TV: a new network

The UPN and WB networks are merging this fall to form the CW Television Network, which will take at least some of its initial programming from the two dying networks.

Which raises the question: Do the UPN and WB combined have enough respectable programming to fill one network lineup? (And like those networks, the CW will run a short schedule, needing to fill only 13 prime-time hours each week.)

From the UPN lineup, America's Next Top Model and Veronica Mars would seem to be obvious keepers, and this morning's press release made it clear that Smackdown, the 2-hour block of WWE wrestling, would be part of the mix.

From the WB lineup, it seems likely that Gilmore Girls, Supernatural, Smallville, Everwood, and Beauty & the Geek will all be back, and the Smallville producers have been working on an Aquaman spinoff that will probably be part of the lineup, too.

Other dramas currently airing seem less likely to survive: UPN's South Beach, and WB's Related, Charmed, and One Tree Hill (which probably has the best chance of this group to survive).

The new network doesn't have much bench strength in sitcoms. At UPN, Everybody Hates Chris is the bright spot, and the only of the network's comedies to find any significant audience beyond its African-American core audience (and even Chris is struggling to really break out with white viewers). WB's Friday night sitcoms don't do a lot better (but then, nothing does that well on Friday nights); Reba is probably the best of the bunch.

Still, they've got eight or nine hours of shows that should gather reasonably solid ratings (by UPN/WB/CW standards), and some interesting possibilities for schedule moves. Pairing Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on one night, for instance, seems an obvious match of shows with compatible audiences.

Monday through Friday can probably be filled with existing shows with relative ease. Say, sitcoms on Monday (including Everybody Hates Chris), Gilmore and Veronica on Tuesday, Top Model or Beauty/Geek (these reality shows don't tend to run nonstop and could nicely alternate seasons in a single timeslot) and Everwood on Wednesday; Smallville and Supernatural on Thursday; and Smackdown on Friday.

That leaves Sunday, where whatever the new network does will likely be crushed by ABC's powerful lineup, so they might as well take some chances and try to do something different.