In mid-April, The E.W. Scripps Co. announced that it would be ending affiliation agreements with Nexstar Media Group-controlled network The CW at the end of August, putting seven markets on notice that another station would be needed for the home of ACC and Pac-12 college football and basketball, LIV Golf, NASCAR Xfinity Series Racing, WWE NXT wrestling and such imported prime-time fare as CBC’s “Son of a Critch.”
In two markets where Nexstar owns stations, affiliation shifts were revealed in May. On July 30, it became known that two CBS News & Stations properties would be grabbing the CW. Now, the fate of three remaining markets became known, fully answering the question of where the network would land.
Starting September 30, The CW Network will be found on TEGNA-owned KTTU-18, presently a MyNetwork TV affiliate. It will be moving from KWBA-58 in Tucson, obtained by Scripps in the Journal-Scripps merger that closed in April 2015.
Additionally, the Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo DMA along California’s Central Coast will see The CW shift to News-Press & Gazette-operated and VistaWest Media-owned KCOY-12. It is unclear if The CW will take a digital subchannel, as KCOY’s 12.1 signal is home to Telemundo programming, while KCOY-12.2 is a signal used by KKFX “FOX 11” to reach northern portions of the market. KCOY-12.3 has been the home for Scripps’ Laff digital multicast network.
In this market, The CW shifts from KSBY-6.2 in San Luis Obispo, Calif., which also serves Santa Barbara. It is also a former Cordillera station.
Lastly, the Corpus Christi, Tex., market will see The CW move to KSCC-38, a Sinclair Broadcast Group property that has its DT2 signal presently open; it is assumed The CW will go here, as the DT1 signal is used for FOX programming. The DT3 signal is home to MyNetwork TV programming.
The agreements also make KTTU the local home for the “2024 Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl Presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop,” which will air live from Arizona Stadium in Tucson on December 28.
As RBR+TVBR previously reported, The CW is returning to Paramount Global’s WKBD-50 in Detroit after moving briefly to WADL-38 and then shifting to WMYD-20, a Scripps property. WADL was poised to become a Mission Broadcasting-owned property operated by Nexstar; the FCC placed great scrutiny on the arrangement, questioning the true control of the station in the wake of its WPIX-11 ownership probe. Local ownership rules presently in place prevent WADL from being acquired by Nexstar outright.
Furthermore, The CW is moving to WBFS-33 in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Key West DMA from WSFL-39 in Miami, which was acquired by Scripps in September 2019 as a spin-off of Nexstar’s merger with Tribune Broadcasting and is a former WB Network affiliate.
In Norfolk, WVBT “FOX 43” is the designated new home of the CW, starting September 1. But, RBR+TVBR has confirmed, FOX programming is not moving; The CW will shift to the DT2 digital multicast signal of WVBT as it replaces WGNT-27 in Norfolk — an original affiliate of the network and UPN affiliate from 1995. It is also a spin-off acquisition linked to the Nexstar-Tribune merger.
For those in Lafayette, La., the CW is shifting from KATC-3.2 to an undisclosed subchannel of CBS affiliate KLFY-10 from KATC-3.2 in Lafayette, La., a former Cordillera station.
In addition to finding new homes for the seven Scripps stations poised to say goodbye to The CW at the end of August, Nexstar-owned WGN-9 in Chicago will see The CW return to the property after several years. From September 1, 2019, it has aired on Weigel Broadcasting-owned WCIU-26. For three years before that, The CW could be found on WPWR-50, a UPN affiliate from 1995-2006; it gained The CW after a 10-year affiliation agreement on WGN concluded.
Now that Nexstar is the majority owner of The CW, a return to WGN-9 after an eight-year hiatus was largely expected.
