The CW Expands Its Primetime Schedule to Saturday Nights

Meredith Jacobs May 13, 2021, 6:00 pm

The CW

Get ready for more content on the CW beginning this fall.

The network has announced that for the 2021-2022 season, it will expand its primetime schedule to include Saturdays, beginning October 2. It’s the first time in its history that it will become a full seven-day-a-week broadcast network, with 14 hours of primetime content Monday through Sunday. (The CW expanded to Sundays in the fall of 2018.)

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The CW’s Saturday night primetime programming begins with Night 1 of the iHeartRadio Music Festival on October 2, with Night 2 airing the following night. The network’s regularly scheduled Saturday programming line-up will be announced at a later date.

“As The CW expands and thrives, so do our affiliate partners, and everyone sees the tremendous value and the clear excitement behind the opportunity to brand and identify as a seven night network on both a national and local level,” Betty Ellen Berlamino, Executive Vice President, Distribution, The CW, said in a statement. “The addition of more original programming to our Saturday primetime line-up coupled with our stations’ ability to now program the Monday through Friday daytime block is a win-win for all parties.”

With this expansion to its primetime schedule, the CW is returning the 3/2c hour Mondays through Fridays to its affiliated stations for their programming needs.

“Becoming a seven-night-a-week network has been a long-standing goal for everyone here at The CW, and in an extremely tight broadcast environment, the ability to expand our primetime by two more hours each week is a dynamic shift that will be gladly welcomed by our clients and the agencies,” Rob Tuck, Executive Vice President, National Sales, The CW added. “Following the recent industry trend which has seen considerable contraction on a linear basis, The CW will buck that trend this season by adding a new night of original programming, creating new opportunities for us going forward.”