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African-Americans Desert CW, But Not TV

When the WB and UPN melded into the CW, media buyers wondered where UPN's African-American audience would go, once that channel's heavily black lineup was compressed into one two-hour block on the new one. And while the CW is only picking up half the black audience that used to watch UPN and the WB, the rest have scattered to other networks. The number of African Americans watching the broadcast nets is virtually unchanged.
Overall, the WB-UPN merger lost perhaps 1 million young viewers, people who apparently quit watching television entirely, and it was widely assumed that many were black because of the reduced number of black-skewing shows. "By decreasing the amount of programming available, [the CW] is forcing people to go to other places to find their entertainment," says Linda Jefferson, senior vice president and director of integrated marketing strategies at Burrell Communications.

Cable's black ratings are unchanged from last year, but as part of the migration to the Big Four, some shows with multiracial casts are seeing notable gains in black viewers.

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