The CW Network will lose eight important affiliate stations later this year.

Per Deadline, eight CBS-owned-and-operated stations currently affiliated with The CW are set to leave the network and go independent this coming September. The affected stations are WPSG Philadelphia, WUPA Atlanta, KBCW San Francisco, KSTW Seattle, WTOG Tampa-St. Petersburg, WKBD Detroit, KMAX Sacramento and WPCW Pittsburgh. These markets account for 13.9 percent of television households in the United States. Their departure from The CW will give the CBS stations group a total of 14 CBS Television Network stations and 13 independent stations.

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"We look forward to reimagining these stations as independents while leveraging the considerable value of their prime-time real estate in each of the markets," said CBS News and Stations president and co-head Wendy McMahon. "It's an exciting time to look at new opportunities to add local programming, including live sports, and shows from across the Paramount Global brands. We are also grateful to have been part of The CW for 17 memorable years and wish our partners at Nexstar continued success."

Evidently, this change was not unexpected. According to one source familiar with the situation, CBS retained the right to pull its affiliations when the Nexstar Media Group acquired The CW last year. Another wrinkle arose earlier this year, when Nexstar's CW announced that it would carry LIV Golf tournaments. All eight CBS-owned CW affiliates (and a number of non-CBS CW affiliates) declined to air the weekend tournaments, which they were well within their right to do, since they are only contractually obligated to air primetime programming.

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The CW Continues to Undergo Changes

The CW initially launched in 2006 as a joint venture between the CBS Entertainment Group and WarnerMedia, with the two companies merging UPN and The WB into a new, single channel. Initially, the CBS Entertainment Group and WarnerMedia each had 50 percent ownership of The CW. Following the recent sale, however, Nexstar now owns 75 percent of the network. Meanwhile, Paramount Global (the CBS Entertainment Group's parent company) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WarnerMedia's successor) held onto 12.5 percent each.

At the time of writing, Nexstar's CW Network has 203 stations covering 99.5 percent of U.S. households. "Since our acquisition of The CW Network last October, we have known that Paramount Global might transition the network affiliations of eight of its company-owned stations later this year," Nexstar said in a statement. "We are prepared for this possibility and confident that The CW Network will continue reaching 100% of U.S. television households without interruption. Paramount's decision affects a limited portion of The CW's nationwide reach, and we have already received multiple expressions of interest from station groups hoping to deepen their relationship with The CW by aligning more of their stations with the network."

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The CW's Current Lineup

At this time, The CW's lineup of original scripted dramas consists of The Flash, Riverdale, All American, Two Sentence Horror Stories, Nancy Drew, Walker, Superman & Lois, Kung Fu, All American: Homecoming, Walker: Independence, The Winchesters and Gotham Knights. However, this lineup is guaranteed to shrink, as The Flash is currently in the midst of its ninth and final season, while Riverdale is in the midsts of its seventh and final season. Moreover, Nancy Drew, is set to premiere its fourth and final season later this month. Two Sentence Horror Stories' third and most recent season wrapped up over a year ago, though while a fourth season still hasn't been announced, the show hasn't officially been canceled yet, either.

Meanwhile, All American is currently airing Season 5, Superman & Lois is currently airing Season 3, Walker is currently airing Season 3 and Gotham Knights is currently airing Season 1. Recently, Kung Fu wrapped up its third season, All American: Homecoming wrapped up its second season, Walker: Independence wrapped up its first season and The Winchesters wrapped up its own first season. At the time of writing, the original All American is the only one of these shows to have been renewed for a new season.

Source: Deadline