• by Larry Dobrow , Featured Columnist, April 17, 2006

The CW -- a mashup of UPN and WB, backed by CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. -- got all the pre-upfront hype. Meanwhile, Fox's upstart MyNetworkTV had quietly secured clearances in 55 percent of the country as of the end of March, with Bob Cook, president and chief operating officer of Twentieth Television, saying he feels "very comfortable" that the figure may edge north of 90 percent by the network's Sept. 5 launch.

Set to air on the stations left standing when the CW musical chairs came to a halt, the 18-to-49-targeted MyNetworkTV wants to tweak the conventional network model. The startup plans to broadcast two English-language telenovelas ("Desire" and "Secrets," both originally developed for UPN) five nights a week for 13 consecutive weeks, with wrap-up shows airing on Saturdays. There are also plans for two more dramas, reality programs, game shows, and a news magazine.

Cook plays his marketing cards close to the vest, speaking vaguely about leveraging relationships with News Corp. siblings like MySpace and HarperCollins. But he's quick to dismiss some of the stranger rumors floating around. "I've heard that we're just dubbing Spanish-language telenovelas into English," he says. "Trust me, the visual sensibilities of everything we do will be very American, very prime-time drama-ish."