Do you think the way the CW ...

• Jul 9, 2007 04:00 AM ET
• by Matt Roush

Question: Do you think the way the CW (mis)handled the Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars series finales (in that no one knew they were going to be series finales until too late) will cause the people behind top-quality shows to shy away from that network? Do you think anyone with the next big hit or cult phenom would go to a network that would put the Pussycat Dolls and Farmer Takes a Wife over their product? Or that would string them along until it was too late to end the show in the way they envisioned?
Answer: It's naive to think a producer would ever "shy away" from any network that might potentially buy what they're selling. If someone has a project that fits the CW brand, they're not going to hesitate because of the way a handful of shows ended, especially not after Gilmore Girls' triumphant seven-season run and Veronica's miraculous three-year run (imagine any other network giving it that long a leash). When people are trying to get a show on the air, they're thinking about the beginning, not about the end, which is rarely pretty, regardless of the network. And it's a fact of life that reality shows are a complement to every network's schedule. Frankly, it's amazing that it took the CW of all networks (given its demographics) so long to get busy with this genre.