A weird story comes out of today’s Variety — after last year’s $1 (you read it right, $1) buyout of TV Guide by OpenGate, some strange changes have been made in the name of cost-cutting.
In this case, eliminating the listings for MTV and the CW in the magazine.
Scott Crystal has apparently explained the cutoff to the Philadelphia Inquirer by saying, “there are now hundreds of channels on television and we can only accommodate approximately 70 in our primetime grids.” But considering small channels like Planet Green and QVC are still on the books, it seems weird that a Viacom staple like MTV would get cut.
Perhaps the strangest part of all this? TV Guide, despite not running a listing for the CW, still has a big story on Smallville in this week’s issue. Despite genre offerings like Smallville and Supernatural, it may be that TV Guide thinks that the CW’s days are numbered…
January 13th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised if the CW went the way of DuMont by 2010 or 2011
January 13th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Talk about CW going extinct…
I haven’t touched a TV Guide in at least 5 years. Why bother when cable companies have on-screen listings of their own?
January 13th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
They still kill trees for TV Guides?
MyNetwork should just steal CW’s popular shows (or at least the good ones). They are already reaping the benefits from having WWE Smackdown, which is constantly getting more viewers every week. If MyNetwork nabs Supernatural, Smallville and Reaper, I’ll no longer have any reason to watch my local Channel 11 for the first time ever.
January 13th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Why bother with TV shows when they all eventually come out on DVD?
February 16th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
TV Guide itself is going the route of the dinosaurs. When they made the decision to go from the Reader Digest size to the magazine style it was the death of them. Deciding to not show the channel listing for a network and their excuse is they can only list 70 channels?? CW should be the first thing after ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. It is a network for crying out loud, even if it is poorly managed when the only shows they advertise are Gossip Girl and 90210, and do very little for their number one show, Smallville.
June 28th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
TV Guide is a rip off. I live in Arizona and receive some issue that has our prime starting at 8pm (our’s starts at 7pm). Our prime ends at 10pm. So I have no programming for 7-8pm or 10-11pm. I’ve written and emailed and there’s & no one answer.
January 17th, 2011 at 9:26 pm
Wow, what a great read! Thanks so much for doing such a fantastic job with this, i’ve bookmarked your site so I can stay up to date with your stuff.