CW's Scripted Death is Writer Hell
I talk to Greg Berlanti, Julie Plec and Mark Pedowitz about the burst pipeline under new owner Nexstar: 'There was nothing I didn't learn there'
Lesley Goldberg reports from L.A. She recently interviewed CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach and wrote about the new “blinking yellow light” hell of TV development.
In 1998, a then-unknown writer by the name of Greg Berlanti got his first job in television when a friend from college, Julie Plec, hired him to be a staff writer on The WB Network’s Dawson’s Creek. Berlanti, who at the time was struggling to break into the creative community, would famously go on to rise through the ranks and become the teen drama’s showrunner a mere two years later.
Berlanti’s experience would ultimately stand as a model for the network that became The CW in 2006, when corporate parents CBS Studios and Warner Bros. TV formed a joint venture (C plus W, combining CBS’ limping UPN network with The WB) in hopes of creating a fifth major broadcast destination targeting younger audiences. By 2019, Berlanti was the executive producer on more than half of The CW’s primetime slate and had a record 18 shows on various networks and streaming platforms.
“There was nothing I didn’t learn” at The WB and The CW, says Berlanti, who currently has four shows on the air and more on the way. “I learned every skill, really. Story breaking, storytelling and managing multiple episodes at the same time . . . and resourcefulness.”
CBS Studios and Warners constructed the network to target a younger demographic — adults 18-34 vs. the Big Four broadcasters’ chase for the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demo — and produced those shows on a lower budget to enable both studios to profit from international sales. With a tight rein on costs, shows often hired novice writers, creating an opportunity for hundreds, maybe even a few thousand, of scribes to cut their teeth.
“You learned how to produce because you knew you’d have less money to do things and that creates inventiveness,” Berlanti tells me. “And I learned the skill set to manage a creative team and interface with studios and networks.”
Today, as the TV industry contracts and writing jobs have become so competitive that showrunners are receiving north of 600 scripts for a handful of staff writer slots, this robust route for many aspiring writers to get their foot in the door has been shut off after Warners and CBS Studios parent Paramount Global divested 75 percent of The CW to Nexstar. Nexstar, which took over the network in early 2022, inherited a roster at The CW that featured 16 scripted originals. Now, just three years later, that portfolio has dwindled to one, with only the Berlanti-produced All American remaining of the roster that former CW CEO Mark Pedowitz built up during his 11-year tenure. (All American is still awaiting a renewal for its eighth season.)
“There’s a long list of people who learned how to become showrunners and staff writers who have gone on to do great things,” Pedowitz tells me in a rare interview. The executive, who has been focused on producing since leaving his Burbank C-suite, declined to comment on what led to his departure immediately after Nexstar took control of The CW two-and-a-half years ago. Multiple sources say he chose to leave rather than preside over the cancellation of the shows he shepherded and dismissal of his creatives. “I think they’d say nothing is ever perfect,” Pedowitz continues of the network’s creative alum, “but the opportunity The CW gave with the awareness that your show wouldn’t get pulled off the air gave them more creative freedom.”
From my interviews with Berlanti, Pedowitz and scores of others who were part of this thrifty but expansive era at The CW, you’ll learn:
Why the successful business model that supported The CW fell apart
How The CW fostered a culture of mentorship that its writers are carrying forward into the industry: “Every show of mine is a teaching hospital”
What made The CW a uniquely successful place for emerging writers to learn on the job
The forces driving the network’s current business model under Nexstar
How veteran showrunners are creating the “apprenticeship” opportunities lost as fewer shows and fewer episodes of TV are being made
What happens next to writers looking to break into the industry
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