Dawson's Creek. "We know who our audience is and it allows us to focus all of our developing of programming, marketing and PR specifically to 12 to 34 year olds," explains WB marketing VP Brad Terell. "That gives us a tremendous advantage because that group represents 84 million people who watch more TV than any other sector with the exception of 65+, and advertisers aren't interested in them anyway."
	Sarah Michelle Gellar, star of Cory the Vampire Slayer	Advertisers paid more than $200,000 for a 30-second commercial during the season finale of Dawson's Creek last May, and WB has raised the rent for this season's big hopeful, Felicity. Turell said it was the success of Titanic that provided the insight that 12- to 34-year-olds, specifically teenage girls, are no longer the commercially insignificant category once believed to be (My So Called Life might have even had a shot in today's market). "In markets like New York and LA, we were getting 70% viewership, and that happened at the same time Titanic was being fuelled in its second and third rounds by female teens between 12 and 34," said Turell. "Titanic gave credibility to our audience, whereas Dawson and Buffy gave credibility to the network. From there, you go to Felicity and Charmed and you start getting respect. Fox experienced the same thing with The Simpsons, Living Color and 90210." Before launching the frog network, the top five senior managers at WB were the top five senior managers at Fox. Launching Fox taught them a golden rule, said Kellner: "We learned young people are most open to trying new things and calling it their own." Once the networks caught the wave that 13-year-olds provide big business, all they needed was an appealing formula. They found it. Dawson's Creek and Felicity are full of characters who can express every single one of the ten feelings they're having, who don't appear to have an unconcious moment. This is appealing to kids in junior high who are hyper aware of their feelings, but less prone to the loud and constant analysis. The language and dialogue in these shows touch the same emotional nerve as the writing of perennial teen-lit favorites Judy Blume and S.E. Hinton.
	Dawson's Creek and Felicity, the only TV shows anyone seems to be talking about this season.	The transitional, groundbreaking example of this new kind of show was Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, a show about high school that pretends to be about monsters. Because the real subject of the show, the nightmare of high school, was coded, the creator Joss Whedon was able to tackle the emotionally ripe subject matter without worrying the network. "The idea for the show was that becoming a slayer is about finding out the world is just bigger than you," said Whedon. "And that period in adolescence is one of longing and isolation to such a great extent that it touches, I think, everybody. And also it's a period of real fear, which is where I think all the monsters come from in the show. They're designed to be reflections of genuine adolescent angst." Buffy paved the way for Dawson's Creek and Felicity, the only TV shows anyone seems to be talking about this season. The characters in Felicity, college freshmen in New York City, are so completely articulated it's frightening. There are no codes or metaphors, very little happens, everything is exactly what it appears to be. Of the show he created, J.J. Abrams said, "we have characters that we experience at their core. We experience them from the inside out."
	related: felicity leo's backlash	The new guard at Fox has certainly had its share of recent successes -- Ally McBeal is the most successful show in Canada -- but it is no longer with its original, hard-earned audience. That audience and those advertisers are being lost to WB. In the meantime, Fox makes millions from such reality shows as When Good Pets Turn Bad and Magician's Secrets Revealed, but they haven't had a live-action comedy hit since Married...With Children 10 years ago. Four weeks into the current fall season, Fox had either cancelled or shelved five of their fall shows: That 70's Show, Costello, Getting Personal, Living in Captivity and Holding the Baby. There's a slim chance Holding the Baby and Living in Captivity will return in December, but the rest have ceased production in an effort to cut already huge losses. The few creative efforts Fox has made to reclaim their original audience, "rejuvenating" the cast of 90210 with such has-beens as Luke I-don't-look-a-day-over-38 Perry and Melrose Place's Laura Leighton, merely baffle. Do the powers that be actually think we live in an era where people care about Luke Perry? The decision Fox faces is whether it is willing to relinquish the teen audience to WB entirely, and rely on their embarrassing cash cows, or come up with a second act.