CW Now
CW Now is an American news program/news magazine series which aired on The CW from September 23, 2007 to February 24, 2008. It was a brand extension of the syndicated Telepictures news magazine Extra, and featured anchors and correspondents from that show, including co-hosts Mario Lopez and Tanika Ray. The program was devoted to topics of interest to young adults, including entertainment news and technology topics, sometimes drawn from Extra itself, setting up the latter to inexplicably compete with its own weekend edition.
Show description and advertising concept
During The CW's first upfront presentation, network executive Dawn Ostroff announced to advertisers that they would pursue a then-new advertising strategy for the series, which the network called "CWickies". Under the concept, an advertiser's content would be blended into the program rather than the show taking traditional commercial breaks, allowing the show to make the incorrect claim that it would be "commercial-free" in the traditional sense.Only Walmart would truly take advantage of the format with their products blended into every episode of CW Now, and comedian Lewis Black mocked the concept in a "Back in Black" monologue on The Daily Shows September 26, 2007 episode. The "CWickies" concept would also be tried for the commercial breaks between Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday evenings in a more traditional ad format, where it also failed to attract interest due to the target audience of each series finding the conversations between actors in "CWickies" ads about aerie and the plot points in those two series unnatural and stilted.
The show was produced by Telepictures and Warner Horizon Television.