Nellie Andreeva

CW Announces 2011-2012 Primetime Sked

The symbolic passing of the baton at the CW was done today at the network’s upfront presentation, which featured both outgoing entertainment president Dawn Ostroff and newly appointed president Mark Pedowitz. “I’m sorry to say that this is my last CW upfront,” Ostroff said in her intro. “We’re moving to New York, so look out, my husband and I, our four kids and two dogs may become your neighbors.” She introduced Pedowitz, who was upbeat in his short speech before bouncing things back to Ostroff, who laid out the schedule for next season. “I believe in the The CW, its people, its programming, its affiliate body and advertisers,” Pedowitz said. “I love its enormous growth opportunity.” It was very classy for the CW to introduce new topper Pedowitz but let Ostroff do the main presentation, a far cry from other broadcast executive changeovers pre-upfront, like the appointment of Steve McPherson at ABC a few years back, when the new person takes all the credit and their predecessor is not even mentioned at the presentation. So when Ostroff said, “I’m going to assure you that the transition will be a seamless one,” for once it didn’t sound like just an executive cliche.

In a little bit of news, while promoting the upcoming first all-star version of America’s Next Top Model, star-producer Tyra Banks said, “We will never have another normal cycle ever again. It’s time to stand out.” And Ostroff confirmed that new midseason modeling docu-series Re-Modeling will bridge the two cycles of Next Top Model. Meanwhile, Sarah Michelle Gellar hinted at Pedowitz’s key role in bringing Ringer from CBS to the CW, calling him a “great champion” of the project. After the presentation, Ostroff and Pedowitz said the move happen over the last two weeks.

At the presentation, the CW also introduced a new term “CWview-niverse” to account for the network’s reach on TV, online, DVR and social media.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.