New CW CEO Brad Schwartz Talks Future of Network and the Need for ‘Great Content’
By Movieguide® Staff
Former Pop TV’s Brad Schwartz is expected to step into his new role as CW Network’s CEO in a couple weeks, but Schwartz already has ideas for upcoming “breakthrough content.”
Schwartz currently works as the CEO of The Capra Project, an entertainment company that champions “authentic stories of family, faith, joy and hope.”
In a recent interview with Deadline, explained his future strategy for scripted and unscripted content for CW.
“I’m looking forward to getting in there,” he told Deadline. “I’m looking forward to looking at everything that’s working. Looking at the budgets, trying to figure out what shows are profitable, what shows are not. Let’s keep doing more of the shows that are profitable. And then to really look at the industry. There are only five broadcast networks, these are still unrepeatable assets, monster platforms with a lot of content to offer. So let’s go out there and let’s look at what everybody else is doing. Let’s look at what’s working on The CW. And let’s find smart little ways that you can compete and differentiate yourself and be audacious and be contrarian.”
“I think we’re going to try having breakthrough content that brings in large audiences, and we’re just going to have to figure out a way of doing it efficiently,” he added.
Last year, family-friendly and morally uplifting shows like A WALTONS’ HOMECOMING and SUPERMAN AND LOIS were among the network’s most successful offerings.
While Schwartz said that the CW is not profitable, with the rise in streaming content the new CEO said that that is to be expected and that he wants to find content that will boost profits.
“We will have to be open to all entrepreneurial opportunities to make great content, and under the new way that the CW is structured, we’re open to everybody,” he noted. “Let’s just find great, great content that works. It’s not even so much about the budgets. It’s about making them profitable. You can spend a lot of money on a show if it makes more money for you.”
Unfortunately, not every show is marked by uplifting, moral content. Shows like ARROW and other Arrowverse shows often relied on edgier violence and sexual content that ended up ostricizing one of their largest audiences: families.
If The CW and Schwartz want to start to turn a profit and attract larger audiences, they should lean into their moral content which has proven to be successful in the past; like SMALLVILLE, SUPERMAN AND LOIS, and THE FLASH.
The CW will premiere THE WALTONS: THANKSGIVING by Movieguide® Award-Winning Producer Sam Haskall later this motnh.
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