List of Programs Broadcast By The WB - Supernatural/Sci Fi/Action

Supernatural/Sci Fi/Action

• Angel (1999–2004) – On February 14, 2004, the WB Network announced that Angel would not be brought back for a sixth season. The one-paragraph statement indicated that the news, which had been reported by an Internet site the previous day, had been leaked well before the network intended to make its announcement. Joss Whedon posted a message on a popular fan site, The Bronze: Beta, in which he expressed his dismay and surprise, saying he was "heartbroken" and compared it to a "healthy guy falling dead from a heart attack." Fan reaction was to organize letter-writing campaigns, online petitions, blood and food drives, advertisements in trade magazines and via mobile billboards, and attempts to lobby other networks (UPN was a favorite target, as it had already picked up Buffy). Outrage for the cancellation focused on Jordan Levin, WB's Head of Entertainment. It was the second highest-rated program to be canceled on the WB. Head writer David Fury "guarantees" that if Joss Whedon had not requested an early renewal, Angel would have been back for a Season 6: The only reason that Angel didn't come back...it's a very simple thing. Because our ratings were up, because of our critical attention, Joss specifically asked Jordan Levin, who was the head of The WB at the time, to give us an early pick-up because every year they wait so long to give Angel a pick-up a lot of us turn down jobs hoping that Angel will continue– he didn't want that to happen. So, he was feeling very confident and he just asked Jordan, "Like, make your decision now whether you're going to pick us up or not," and Jordan, sort of with his hands tied, with his back up against the wall, called him the next day and said, "Okay, we're cancelling you." Jordan's no longer there and The WB has since recognized...I believe Garth Ancier at The WB said that it was a big mistake to cancel Angel. There was a power play that happened that just didn't fall out the way they wanted it to. We wanted to get an early pick-up, we didn't. In fact we forced them to make a decision, and with his hand forced he made the decision to cancel us. I guarantee that, if we waited as we normally did, by the time May had come around they would have picked up Angel. I can guarantee that. Angel's final episode, "Not Fade Away", aired on the WB on May 19, 2004. The ambiguous final moments left some fans hoping for the continuation of Angel and the Buffyverse in the future, hopes that came to fruition in November 2007 with the publication of the first issue of the comic book series Angel: After the Fall. The series is Joss Whedon's official continuation of the Angel television series and follows in the footsteps of the comic book Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight, whose first issue was published in March 2007.

• Birds of Prey (2002) – Despite the series debut garnering ratings of 7.6 million viewers (at the time, the network's largest premier in the 18–34 demographic), the series was canceled after ratings fell sharply in subsequent weeks. Thirteen episodes were produced in total.

• Black Sash (2003) – It ran from March 30, 2003, to June 1, 2003. Including pilots, a total of eight episodes were made, however only six episodes were aired on The WB.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003, also on UPN) – Buffy the Vampire Slayer first aired on March 10, 1997, (as a mid season replacement for the show Savannah) on the WB network, and played a key role in the growth of the Warner Bros. television network in its early years. After five seasons, it transferred to the United Paramount Network (UPN) for its final two seasons. While the seventh season was still being broadcast, Sarah Michelle Gellar told Entertainment Weekly she was not going to sign on for an eighth year; "When we started to have such a strong year this year, I thought: 'This is how I want to go out, on top, at our best." Whedon and UPN gave some considerations to production of a spin-off series that would not require Gellar, including a rumored Faith series, but nothing came of those plans. As previously mentioned, Buffy helped put The WB on the ratings map, but by the time the series landed at UPN in 2001, viewing figures had fallen. Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a series high during the third season with 5.3 million viewers, this probably due to the fact that both Gellar and Hannigan had hit movies out during the season (Cruel Intentions and American Pie respectively) and a series low with 3.6 million during the seventh season. The show's series finale "Chosen" pulled in a season high of 4.9 million viewers on the UPN network. Buffy did not compete with shows on the big four networks (CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox), but The WB was impressed with the young audience that the show was bringing in. Because of this, The WB ordered a full season of 22 episodes for the series' second season. After the episode "Surprise", which was watched by 8.2 million people, Buffy was moved from Monday at 9 pm to launch The WB's new night of programming on Tuesday. Due to its large success in that time slot, it remained on Tuesdays at 8 pm for the remainder of its original run. With its new timeslot on The WB, the show quickly climbed to the top of The WB ratings and became one of their highest-rated shows for the remainder of its time on the network. The show always placed in the top 3, usually only coming in behind 7th Heaven. Between seasons three and five, Buffy flip-flopped with Dawson's Creek and Charmed as the network's second highest-rated show. In the 2001–2002 season, the show had moved to UPN after a negotiation dispute with The WB. While it was still one of their highest rated shows on their network, The WB felt that the show had already peaked and was not worth giving a salary increase to the cast and crew. UPN on the other hand, had strong faith in the series and quickly grabbed it along with Roswell. UPN dedicated a two-hour premiere to the series to help re-launch it.

• Charmed (1998–2006) – Charmed originally aired from October 7, 1998, until May 21, 2006, on the The WB Television Network. The first episode, "Something Wicca This Way Comes", garnered 7.70 million viewers, breaking the record for the highest rated debut for the Warner Brothers Network. In January 2006, producer Brad Kern declared that Charmed was the longest running hour-long series featuring all female leads (Murder, She Wrote ran for 12 seasons but only has a single female lead, and The Facts of Life ran for 9 seasons but was a 30-minute sitcom). However, this has now been surpassed by Desperate Housewives, which also ran for eight seasons but had 2 more episodes. The series finale, "Forever Charmed", ended with a season high of 4.5 million viewers. In 1998, the Warner Brothers Television Network began searching for a drama series, and looked to Spelling Television, which had produced the network's most successful series 7th Heaven, to create it. Expanding on the popularity of supernatural-themed dramas, the production company explored forms of mythology to find mythological characters they could realize with contemporary storytelling. In order to create the series, Burge was hired as the creator as she was under contract with 20th Century Fox and Spelling Television after conceiving the drama Savannah. When the theme of witchcraft was first pitched to her, she was aware of stereotypes of witches (flying brooms, black cats, and warts). After Wicca research, she changed her perspective and aimed at telling a story of good witches who looked and acted like ordinary people. With this, her initial concept was a series set in Boston, Massachusetts about three friends and roommates who were all witches. However, executive producer E. Duke Vincent lacked confidence, asking "Why would anybody want to watch a show about three witches?" He proposed that the series focus on family values and developed the series-long mantra of it being about "three sisters who happen to be witches, not three witches who happen to be sisters." Spelling warmed to Burge's ideas and, after the concept was re-crafted to be a series about three sisters (now living in San Francisco) descended from a line of witches, it was pitched to the Warner Brothers' Susanne Daniels, who liked it, allowing the series to begin development. The series was titled Charmed after Spelling's suggestion of House of Sisters was dropped. Burge wrote the pilot's script. They filmed a 28-minute version (the "unaired pilot", never aired on network television) with which the series was picked up by The WB. Upon its debut, Charmed received the largest audience for a series premiere in the network's history. The first season of twenty-two episodes was picked up by Warner Brothers after two shows aired. Charmed proved to be a success early on, with the series' premiere episode "Something Wicca This Way Comes" pulling in more than 7.9 million viewers. The show was ranked the #2 rated show on The WB network (tied with Dawson's Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) with an average of 6.18 million viewers per episode. The show was also extremely successful during its second season with an average of 5.75 million per episode and again tying with smashing Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the #2 slot; during the show's third season, it again placed first, with an average of 6.3 million viewers per episode.

• Dead Last (2001) – The series ran for one season with 13 episodes produced but only 8 of them aired. All 13 episodes were aired on YTV and all 13 episodes are often shown on the Trouble channel in the UK.

• Roswell (1999–2001, also on UPN) – The series premiered on October 6, 1999 on The WB Television Network in the United States to generally favorable reviews. Although it quickly gained an outspoken fanbase, the series ratings declined on and off which kept the show under constant threat of cancellation. In response to the problems the series had with ratings during its first season, The WB ordered the relationship-driven standalone episodes of the early first season to be replaced with more science fiction themes and multi-episode plot arcs. Starting with the second season, which was ordered by the network after a fierce fan-driven campaign involving bottles of Tabasco sauce—a favorite condiment of the show's alien characters—being sent to the network's offices, veteran science fiction writer Ronald D. Moore was brought in to join Katims as an executive producer and showrunner and to further develop the science fiction elements of the show. Not all fans responded favorably to the shift to more science fiction-driven storylines during the second season and the ratings continued to disappoint WB, causing the network to finally cancel the show on May 15, 2001, after the show's second season finale, a move widely anticipated due to the sagging ratings. 20th Century Fox (the studio that produced the show) was able to persuade UPN to pick it up for a third season as a package deal when UPN outbid The WB for one of its popular flagship series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. During the 2001 - 2002 television season, Roswell, in its third season, aired directly after Buffy on Tuesday nights on UPN, though it was unable to hold on to the audience Buffy provided as a lead-in. This eventually resulted in the show's cancellation from UPN as well. Roswell aired its final episode on May 14, 2002.

• Smallville (2001–2011, also on The CW) – The television series was initially broadcast by The WB Television Network (The WB), premiering on October 16, 2001. After Smallville's fifth season, The WB and UPN merged to form The CW Television Network, which became the broadcaster for the show in the United States. It ended its tenth and final season on May 13, 2011. The series was generally positively received when it began broadcasting. Former Superman star Christopher Reeve voiced his approval of the series, and the pilot episode broke the record for highest-rated debut for The WB, with 8.4 million viewers. Over ten seasons, it averaged approximately 4.34 million viewers per episode, with season two averaging the highest ratings, at 6.3 million. By the end of its run, Smallville had become the longest-running comic book-based series and longest-running North American science fiction series in television history. Smallville first premiered at 9:00 pm on Tuesday, October 16, 2001 on The WB. For the next five seasons the series was featured on The WB, and was moved from Tuesday nights at 9:00 pm to Wednesday nights at 8:00 pm, and eventually was changed to Thursday nights at 8:00 pm. In 2006, before the start of Smallville's sixth season, it was announced The WB and UPN would be merging into a single entity, The CW. Shortly after that, The CW announced Smallville would continue to be part of the television lineup. On May 21, 2009, it was announced Smallville would be returning to the 2009–2010 fall line-up for its ninth season, airing on Friday nights at 8:00 pm. On March 4, 2010, the CW announced Smallville had been renewed for a tenth season. Smallville also aired in Canada, and during its seventh season the series aired one day earlier than in the United States. Additionally, the series aired in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. By the end of its tenth season, Smallville became the longest-running science fiction television show in the United States, breaking the Guinness World Record held by Stargate SG-1. On August 10, 2011, it was announced that TNT will begin airing the series in syndication on October 3, 2011. Smallville's first accomplishment was breaking the record for highest rated debut for The WB, with 8.4 million viewers tuning in for its pilot. The premiere also broke The WB record for adults age 18–34, and finished first with viewers age 12–34, leading Warner Bros. President of Entertainment Jordan Levin to credit the series with invigorating the network's Tuesday night lineup. The series was featured on the cover of Entertainment Weekly as one of five new shows to watch. After its first season, Smallville placed sixth on the Parents Television Council's list of the "best shows for families". The WB's CEO Jordan Levin recognized early concerns that the show had become a villain of the week series, and announced season two would introduce "smaller mini-arcs over three to four episodes", to move away from the series becoming a "serialized show". Gough realized that although each succeeding season relied more on seasonal story arcs, there were occasions where they had to do villain of the week stories. It was clear the villain of the week stories were generally more criticized by fans of the Superman mythology. However, Gough wanted to be able to please both Superman fans and The WB's general audience, which consisted of teenagers who prefer the villain of the week stories over the episodes focusing more heavily on the Superman mythology.

• Supernatural (2005–present, also on The CW) – The pilot was viewed by an estimated 5.69 million viewers, and the ratings of the first four episodes prompted The WB to pick up the series for a full season. Originally, Eric Kripke planned the series for three seasons, but later expanded it to five. The fifth season began airing on September 10, 2009, and concluded the series' main storyline; however, The CW officially renewed the show for a sixth season on February 16, 2010. On April 26, 2011, the show was renewed for a seventh season for the 2011–2012 season, which began on September 23, 2011. On January 12, 2012, the series won the two awards at the People's Choice Awards, which includes Best Sci-Fi TV Series and Best Drama TV Series. On May 3, 2012, Supernatural was renewed for an 8th season by the CW with Jeremy Carver replacing Sera Gamble as co-showrunner with Robert Singer. After the first four episodes of Supernatural aired in 2005, the WB decided to pick up the series for a full season of 22 episodes. During those first episodes, the series was ranked third in males aged 18–34 and 12–34. It also posted an increase of 73% in males aged 18–49 from the year before, although it only gained 4% in total viewers, and retained 91% of viewers from its lead-in, Gilmore Girls. Supernatural had low ratings during its second season, with viewers consisting mainly of teen girls, and the CW trying to attract more male viewers. The show's future was in doubt at the end of the second season. Despite mediocre ratings in the previous year, it was back for a third season. Although its third season's rating were low, it did well with viewers aged 18–49. In this category, it ranked eighth of all returning series broadcast by a major network. The show received an early pickup for its fourth season. The shows ratings increased in its fourth season. The fourth season premiere aired on September 18, 2008, averaging its highest rating ever since its debut on The CW Network with 3.96 million viewers, a 33% surge over the season three premiere and a 1.7/5 in adults 18–49, up 42% from one year earlier. On October 16, 2008, the show was watched by 3.06 million viewers, making the lowest rating for the season. On October 30, 2008, the show climbed to its best performance in adults 18–34 (1.4/4), adults 18–49 (1.5/4) and total viewers (3.6mil) since its season premiere on September 18, 2008. For the fifth season premiere, viewership increased by 6% in women 18-34 (1.7/5) over the fourth season premiere. However, taking DVR viewings into account with new Live-Plus 7 Day data, total viewership for the premiere increased 38%, with women 18-34 increasing by 35% and adults 18-34 by 47%.

• Tarzan (2003) – The series premiered on October 5, 2003 and ended on November 23, 2003 with a total of 8 episodes.

• Vampire High (2002) – The series premiered on January 7, 2002 and ended on May 27, 2002 with an hour-long special.