TVSquad

It looks as if The CW might have backed the wrong horse. My Network TV is going strong in the ratings and has been beating The CW for the past three weeks.

The biggest mistake made by The CW was probably abandoning wrestling programming (which was picked up by My Network TV) in an effort to go for the Gossip Girl demographic. This tactic seemed unusual to me at the time because 1) wrestling, like it or not, brings in strong ratings, and 2) usually after establishing oneself, a network tries to expand its programming to get to the widest base possible rather than limit itself to a particular group.

While I'm liking Smallville again this season, I can only hope that The CW uses this as motivation to create some programming that a variety of people like. If it doesn't, then the channel reserved for The CW on my cable box could become My Network TV sometime in the near future.

Kelsey Grammer is returning to comedic television, but only behind-the-scenes. He has agreed to direct the CBS comedy pilot, My Ex-Life, about about two divorced couples and the way they deal with life after divorce. Former Love Monkey and Ed actor Tom Cavanah snagged a lead role in this show.

Despite a list of cancelled shows, The CW doesn't think that Wayne Brady is bad luck. The new network has picked up a comedy pilot called Flirt, starring Brady as the only man working at a women's magazine.

Bo Derek has joined the cast of Secret Obsessions, a telenovela-style, primetime soap opera on My Network TV, the network that FOX is creating out of its UPN stations that lost their affiliation earlier this year. Secret Obsessions is about the glamorous, yet ruthless world of fashion. Derek will play Maria Zianni, a mega-bitch who runs a fashion corporation.

[Via The Hollywood Reporter]

When The CW launches in the fall, there will be a bunch of UPN affiliates out there that lose all their programming. At least ten of those affiliates are owned by FOX, which announced that it will launch its own mini-network on those stations and call it My Network TV. To begin with, FOX will provide two original dramas, called Desire and Secrets,  that will air six nights a week for 13 weeks (like the telenovelas on Univision). The new network launches in major U.S. cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas, on September 5th. The mini-network is going to be run by Roger Ailes, the man responsible for Fox News Channel.