Peachtree TV will become the CW affiliate in Atlanta starting Saturday.
The CW since its launch as a merger of the WB and UPN had been on WUPA-TV for the past 17 years, but earlier this year WUPA decided to become a fully independent station.
Atlanta-based Gray Television, the second largest owner of TV stations in the nation, has decided to take over the CW’s evening and weekend programming in part to access the ACC live sports, which will include occasional Georgia Tech football and basketball programming, said Erik Schrader, market manager for Peachtree TV and Atlanta News First, the CBS affiliate.
Gray also has the CW on more than 50 other stations nationwide.
A majority of the CW was purchased by Nexstar Media Group last year and the company dropped most of the network’s younger-skewing scripted programming during prime time including all the shows shooting in metro Atlanta. The CW for the past 14 years always had at least one show shooting in Atlanta, and often more, including “The Vampire Diaries,” “Legacies,” “The Originals,” “Dynasty,” “Black Lightning” and “Naomi.”
But now the CW has left the state, which would have happened even if the dual writers and actors strikes hadn’t happened.
Instead, the network this fall will rely heavily on unscripted fare like “FBoy Island” and “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” with exported Canadian shows like “Son of a Critch,” “Children Ruin Everything,” “Sullivan’s Crossing” (which includes Chad Michael Murray) and “The Spencer Sisters” starring Lea Thompson.
For Peachtree TV, this means moving Atlanta-based unscripted programming such as weekly interview show “My Real Life” with Sasha the Diva and court show “Bury the Hatchet” with Cristyl Kimbrough back an hour from 8 p.m. to 7 p.m. And the network will end its 9 p.m. local news telecast to accommodate the CW content.
“It won’t be a monster shift in terms of image,” Schrader said.
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