title: Moulin Rouge!

text: The film was selected by the National Board of Review as the best film of 2001. It picked up six Golden Globe nominations including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (for Nicole Kidman), Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (for Ewan McGregor), Best Original Score (for Craig Armstrong), Best Director (for Baz Luhrmann) and Best Song ("Come What May"). It won three including the coveted Best Picture trophy. A few weeks later, it received 12 nominations at the BAFTA Awards, making it the most nominated film of the year for that ceremony. It took home three, including Best Supporting Actor for Jim Broadbent.


title: Moulin Rouge!

text: The film received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Picture. It became the first musical film to receive a Best Picture nomination since "Beauty and the Beast" in 1992. The film was not nominated for Best Director (Luhrmann); commenting on this during the Oscar ceremony, host Whoopi Goldberg remarked, "I guess "Moulin Rouge!" just directed itself." The film won the awards for Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction.


title: Moulin Rouge!

text: "Come What May" (the only original song in the film) was disqualified from nomination for an Oscar because it was originally written (but unused) for Luhrmann's previous film "Romeo + Juliet" and not written expressly for "Moulin Rouge!".


title: Moulin Rouge!

text: Jamie Allen contributes additional vocals to the "Elephant Love Medley." "Love Is Like Oxygen" and "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" are only spoken dialogue; they are not actually sung in the medley.


title: Moulin Rouge!

text: "Your Song" is performed by Ewan McGregor and Alessandro Safina, who contributes additional lyrics in Italian.


title: Moulin Rouge!

text: Two soundtrack albums were released, with the second coming after the first one's massive success. The first volume featured the smash hit single "Lady Marmalade", performed by Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mýa and Pink. The first soundtrack, "Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film", was released on 8 May 2001, with the second, "Moulin Rouge! Music from Baz Luhrmann's Film, Vol. 2", following on 26 February 2002.


title: Moulin Rouge!

text: As early as November 2002, Luhrmann revealed that he intended to adapt "Moulin Rouge!" into a stage musical. A Las Vegas casino was the reputed site of the proposed show. Luhrmann was said to have asked both Kidman and McGregor to reprise their starring roles in the potential stage version.


title: Moulin Rouge!

text: In 2008, a stage adaptation entitled "La Belle Bizarre du Moulin Rouge" ("The Bizarre Beauty of the Moulin Rouge") toured Germany and produced a cast recording.


title: Moulin Rouge!

text: In 2016, it was announced that Global Creatures was developing "Moulin Rouge!" into a stage musical. Alex Timbers was slated to direct the production, and John Logan was tapped to write the book. "Moulin Rouge!: The Musical", starring Aaron Tveit as Christian and Karen Olivo as Satine, premiered on 10 July 2018 at the Colonial Theatre in Boston. The Broadway production opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on 25 July 2019.


title: Moulin Rouge!

text: In the 2017–18 figure skating season, at the 2018 Winter Olympics, Canadian skaters Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir performed two selections from "Moulin Rouge!", interpreting the story of Christian and Satine through "The Show Must Go On", "El Tango de Roxanne", and "Come What May". Their performance won the gold medal in the team and the individual events. At this event, Virtue and Moir became the most decorated skaters of all time.


title: Maine

text: Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and northwest, respectively. The largest state by total area in New England, Maine is the 12th-smallest by area, the 9th-least populous, the 13th-least densely populated, and the most rural of the 50 U.S. states. It is also the northeasternmost among the contiguous United States, the northernmost state east of the Great Lakes, the only state whose name consists of a single syllable, and the only state to border exactly one other U.S. state. Approximately half the area of Maine lies on each side of the 45th parallel north in latitude. The most populous city in Maine is Portland, while its capital is Augusta.


title: Maine

text: Maine has traditionally been known for its jagged, rocky Atlantic Ocean and bayshore coastlines; smoothly contoured mountains; heavily forested interior; picturesque waterways; and its wild lowbush blueberries and seafood cuisine, especially lobster and clams. Coastal and Down East Maine have emerged as important centers for the creative economy, especially in the vicinity of Portland, which is also bringing gentrification.


title: Maine

text: The territory of Maine has been inhabited by aboriginal populations for thousands of years after the glaciers retreated during the last ice age. At the time of European arrival, several Algonquian-speaking nations governed the area and these nations are now known as the Wabanaki Confederacy. The first European settlement in the area was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, founded by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The first English settlement was the short-lived Popham Colony, established by the Plymouth Company in 1607. A number of English settlements were established along the coast of Maine in the 1620s, although the rugged climate and conflict with the local indigenous people caused many to fail.


title: Maine

text: As Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements had survived. Loyalist and Patriot forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution. During the War of 1812, the largely undefended eastern region of Maine was occupied by British forces with the goal of annexing it to Canada via the Colony of New Ireland, but returned to the United States following failed British offensives on the northern border, mid-Atlantic and south which produced a peace treaty that restored the pre-war boundaries. Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820 when it voted to secede from Massachusetts to become a separate state. On March 15, 1820, under the Missouri Compromise, it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state.


title: Maine

text: The earliest known inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine were Algonquian-speaking Wabanaki peoples, including the Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, Penobscot, Androscoggin, and Kennebec. During the later King Philip's War, many of these peoples would merge in one form or another to become the Wabanaki Confederacy, aiding the Wampanoag of Massachusetts and the Mahican of New York. Afterwards, many of these people were driven from their natural territories, but most of Maine's tribes continued, unchanged, until the American Revolution. Before this point, however, most of these people were considered separate nations. Many had adapted to living in permanent, Iroquois-inspired settlements, while those along the coast tended to move from summer villages to winter villages on a yearly cycle. They would usually winter inland and head to the coasts by summer.


title: Maine

text: European contact with what is now called Maine may have started around 1200 CE when Norwegians are believed to have interacted with the native Penobscot in present-day Hancock County, most likely through trade. If confirmed, this would make Maine the site of the earliest European discovery in the entire US. About 200 years earlier, from the settlements in Iceland and Greenland, Norwegians first identified America and attempted to settle areas such as Newfoundland, but failed to establish a permanent settlement. Archeological evidence suggests that Norwegians in Greenland returned to North America for several centuries after the initial discovery to trade and collect timber, with the most relevant evidence being the Maine Penny, an 11th-century Norwegian coin found at a Native American dig site in 1954.


title: Maine

text: The first European confirmed settlement in modern-day Maine was in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, led by French explorer Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. His party included Samuel de Champlain, noted as an explorer. The French named the entire area Acadia, including the portion that later became the state of Maine. The Plymouth Company established the first English settlement in Maine at the Popham Colony in 1607, the same year as the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. The Popham colonists returned to Britain after 14 months.


title: Maine

text: The French established two Jesuit missions: one on Penobscot Bay in 1609, and the other on Mount Desert Island in 1613. The same year, Claude de La Tour established Castine. In 1625, Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour erected Fort Pentagouet to protect Castine. The coastal areas of eastern Maine first became the Province of Maine in a 1622 land patent. The part of western Maine north of the Kennebec River was more sparsely settled and was known in the 17th century as the Territory of Sagadahock. A second settlement was attempted in 1623 by English explorer and naval Captain Christopher Levett at a place called York, where he had been granted by King Charles I of England. It also failed.


title: Maine

text: The 1622 patent of the Province of Maine was split at the Piscataqua River into the Province of New Hampshire to the south and New Somersetshire to the north. A disputed 1630 patent split off the area around present-day Saco as Lygonia. Justifying its actions with a 1652 geographic survey that showed an overlapping patent, the Massachusetts Bay Colony had seized New Somersetshire and Lygonia by force by 1658. The Territory of Sagadahock between the Kennebec River and St. Croix River notionally became Cornwall County, Province of New York under a 1664 grant from Charles II of England to his brother James, at the time the Duke of York. Some of this land was claimed by New France as part of Acadia. All of the English settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Province of New York became part of the Dominion of New England in 1686. All of present-day Maine was unified as York County, Massachusetts under a 1691 royal patent for the Province of Massachusetts Bay.


title: Maine

text: Central Maine was formerly inhabited by the Androscoggin tribe of the Abenaki nation, also known as Arosaguntacook. They were driven out of the area in 1690 during King William's War. They were relocated to St. Francis, Canada, which was destroyed by Rogers' Rangers in 1759, and is now Odanak. The other Abenaki tribes suffered several severe defeats, particularly during Dummer's War, with the capture of Norridgewock in 1724 and the defeat of the Pequawket in 1725, which significantly reduced their numbers. They finally withdrew to Canada, where they were settled at Bécancour and Sillery, and later at St. Francis, along with other refugee tribes from the south.


title: Maine

text: Maine was much fought over by the French, English, and allied natives during the 17th and 18th centuries. These natives conducted raids against settlers and each other, taking captives for ransom or, in some cases, kidnapped for adoption by Native American tribes. A notable example was the early 1692 Abenaki raid on York, where about 100 English settlers were killed and another estimated 80 taken hostage. The Abenaki took captives taken during raids of Massachusetts in Queen Anne's War of the early 1700s to Kahnewake, a Catholic Mohawk village near Montreal, where some were adopted and others ransomed.


title: Maine

text: After the British defeated the French in Acadia in the 1740s, the territory from the Penobscot River east fell under the nominal authority of the Province of Nova Scotia, and together with present-day New Brunswick formed the Nova Scotia county of Sunbury, with its court of general sessions at Campobello. American and British forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution and the War of 1812, with the British occupying eastern Maine in both conflicts via the Colony of New Ireland. The territory of Maine was confirmed as part of Massachusetts when the United States was formed following the Treaty of Paris ending the revolution, although the final border with British North America was not established until the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842.


title: Maine

text: Maine was physically separate from the rest of Massachusetts. Long-standing disagreements over land speculation and settlements led to Maine residents and their allies in Massachusetts proper forcing an 1807 vote in the Massachusetts Assembly on permitting Maine to secede; the vote failed. Secessionist sentiment in Maine was stoked during the War of 1812 when Massachusetts pro-British merchants opposed the war and refused to defend Maine from British invaders. In 1819, Massachusetts agreed to permit secession, sanctioned by voters of the rapidly growing region the following year.


title: Maine

text: Formal secession from Massachusetts and admission of Maine as the 23rd state occurred on March 15, 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise, which geographically limited the spread of slavery and enabled the admission to statehood of Missouri the following year, keeping a balance between slave and free states.


title: Maine

text: Maine's original state capital was Portland, Maine's largest city, until it was moved to the more central Augusta in 1832. The principal office of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court remains in Portland.


title: Maine

text: The 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, under the command of Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, prevented the Union Army from being flanked at Little Round Top by the Confederate Army during the Battle of Gettysburg.


title: Maine

text: Four U.S. Navy ships have been named USS "Maine", most famously the armored cruiser , whose sinking by an explosion on February 15, 1898 precipitated the Spanish–American War.


title: Maine

text: To the south and east is the Gulf of Maine, and to the west is the state of New Hampshire. The Canadian province of New Brunswick is to the north and northeast, and the province of Quebec is to the northwest. Maine is the northernmost state in New England and the largest, accounting for almost half of the region's entire land area. Maine is the only state to border exactly one other American state (New Hampshire).


title: Maine

text: Maine is the easternmost state in the United States both in its extreme points and in its geographic center. The town of Lubec is the easternmost organized settlement in the United States. Its Quoddy Head Lighthouse is also the closest place in the United States to Africa and Europe. Estcourt Station is Maine's northernmost point, as well as the northernmost point in New England. (For more information see extreme points of the United States.)


title: Maine

text: Maine's Moosehead Lake is the largest lake wholly in New England, since Lake Champlain is located between Vermont, New York, and Quebec. A number of other Maine lakes, such as South Twin Lake, are described by Thoreau in "The Maine Woods" (1864). Mount Katahdin is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, which extends southerly to Springer Mountain, Georgia, and the southern terminus of the new International Appalachian Trail which, when complete, will run to Belle Isle, Newfoundland and Labrador.


title: Maine

text: Machias Seal Island and North Rock, off the state's Downeast coast, are claimed by both Canada and the American town of Cutler, and are within one of four areas between the two countries whose sovereignty is still in dispute, but it is the only one of the disputed areas containing land. Also in this easternmost area in the Bay of Fundy is the Old Sow, the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere.


title: Maine

text: Maine is the least densely populated U.S. state east of the Mississippi River. It is called the Pine Tree State; over 80% of its total land is forested or unclaimed, the most forest cover of any U.S. state. In the wooded areas of the interior lies much uninhabited land, some of which does not have formal political organization into local units (a rarity in New England). The Northwest Aroostook unorganized territory in the northern part of the state, for example, has an area of and a population of 10, or one person for every .


title: Maine

text: Maine is in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome. The land near the southern and central Atlantic coast is covered by the mixed oaks of the Northeastern coastal forests. The remainder of the state, including the North Woods, is covered by the New England–Acadian forests.


title: Maine

text: Maine has almost of ocean coastline (and of tidal coastline). West Quoddy Head in Lubec is the easternmost point of land in the 48 contiguous states. Along the famous rock-bound coast of Maine are lighthouses, beaches, fishing villages, and thousands of offshore islands, including the Isles of Shoals which straddle the New Hampshire border. There are jagged rocks and cliffs and many bays and inlets. Inland are lakes, rivers, forests, and mountains. This visual contrast of forested slopes sweeping down to the sea has been summed up by American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay of Rockland and Camden, in "Renascence":


title: Maine

text: Geologists describe this type of landscape as a "drowned coast", where a rising sea level has invaded former land features, creating bays out of valleys and islands out of mountain tops. A rise in land elevation due to the melting of heavy glacier ice caused a slight rebounding effect of underlying rock; this land rise, however, was not enough to eliminate all the effect of the rising sea level and its invasion of former land features.


title: Maine

text: Much of Maine's geomorphology was created by extended glacial activity at the end of the last ice age. Prominent glacial features include Somes Sound and Bubble Rock, both part of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. Carved by glaciers, Somes Sound reaches depths of . The extreme depth and steep drop-off allow large ships to navigate almost the entire length of the sound. These features also have made it attractive for boat builders, such as the prestigious Hinckley Yachts.


title: Maine

text: Bubble Rock, a glacial erratic, is a large boulder perched on the edge of Bubble Mountain in Acadia National Park. By analyzing the type of granite, geologists discovered that glaciers carried Bubble Rock to its present location from near Lucerne, away. The Iapetus Suture runs through the north and west of the state, being underlain by the ancient Laurentian terrane, and the south and east underlain by the Avalonian terrane.


title: Maine

text: Acadia National Park is the only national park in New England. Areas under the protection and management of the National Park Service include:


title: Maine

text: Maine has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification "Dfb"), with warm and sometimes humid summers, and long, cold and very snowy winters. Winters are especially severe in the Northern and Western parts of Maine, while coastal areas are moderated slightly by the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in marginally milder winters and cooler summers than inland regions. Daytime highs are generally in the range throughout the state in July, with overnight lows in the high 50s°F (around 15°C). January temperatures range from highs near on the southern coast to overnight lows averaging below in the far north.


title: Maine

text: Precipitation in Maine is evenly distributed year-round, but with a slight summer maximum in northern/northwestern Maine and a slight late-fall or early-winter maximum along the coast due to "nor'easters" or intense cold-season rain and snowstorms. In coastal Maine, the late spring and summer months are usually driest—a rarity across the Eastern United States. Maine has fewer days of thunderstorms than any other state east of the Rockies, with most of the state averaging fewer than twenty days of thunderstorms a year. Tornadoes are rare in Maine, with the state averaging two per year, although this number is increasing. Most severe thunderstorms and tornadoes occur in the Southwestern Interior portion of the state, where summer temperatures are often the warmest and the atmosphere is thus more unstable compared to northern and coastal areas. Maine rarely sees the direct landfall of tropical cyclones, as they tend to recurve out to sea or are rapidly weakening by the time they reach the cooler waters of Maine.


title: Maine

text: In January 2009, a new record low temperature for the state was set at Big Black River of , tying the New England record.


title: Maine

text: The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the population of Maine was 1,344,212 on July 1, 2019, a 1.19% increase since the 2010 United States census. At the 2020 census, 1,362,359 people lived in the state. The state's population density is 41.3 people per square mile, making it the least densely populated state east of the Mississippi River. As of 2010, Maine was also the most rural state in the Union, with only 38.7% of the state's population living within urban areas. As explained in detail under "Geography", there are large tracts of uninhabited land in some remote parts of the interior of the state, particularly in the North Maine Woods.


title: Maine

text: The mean population center of Maine is located in Kennebec County, just east of Augusta. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is the most densely populated with nearly 40% of Maine's population. This area spans three counties and includes many farms and wooded areas; the 2016 population of Portland proper was 66,937.


title: Maine

text: Maine has experienced a very slow rate of population growth since the 1990 census; its rate of growth (0.57%) since the 2010 census ranks 45th of the 50 states. The modest population growth in the state has been concentrated in the southern coastal counties; with more diverse populations slowly moving into these areas of the state. However, the northern, more rural areas of the state have experienced a slight decline in population from 2010 to 2016.


title: Maine

text: According to the 2010 census, Maine has the highest percentage of non-Hispanic whites of any state, at 94.4% of the total population. In 2011, 89.0% of all births in the state were to non-Hispanic white parents. Maine also has the second-highest residential senior population.


title: Maine

text: According to the 2016 American Community Survey, 1.5% of Maine's population were of Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race): Mexican (0.4%), Puerto Rican (0.4%), Cuban (0.1%), and other Hispanic or Latino origin (0.6%). The five largest ancestry groups were: English (20.7%), Irish (17.3%), French (15.7%), German (8.1%), and American (7.8%).


title: Maine

text: People citing that they are American are of overwhelmingly English descent, but have ancestry that has been in the region for so long (often since the 17th century) that they choose to identify simply as Americans.


title: Maine

text: Maine has the highest percentage of French Americans of any state. Most of them are of Canadian origin, but in some cases have been living there since prior to the American Revolutionary War. There are particularly high concentrations in the northern part of Maine in Aroostook County, which is part of a cultural region known as Acadia that goes over the border into New Brunswick. Along with the Acadian population in the north, many French-Canadians came from Quebec as immigrants between 1840 and 1930.


title: Maine

text: The upper Saint John River valley area was once part of the so-called Republic of Madawaska, before the frontier was decided in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Over a quarter of the population of Lewiston, Waterville, and Biddeford are Franco-American. Most of the residents of the Mid Coast and Down East sections are chiefly of British heritage. Smaller numbers of various other groups, including Irish, Italian and Polish, have settled throughout the state since the late 19th and early 20th century immigration waves.


title: Maine

text: "Note: Births in table do not sum to 100% because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race."


title: Maine

text: Maine does not have an official language, but the most widely spoken language in the state is English. The 2000 census reported 92.25% of Maine residents aged five and older spoke only English at home. French-speakers are the state's chief linguistic minority; census figures show that Maine has the highest percentage of people speaking French at home of any state: 5.28% of Maine households are French-speaking, compared with 4.68% in Louisiana, which is the second highest state. Although rarely spoken, Spanish is the third-most-common language in Maine, after English and French.


title: Maine

text: According to the Pew Research Center, the religious affiliations of Maine were: Protestant 37%, Evangelical Protestant 14%, Mainline Protestant 21%, Historical Black Protestant 2%, Atheism or Agnosticism 6%, Nothing in Particular 26%, Roman Catholic Church 21%, other Christians 5%, non-Christian religions including Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and Baháʼí 7%, and Pagans and Unitarians 5%.


title: Maine

text: The Roman Catholic Church was the largest religious institution and the Baptists (7% Evangelical and 5% Mainline) are the largest Protestant institution, followed by the Methodists (6%) and the Congregationalists (5%). The atheists and the agonistics are only 6% of the state, but 26% of Mainers said that they "Believe in God but they are Unaffiliated." The 81% of Mainers believe in God, while 3% don't know and 16% do not believe in God. The 34% of Mainers think that Religion is Very Important and 29% said that is Important, while 21% said that religion isn't important.


title: Maine

text: By the publication of another study in 2020 through the Public Religion Research Institute, approximately 62% of the population were Christian; the religiously unaffiliated slightly increased to 33% from the separate 2014 study by the Pew Research Center.


title: Maine

text: The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that Maine's total gross state product for 2021 was $77.96 billion. Its per capita personal income for 2021 was $58,484, 30th in the nation. , Maine's unemployment rate is 3.3%


title: Maine

text: Maine's agricultural outputs include poultry, eggs, dairy products, cattle, wild blueberries, apples, maple syrup, and maple sugar. Aroostook County is known for its potato crops. Commercial fishing, once a mainstay of the state's economy, maintains a presence, particularly lobstering and groundfishing. While lobster is the main seafood focus for Maine, the harvest of both oysters and seaweed are on the rise. In 2015, 14% of the Northeast's total oyster supply came from Maine. In 2017, the production of Maine's seaweed industry was estimated at $20 million per year. The shrimp industry of Maine is on a government-mandated hold. With an ever-decreasing Northern shrimp population, Maine fishermen are no longer allowed to catch and sell shrimp. The hold began in 2014 and is expected to continue until 2021. Western Maine aquifers and springs are a major source of bottled water.


title: Maine

text: Maine's industrial outputs consist chiefly of paper, lumber and wood products, electronic equipment, leather products, food products, textiles, and bio-technology. Naval shipbuilding and construction remain key as well, with Bath Iron Works in Bath and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery.


title: Maine

text: Brunswick Landing, formerly Naval Air Station Brunswick, is also in Maine. Formerly a large support base for the U.S. Navy, the BRAC campaign initiated the Naval Air Station's closing, despite a government-funded effort to upgrade its facilities. The former base has since been changed into a civilian business park, as well as a new satellite campus for Southern Maine Community College.


title: Maine

text: Maine is the number one U.S. producer of low-bush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium). Preliminary data from the USDA for 2012 also indicate Maine was the largest blueberry producer of the major blueberry producing states, with 91,100,000 lbs. This data includes both low (wild), and high-bush (cultivated) blueberries: Vaccinium corymbosum. The largest toothpick manufacturing plant in the United States used to be located in Strong, Maine. The Strong Wood Products plant produced 20 million toothpicks a day. It closed in May 2003.


title: Maine

text: Tourism and outdoor recreation play a major and increasingly important role in Maine's economy. The state is a popular destination for sport hunting (particularly deer, moose and bear), sport fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, boating, camping and hiking, among other activities. Concomitantly with the tourist and recreation-oriented economy, Maine has developed a burgeoning creative economy, most notably centered in the Greater Portland vicinity.


title: Maine

text: Historically, Maine ports played a key role in national transportation. Beginning around 1880, Portland's rail link and ice-free port made it Canada's principal winter port, until the aggressive development of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the mid-20th century. In 2013, 12,039,600 short tons passed into and out of Portland by sea, which places it 45th of U.S. water ports. Portland International Jetport has been expanded, providing the state with increased air traffic from carriers such as JetBlue and Southwest Airlines.


title: Maine

text: Maine has very few large companies that maintain headquarters in the state, and that number has fallen due to consolidations and mergers, particularly in the pulp and paper industry. Some of the larger companies that do maintain headquarters in Maine include Covetrus in Portland, Fairchild Semiconductor in South Portland, IDEXX Laboratories in Westbrook, Hannaford Bros. Co. in Scarborough; TD Bank in Portland and L.L.Bean in Freeport. Maine is also the home of the Jackson Laboratory, the world's largest non-profit mammalian genetic research facility and the world's largest supplier of genetically purebred mice.


title: Maine

text: Maine has an income tax structure containing two brackets, 6.5 and 7.95 percent of personal income. Before July 2013 Maine had four brackets: 2, 4.5, 7, and 8.5 percent. Maine's general sales tax rate is 5.5 percent. The state also levies charges of nine percent on lodging and prepared food and ten percent on short-term auto rentals. Commercial sellers of blueberries, a Maine staple, must keep records of their transactions and pay the state 1.5 cents per pound ($1.50 per 100 pounds) of the fruit sold each season. All real and tangible personal property located in the state of Maine is taxable unless specifically exempted by statute. The administration of property taxes is handled by the local assessor in incorporated cities and towns, while property taxes in the unorganized territories are handled by the State Tax Assessor.


title: Maine

text: Maine has a long-standing tradition of being home to many shipbuilding companies. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Maine was home to many shipyards that produced wooden sailing ships. The main function of these ships was to transport either cargos or passengers overseas. One of these yards was located in Pennellville Historic District in what is now Brunswick, Maine. This yard, owned by the Pennell family, was typical of the many family-owned shipbuilding companies of the time period. Other such examples of shipbuilding families were the Skolfields and the Morses. During the 18th and 19th centuries, wooden shipbuilding of this sort made up a sizable portion of the economy.


title: Maine

text: Maine receives passenger jet service at its two largest airports, the Portland International Jetport in Portland, and the Bangor International Airport in Bangor. Both are served daily by many major airlines to destinations such as New York, Atlanta, and Orlando. Essential Air Service also subsidizes service to a number of smaller airports in Maine, bringing small turboprop aircraft to regional airports such as the Augusta State Airport, Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport, Knox County Regional Airport, and the Northern Maine Regional Airport at Presque Isle. These airports are served by regional providers such as Cape Air with Cessna 402s, and CommutAir with Embraer ERJ 145 aircraft.


title: Maine

text: Many smaller airports are scattered throughout Maine, serving only general aviation traffic. The Eastport Municipal Airport, for example, is a city-owned public-use airport with 1,200 general aviation aircraft operations each year from single-engine and ultralight aircraft.


title: Maine

text: Interstate95 (I-95) travels through Maine, as well as its easterly branch I-295 and spurs I-195, I-395 and the unsigned I-495 (the Falmouth Spur). In addition, U.S. Route1 (US1) starts in Fort Kent and travels to Florida. The eastern terminus of the eastern section of US2 starts in Houlton, near the New Brunswick, Canada border to Rouses Point, New York, at US11. US2A connects Old Town and Orono, primarily serving the University of Maine campus. US201 and US202 flow through the state. US2, Maine State Route 6 (SR6), and SR9 are often used by truckers and other motorists of the Maritime Provinces "en route" to other destinations in the United States or as a short cut to Central Canada.


title: Maine

text: The "Downeaster" passenger train, operated by Amtrak, provides passenger service between Brunswick and Boston's North Station, with stops in Freeport, Portland, Old Orchard Beach, Saco, and Wells. The "Downeaster" makes five daily trips.


title: Maine

text: Freight service throughout the state is provided by a handful of regional and shortline carriers: Pan Am Railways (formerly known as Guilford Rail System), which operates the former Boston & Maine and Maine Central railroads; St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad; Maine Eastern Railroad; Central Maine and Quebec Railway; and New Brunswick Southern Railway.


title: Maine

text: The International Marine Terminal in Portland provides shipping container transport. In 2021 an estimated 36,700 shipping containers moved through the terminal. In 2017, a total of 17,515 shipping containers were transported. The Icelandic shipping company Eimskip opened its United States headquarters in Portland in 2013. Its ships stop in Portland once a week in a route that includes Atlantic Canada and Iceland with connections to northern Europe and Asia. In 2015, the terminal moved 10,500 containers. The Maine Port Authority in 2016 began a $15.5 million expansion and improvement of the terminal. The Maine Port Authority leased the International Marine Terminal from the city of Portland in 2009.


title: Maine

text: The Maine Constitution structures Maine's state government, composed of three co-equal branches—the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The state of Maine also has three Constitutional Officers (the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, and the State Attorney General) and one Statutory Officer (the State Auditor).


title: Maine

text: The legislative branch is the Maine Legislature, a bicameral body composed of the Maine House of Representatives, with 151 members, and the Maine Senate, with 35 members. The Legislature is charged with introducing and passing laws.


title: Maine

text: The executive branch is responsible for the execution of the laws created by the Legislature and is headed by the Governor of Maine (currently Janet Mills). The Governor is elected every four years; no individual may serve more than two consecutive terms in this office. The current attorney general of Maine is Aaron Frey. As with other state legislatures, the Maine Legislature can by a two-thirds majority vote from both the House and Senate override a gubernatorial veto. Maine is one of seven states that do not have a lieutenant governor.


title: Maine

text: The judicial branch is responsible for interpreting state laws. The highest court of the state is the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. The lower courts are the District Court, Superior Court and Probate Court. All judges except for probate judges serve full-time, are nominated by the Governor and confirmed by the Legislature for terms of seven years. Probate judges serve part-time and are elected by the voters of each county for four-year terms.


title: Maine

text: Maine is divided into political jurisdictions designated as counties. Since 1860 there have been 16 counties in the state, ranging in size from .


title: Maine

text: In state general elections, Maine voters tend to accept independent and third-party candidates more frequently than most states. Maine has had two independent governors: James B. Longley (1975–1979) and Angus King (1995–2003), who currently serves in the US Senate. Maine state politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, are noted for having more moderate views than many in the national wings of their respective parties.


title: Maine

text: On May 6, 2009, Maine became the fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage; however, the law was repealed by voters on November 3, 2009. On November 6, 2012, Maine, along with Maryland and Washington, became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage at the ballot box.


title: Maine

text: In the 1930s, Maine was one of very few states which retained Republican sentiments. In the 1936 presidential election, Franklin D. Roosevelt received the electoral votes of every state other than Maine and Vermont; these were the only two states in the nation that never voted for Roosevelt in any of his presidential campaigns, though Maine was closely fought in 1940 and 1944. In the 1960s, Maine began to lean toward the Democrats, especially in presidential elections. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey became just the second Democrat in half a century to carry Maine, perhaps because of the presence of his running mate, Maine Senator Edmund Muskie, although the state voted Republican in every presidential election in the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Maine

text: Since 1969, two of Maine's four electoral votes have been awarded based on the winner of the statewide election; the other two go to the highest vote-getter in each of the state's two congressional districts. Every other state except Nebraska gives all its electoral votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote in the state at large, without regard to performance within districts. Maine split its electoral vote for the first time in 2016, with Donald Trump's strong showing in the more rural central and northern Maine allowing him to capture one of the state's four votes in the Electoral College.


title: Maine

text: Ross Perot achieved a great deal of success in Maine in the presidential elections of 1992 and 1996. In 1992, as an independent candidate, Perot came in second to Democrat Bill Clinton, despite the long-time presence of the Bush family summer home in Kennebunkport. In 1996, as the nominee of the Reform Party, Perot did better in Maine than in any other state.


title: Maine

text: Maine has voted for Democratic Bill Clinton twice, Al Gore in 2000, John Kerry in 2004, and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. In 2016, Republican Donald Trump won one of Maine's electoral votes with Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton winning the other three. Although Democrats have mostly carried the state in presidential elections in recent years, Republicans have largely maintained their control of the state's U.S. Senate seats, with Edmund Muskie, William Hathaway and George J. Mitchell being the only Maine Democrats serving in the U.S. Senate in the past fifty years.


title: Maine

text: In the 2010 midterm elections, Republicans made major gains in Maine. They captured the governor's office as well as majorities in both chambers of the state legislature for the first time since the early 1970s. However, in the 2012 elections Democrats managed to recapture both houses of Maine Legislature.


title: Maine

text: Maine's U.S. senators are Republican Susan Collins and Independent Angus King. The governor is Democrat Janet Mills. The state's two members of the United States House of Representatives are Democrats Chellie Pingree and


title: Maine

text: An organized municipality has a form of elected local government which administers and provides local services, keeps records, collects licensing fees, and can pass locally binding ordinances, among other responsibilities of self-government. The governmental format of most organized towns and plantations is the town meeting, while the format of most cities is the council-manager form. the organized municipalities of Maine consist of 23 cities, 430 towns, and 30 plantations. Collectively these 483 organized municipalities cover less than half of the state's territory. Maine also has three Reservations: Indian Island, Indian Township Reservation, and Pleasant Point Indian Reservation.


title: Maine

text: Unorganized territory (UT) has no local government. Administration, services, licensing, and ordinances are handled by the state government as well as by respective county governments who have townships within each county's bounds. The unorganized territory of Maine consists of more than 400 townships (in Maine, towns are incorporated, townships are unincorporated), plus many coastal islands that do not lie within any municipal bounds. The UT land area is slightly over half the entire area of the State of Maine. Year-round residents in the UT number approximately 9,000 (about 1.3% of the state's total population), with many more people staying there only seasonally. Only four of Maine's sixteen counties (Androscoggin, Cumberland, Waldo and York) are entirely incorporated, although a few others are nearly so, and most of the unincorporated area is in the vast and sparsely populated Great North Woods of Maine.


title: Maine

text: The most populous cities and towns as of the Census Bureau's 2017 estimates were (population in parentheses):


title: Maine

text: Throughout Maine, many municipalities, although each separate governmental entities, nevertheless form portions of a much larger population base. There are many such population clusters throughout Maine, but some examples from the municipalities appearing in the above listing are:


title: Maine

text: There are thirty institutions of higher learning in Maine. These institutions include the University of Maine, which is the oldest, largest and only research university in the state. UMaine was founded in 1865 and is the state's only land grant and sea grant college. The University of Maine is located in the town of Orono and is the flagship of Maine. There are also branch campuses in Augusta, Farmington, Fort Kent, Machias, and Presque Isle.


title: Maine

text: Bowdoin College is a liberal arts college founded in 1794 in Brunswick, making it the oldest institution of higher learning in the state. Colby College in Waterville was founded in 1813 making it the second oldest college in Maine. Bates College in Lewiston was founded in 1855 making it the third oldest institution in the state and the oldest coeducational college in New England. The three colleges collectively form the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium and are ranked among the best colleges in the United States; often placing in the top 10% of all liberal arts colleges.


title: Maine

text: Maine's per-student public expenditure for elementary and secondary schools was 21st in the nation in 2012, at $12,344.


title: Maine

text: The collegiate system of Maine also includes numerous baccalaureate colleges such as: the Maine Maritime Academy (MMA), College of the Atlantic, Unity College, and Thomas College. There is only one medical school in the state, (University of New England's College of Osteopathic Medicine) and only one law school (The University of Maine School of Law). There is one art school in the state, Maine College of Art, along with a private graduate school, Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, which offers a Doctor of Philosophy to visual artists.


title: Maine

text: The Maine Community College System, founded in 1985 also serves "to provide associate degree, diploma and certificate programs directed at the educational, career and technical needs of the State's citizens and the workforce needs of the State's employers." This system includes Southern Maine Community College (SMCC), York County Community College (YCCC), Central Maine Community College (CMCC), Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC), Kennebec Valley Community College (KVCC), Northern Maine Community College (NMCC), and Washington County Community College (WCCC).


title: Maine

text: Private schools in Maine are funded independently of the state and its furthered domains. Private schools are less common than public schools. A large number of private elementary schools with under 20 students exist, but most private high schools in Maine can be described as "semi-private".


title: Maine

text: Maine was a center of agriculture before it achieved statehood. Prior to colonization, Wabanaki nations farmed large crops of corn and other produce in southern Maine.


title: Maine

text: The state is a major producer of potatoes. Until World War II, Maine was the number one potato producer in the nation. In 2022, Maine ranked ninth in producing the most potatoes in the nation. That same year, Maine potato growers shipped 21 million potatoes (equal to more than 530 truckloads) to processors in Washington state and as seed potatoes for Idaho farmers, after northwestern potato crops suffered from the hot, dry 2021 season.


title: Maine

text: Maine is the number one U.S. producer of low-bush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium). Preliminary data from the USDA for 2012 also indicate Maine was the largest blueberry producer of the major blueberry producing states, with 91,100,000 lbs. This data includes both low (wild), and high-bush (cultivated) blueberries: Vaccinium corymbosum.


title: Maine

text: Maine was a center of grain production in the 1800s, until grain production moved westward. However, in the early 2000s the local food movement spurred renewed interested in locally grown grains. In 2007, the Kneading Conference was founded. In, 2012, the Skowhegan grist mill Maine Grains opened. The revival of grain farming and milling in Maine has led to the creation of other businesses, including bakeries and malthouses. In 2020, the first Maine farmers grew hemp for its grain crop.


title: Maine

text: Dairy products and chicken's eggs are other major industries. Maine has a smaller number of commodity farms and confined animal feeding operations. Apples, maple syrup and sweet corn are other major agricultural crops.


title: Maine

text: Maine has many vegetable farms and other small, diversified farms. In the 1960s and 1970s, the book "Living the Good Life" by Helen Nearing and Scott Nearing caused many young people to move to Maine and engage in small-scale farming and homesteading. These back-to-the-land migrants increased the population of some counties.


title: Maine

text: Maine is home to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and had 535 certified organic farms in 2019.


title: Maine

text: Since the 1980s, the state has gotten a reputation for its local food and restaurant meals. Portland was named "Bon Appetit" magazine's Restaurant City of the Year in 2018. Biddeford was selected by Food & Wine in 2022 as one of America's next great food cities. In 2018, HealthIQ.com named Maine the 3rd most vegan state. Maine food shares many ingredients with Wabanaki cuisine, including corn, beans, squash, wild blueberries, maple syrup, fish, and seafood. Baked beans are a common dish in Maine, served at community suppers where the beans are sometimes cooked underground in a bean hole. In New England, Maine baked beans are one of two well-known regional styles of baked beans, the other being Boston baked beans. Both styles use similar seasonings (molasses, mustard, onions). The difference is that Maine baked beans use thicker skinned, native bean varieties such like Marafax, soldier, and yellow-eye beans, and Boston baked beans use thinner skinned, small, white beans such as navy beans.


title: Maine

text: Maine vernacular and terminology is unique in comparison to the rest of the country. There are unique terms like "from away", "Upta camp" and "Ayuh" that are popular in the state.


title: Maine

text: Citizens of Maine are often known as "Mainer"s, though the term is often reserved for those whose roots in Maine go back at least three generations. The term "Downeaster" may be applied to residents of the northeast coast of the state. The term "Mainiac" is considered by some to be derogatory, but is embraced with pride by others, and is used for a variety of organizations and for events such as the YMCA Mainiac Sprint Triathlon & Duathlon.


title: The CW

text: The CW is an American English-language commercial broadcast television network that is controlled, through The CW Network, LLC, by Nexstar Media Group, with a 75% ownership interest in the network. The network's name is an abbreviation derived from the first letters of the names of its two parent corporations at the time of its founding: "C" for CBS Entertainment Group and "W" for Warner Bros. Entertainment. Nexstar completed its acquisition of a controlling interest on October 3, 2022, with CBS Corporation successor Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery each retaining a 12.5% ownership stake in The CW Network, LLC.


title: The CW

text: The CW made its debut on September 18, 2006, after its two predecessors, UPN and The WB, respectively ceased independent operations on September 15 and 17 of that year. The CW's first two nights of programming – on September 18 and 19, 2006 – consisted of reruns and launch-related specials. The CW marked its formal launch date on September 20, 2006, with the two-hour premiere of the seventh cycle of "America's Next Top Model". Originally, the network's programming lineup was intended to appeal mainly to women between the ages of 18 and 34, although starting in 2011 the network increased in programming that appeals to men. As of August 2017, the CW's audience is 50% male and 50% female.


title: The CW

text: The network runs programming seven days a week: airing nightly in prime time, along with a Saturday morning live-action educational programming block produced by Hearst Media Production Group called "One Magnificent Morning".


title: The CW

text: The network is also available in southern Canada on pay television providers through stations owned-and-operated by Nexstar and on affiliates owned by Paramount and others that are located within proximity to the Canada–United States border (whose broadcasts of CW shows are subject to simultaneous substitution laws imposed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, if a Canadian network holds the broadcast rights); it is also available through two Nexstar-controlled stations that are classified in the United States as superstations – New York City affiliate WPIX and Los Angeles affiliate KTLA.


title: The CW

text: Additionally, The CW is available in northern Mexico through affiliates located near the Mexico–U.S. border (such as KFMB-DT2—San Diego/Tijuana, KECY-DT3 in El Centro, California, KVIA-DT2 in El Paso, and KCWT-CD with simulcast network KMBH-LD2 in McAllen/Brownsville, Texas) on pay television providers. In both Canada and Mexico, some free-to-air CW affiliate signals originating from the U.S. are receivable over-the-air in border areas depending on the station's signal coverage.


title: The CW

text: The CW Television Network is a successor to The WB and UPN, both of which launched within one week of each other in 1995.


title: The CW

text: UPN and The WB both began just as the Fox network had started to secure a foothold with American television audiences. The two networks launched to limited fanfare and generally mediocre to poor results. However, over the subsequent seasons, both were able to air several series that became quite popular (such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "", "7th Heaven", "Dawson's Creek", "Charmed", "Smallville", and "America’s Next Top Model"). Towards the end of their first decade on the air, The WB and UPN were in decline, unable to reach the audience share or have the effect that Fox had gained within its first decade, much less that of the Big Three networks (ABC, CBS and NBC). In the eleven years that UPN and The WB were in operation, the two networks lost a combined $2 billion. Chris-Craft Industries, Viacom, and Time Warner officials had discussed a possible merger of UPN and The WB as early as September 1995, only eight months after their respective launches; however, discussions ultimately broke down over issues on how to combine Chris-Craft and Tribune Broadcasting's station interests in the proposal to merge the networks, since the two companies' station portfolios overlapped with one another in several major markets. By 2003, however, Time Warner became mired in several debt problems. The company had already been responsible for shutting down Warner Bros.' and for selling off major portions of the conglomerate, such as the 2004 sale of Warner Bros. Records and the rest of Warner Music Group to an investor group led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Thomas H. Lee Partners.


title: The CW

text: Executives from CBS and Time Warner announced on January 24, 2006 that they would respectively shut down UPN and The WB, and combine resources to form a new broadcast network, to be known as The CW Television Network, that would – at the outset – feature programming from both of its predecessors-to-be as well as new content developed specifically for the new network. Warner and CBS expected to produce inexpensive shows for the network, which they could sell outside the US. CBS chairman Leslie Moonves explained that the name of the new network was formed from the first letters of CBS and Warner Bros, joking, "We couldn't call it the WC for obvious reasons." Although some executives reportedly disliked the new name, Moonves stated in March 2006 that there was "zero chance" the name would change, citing research claiming 48% of the target demographic were already aware of the CW name.


title: The CW

text: In May 2006, The CW announced that it would pick up a combined thirteen programs from its two predecessors to air as part of the network's inaugural fall schedule: seven series held over from The WB ("7th Heaven", "Beauty and the Geek", "Gilmore Girls", "One Tree Hill", "Reba", "Smallville" and "Supernatural") and six held over from UPN ("America's Next Top Model", "Veronica Mars", "Everybody Hates Chris", "Girlfriends", "All of Us" and "WWE SmackDown!"). Upon the network's launch, The CW chose to use the scheduling model utilized by The WB due in part to the fact that it had a more extensive base programming schedule than UPN, allowing for a larger total of weekly programming hours for the new network to fill. (The WB carried 30 hours of programming each week because it had a children's program block and a daytime lineup that UPN did not offer; UPN was primarily a prime time-only network with 10 weekly hours of network programming at the time of the network's shutdown.)


title: The CW

text: Like both UPN and The WB, The CW targets its programming towards younger audiences. CBS and Time Warner hoped that combining their networks' schedules and affiliate lineups would strengthen The CW into a fifth "major" broadcast network. One week before the network's official launch, on September 11, 2006, a new, full version of the network website was launched; the website began to feature more in-depth information about The CW's shows.


title: The CW

text: The CW launched with a premiere special / launch party from the CBS Paramount-produced "Entertainment Tonight" at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California on September 18, 2006, after a repeat of the tenth-season finale of "7th Heaven"; the same schedule was repeated on September 19, with the sixth-season finale of "Gilmore Girls". The network continued to air season finales from the previous season through the remainder of the first week, except for "America's Next Top Model" and "WWE SmackDown!", which respectively began their new seasons on September 20 and 22, with two-hour premieres. When "Top Model" made its network premiere on September 20, 2006, The CW scored a 3.4 rating/5 share (with hourly ratings of 3.1/5 and 3.6/6; The CW placed fifth overall) in the Nielsen household ratings. It scored a 2.6 rating among adults 18–49, finishing fourth in that age demographic and beating the 2.2 rating earned by Fox on that night. The network's second week consisted of season and series premieres for all of its other series from September 25 to October 1, with the exception of "Veronica Mars", which debuted its third season on October 3.


title: The CW

text: Despite having several of the most popular programs carried over from UPN and The WB as part of its schedule, The CW – even though it experienced some success with newer programs that launched in subsequent seasons which became modest hits – largely struggled to gain an audience foothold throughout its first five years on the air. Because of declining viewership for the network during the 2007–08 season and effects from the Writers Guild of America strike, the network announced on March 4, 2008, that it would eliminate its comedy department (dismissing executive vice president of comedy Kim Fleary and senior vice president of comedy Steve Veisel), while also combining its drama and current programming departments into a single scripted programming unit. The corporate restructuring resulted in the layoffs of approximately 25 to 30 employees. It also included the elimination of certain positions, other newly opened positions being left unfilled, layoffs from the Kids' WB unit (as the block was set to be replaced by The CW4Kids on May 24), and the elimination and transfer of marketing positions at The CW Plus to the network's marketing department.


title: The CW

text: On May 9, 2008, The CW announced that it would lease its Sunday lineup (then running from 5:00 to 10:00p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time) to production company Media Rights Capital (MRC). As Sundays have historically been a low-rated night for the network during its first two seasons on the air (due to stiff competition from CBS, ABC and Fox's strong Sunday lineups, and complicated further by NBC's acquisition of "Sunday Night Football" in September 2006, shortly before The CW debuted), the move allowed The CW to concentrate on its Monday through Friday prime time schedule, while giving MRC the right to develop and schedule programs of its own choosing and reap advertising revenue generated by the lineup. The Sunday series that were scheduled – two reality series ("4Real" and "In Harm's Way") and two scripted series (romantic dramedy "Valentine" and drama "Easy Money") – performed poorly in the ratings (averaging only 1.04 million viewers), prompting The CW to scrap its agreement with MRC and program Sunday nights on its own starting on November 30, 2008. With no first-run programming available to run on Sundays as a backup, the network added reruns of "The Drew Carey Show" and "Jericho", and movies to replace the MRC-produced programs.


title: The CW

text: One of the shows carried over to the network from UPN, "WWE SmackDown", ended its run on The CW after the September 26, 2008, episode due to negotiations ending between the WWE and The CW on renewing the program. Representatives for The CW later confirmed that it had chosen not to continue carrying "SmackDown" because the network had redefined its target audience as exclusively females 18 to 34 years old, whereas "SmackDown" targeted a predominantly male audience. Following "SmackDown"s move to MyNetworkTV that same season, the Fox-owned network (which launched the same month as The CW's debut, albeit two weeks earlier, on September 5, 2006) began beating The CW in the Friday ratings every week from that program's debut on the network, though The CW continued to beat MyNetworkTV overall.


title: The CW

text: The CW generally struggled in the Nielsen ratings from its inception, primarily placing fifth in all statistics tabulated by Nielsen (total audience viewership and demographic ratings). On several occasions, The CW was even outrated by the Spanish language network Univision. This led to speculation within the industry (including a May 16, 2008, article in "The Wall Street Journal") that CBS, Time Warner or both companies might abandon the venture if ratings did not improve. However, The CW's fortunes were buoyed in the 2008–09 and 2009–10 television seasons thanks to increased ratings among females in the 18–34 demographic and the buzz that some of its newer series (such as "Gossip Girl", "90210" and "The Vampire Diaries") had generated with audiences. Executives with CBS Corporation and Time Warner also emphasized their commitment to the network.


title: The CW

text: On May 5, 2009, The CW announced that it would give the five hours of network time on Sundays back to its affiliated stations that fall, effectively becoming a weeknight-only network in prime time, in addition to The CW Daytime and The CW4Kids blocks (the latter block, airing on Saturday mornings, would remain the only weekend programming supplied by the network). This change meant the Sunday late afternoon repeat block that The CW inherited from The WB (formerly branded by that network as "EasyView") was discontinued. Subsequently, in mid-May, 65% of The CW's affiliates, including those carrying The CW Plus, signed agreements to continue to air the replacement "MGM Showcase" movie package on Sundays, which was offered as a traditional syndicated film package meant for The CW's former prime time slot on that night.


title: The CW

text: On April 28, 2011, Mark Pedowitz was appointed by the network to succeed original president of entertainment Dawn Ostroff; Pedowitz was made the network's first president and assumed broader responsibilities in The CW's business operations than Ostroff had. As president of entertainment, Ostroff oversaw entertainment operations while John Maatta, the network's chief operating officer, handled business affairs; both reported to a board composed of CBS and Warner Bros. executives. Maatta began reporting to Pedowitz as a result of the latter's appointment as network president. Pedowitz revealed that the core target demographic of the network would not change, though The CW would attempt to lure new viewers. Pedowitz began looking to bring comedies back to The CW after Ostroff had publicly declared that the difficulty of developing comedies for its target demographic was the reason for their removal from the network following the 2008–09 season (with "Everybody Hates Chris", and "The Game" – a spin-off of "Girlfriends" – becoming the last comedies to be cancelled). The network also ordered more episodes of its original series and ran them consecutively starting on September 12 through the first week of December without repeats. In July 2012, Pedowitz no longer referred to the target demographic of The CW as women 18–34, but rather that it would now be an "18–34 adult network".


title: The CW

text: Although the network was still not profitable, CBS and Warner were very successful in selling their CW shows overseas. In 2011, a $1 billion deal with streaming service Netflix became another way to sell CW shows. The introduction of action-superhero series "Arrow," based on DC Comics' Green Arrow, received favorable reviews from critics and became a hit with audiences when it premiered. As evidence of the network's refocusing toward a broader audience, "Arrow" not only premiered to some of the highest viewership totals in the network's history (the third-highest overall , behind the series premieres of "The Vampire Diaries" and "The Flash"), but it also gave the network its strongest performance in the demographic of males 18–34 since "Smallville" ended its run in May 2011. The network also found success with its summer programming in 2013 with the revival of the U.S. version of the improv comedy series "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", which later became a year-round staple on the network's schedule. "Arrow" continued to perform strongly, leading to a spin-off with "The Flash", which surpassed "The Vampire Diaries" as the highest-rated premiere in the network's history and became the most-watched show on the network. "Jane the Virgin" earned some of the highest critical praise of any series during the 2014–15 television season, and became the first CW series ever to be nominated for, and win, a Golden Globe Award, with lead actress Gina Rodriguez winning the Golden Globe for "Best Actress in a Comedy or Variety Series".


title: The CW

text: Overall, the network ended the 2014–15 season posting its highest average total viewership in a single television season since 2007–08 with 2.15 million viewers, a 12% increase in total viewership year-to-year; The CW also posted its highest seasonal demographic ratings among males ages 18–49 with a 0.8 share.


title: The CW

text: Expanding on the success of the network's Arrowverse franchise, "DC's Legends of Tomorrow" premiered to high ratings for the network and became the most-watched show on the network's Thursday night block in two years. The 2015–16 season also saw "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" become one of the most critically acclaimed shows of the season and the second show on the network to be nominated for, and win, a Golden Globe Award, with actress Rachel Bloom winning a Golden Globe Award for "Best Actress in a Comedy or Variety Series".


title: The CW

text: The network's Arrowverse expanded again with "Supergirl" being moved to the network from CBS for its second season. The debut of Archie Comics-based "Riverdale" signaled the network's foray into mining their parent studio's library of IP to create new television series based on recognizable properties. This led to another new DC Comics series, "Black Lightning", and a rebooted "Dynasty". While it met with poor ratings, "Dynasty" proved lucrative thanks to the Netflix output deal and international syndication which earned CBS Studios millions of dollars per episode.


title: The CW

text: Selling CW series like "Dynasty" to Netflix and overseas markets was so profitable for Warner and CBS that the network almost stopped cancelling shows, and expanded its broadcast schedule. On February 14, 2018, The CW announced that it would add a 2-hour primetime block on Sunday nights beginning in the fourth quarter of 2018, returning the network to Sundays for the first time since the lease to Media Rights Capital ended in 2009, as well as expanding The CW's primetime slate from 10 hours a week to 12. Discussions with CBS and Warner Bros. about the expansion began as early as July 2017; both gave their approval to the move that December, with the network reaching clearance deals with key affiliate partners in early 2018.


title: The CW

text: On June 12, 2018, AT&T received antitrust approval to acquire Warner Bros. parent Time Warner, with the acquisition closing two days later. Time Warner was renamed WarnerMedia (now Warner Bros. Discovery) and AT&T became a co-owner of The CW with CBS.


title: The CW

text: The CW debuted reboots of "Charmed", "Roswell", and "Originals" spin-off "Legacies" during the 2018–19 season. Despite modest ratings, their renewals – along with the renewal of the entire 2018–19 lineup (absent those series already previously announced as ending) – reflected their value to network co-owners CBS and Warner Bros., which received the windfall of selling them to Netflix and international buyers. This strategy continued with the 2019–20 season debuts of the new Arrowverse series "Batwoman", "Riverdale" spin-off "Katy Keene", and "Nancy Drew".


title: The CW

text: On August 13, 2019, CBS and Viacom officially announced their intention to re-merge, with the combined company to be named ViacomCBS. The merger was completed on December 4, 2019, making them officially with AT&T's WarnerMedia co-owners of the CW Network.


title: The CW

text: Warner and CBS did not renew CW's Netflix deal in 2019, intending to use their shows on the network for their own streaming services. International sales also mostly ended, because both companies wanted to retain rights to their own shows to compete with Netflix outside the United States. WarnerMedia's HBO Max streaming service subsequently acquired exclusive streaming rights to Warner Bros.-produced CW shows. This began with the 2019–20 season, with the Warner Bros.-produced "Batwoman" and "Katy Keene" debuting on HBO Max after their current seasons finished airing on The CW. The CBS Studios-produced "Nancy Drew" was originally announced to be heading to corporate-sibling owned CBS All Access, but appeared on HBO Max instead. The reason for this was amid the rebranding of CBS All Access to Paramount+ and the changes surrounding the ViacomCBS merger, CBS and Warner Bros. made the collective decision to have all CW shows have a singular streaming home on HBO Max.


title: The CW

text: Beyond being the streaming home of CW programming, HBO Max shares a co-ownership connection with the network which allows for programming partnerships. This began with DC Comics series "Stargirl", which The CW shared with DC Universe. DC Universe and The CW co-financed the series, with episodes premiering on DC Universe and airing the next day on The CW. After DC Universe was folded into HBO Max, "Stargirl" was renewed with a new co-finance deal in which The CW receives first-run airings followed by its launch on HBO Max. Going forward, The CW and HBO Max will continue to collaborate on potentially co-financing new projects, with the model of premiering first on HBO Max and a second run on The CW. "They creatively have to want the show too and believe that the show should go on their platform first for them to work," CW CEO Pedowitz said. "For us its a great model because it's a way to get excellent summer scripted programming and maximize programming across platforms."


title: The CW

text: On May 13, 2021, The CW announced that it would begin programming Saturday nights on a regular basis beginning in the 2021–22 television season, following approval of the expansion by the network's key affiliate groups. As part of the deal, The CW ceased programming The CW Daytime block and returned the time to its stations. With the addition of Saturday nights, The CW has programming on every night of the week for the first time in the network's history, becoming only the sixth American English-language commercial broadcast network ever and the first since Fox to have offered prime time content on a nightly basis.


title: The CW

text: On January 5, 2022, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS were exploring a possible sale of either a majority stake or all of The CW, and that Nexstar Media Group, which became The CW's largest affiliate group when it acquired former The WB co-owner Tribune Broadcasting in 2019, was considered a leading bidder. Network president and CEO Mark Pedowitz confirmed talks of a potential sale but added that it was "too early to speculate what might happen". Nexstar CEO Perry Sook in Spring 2022 did not confirm the rumored buyout but stated that he would not be surprised if Nexstar owned a broadcast network.


title: The CW

text: In May 2022, three months before Nexstar made their purchase official, The CW canceled a number of shows. Ten shows, three times the average number per year that The CW had canceled over the previous decade, were axed, including one-season shows "4400" and "Naomi", and longtime fixtures "Batwoman", "Charmed", "Dynasty", "In the Dark", "Legends of Tomorrow", "Roswell, New Mexico", and "Legacies". More shows were cancelled or given final season orders in the following months.


title: The CW

text: In late June 2022, "The Wall Street Journal" indicated a purchase of The CW by Nexstar was close, and on August 15 Nexstar confirmed it had "entered into a definitive agreement" to acquire a 75% majority share in the network; the remaining 25% would be shared equally by Paramount Global (the former ViacomCBS) and Warner Bros. Discovery (the company resulting from Discovery Communications' acquisition of WarnerMedia). Additionally, Nexstar stated that Mark Pedowitz would remain the chairman and CEO of The CW. Though no monetary terms were announced, Nexstar reportedly would not pay any cash or stock up front, and would absorb approximately $100 million of network debt. "The Hollywood Reporter" stated that Nexstar retained $54 million based on its cash on hand, accounts receivable, accounts payable and other liabilities. As the sale did not entail the transfer of any FCC broadcast licenses, Nexstar immediately took operational control of the network.


title: The CW

text: Nexstar, in a conference call that took place the day its purchase was announced, indicated a desire to run The CW cost-consciously. Citing research that indicated the network spends “almost twice” the amount other broadcast networks spend on programming, a partial reason for the May 2022 cancellations, Nexstar stated that it planned to seek shows with smaller production budgets and/or a reasonably-priced acquisition fee, including unscripted fare, syndicated content, and other content that can create profits through broadcast airings. Nexstar also stated that it aimed for The CW to turn a profit by 2025.


title: The CW

text: In the conference call, Nexstar indicated that it wanted to convert The CW into a network with broad appeal. It cited data indicating that the young audience which The CW focused upon preferred watching its shows through streaming platforms instead of during live broadcasts, while the average audience of a broadcast CW affiliate was approximately 58 years old. Nexstar indicated that it would focus on the older audiences as well and not just the younger demographic. In particular, Nexstar was reported to have been seeking older-skewing dramas, police procedurals, and sitcoms.


title: The CW

text: Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery would still produce content for The CW as primary content suppliers, though Nexstar noted that the arrangement would be primarily for the 2022–23 broadcast season. It indicated that it "will have the option to extend the partnership" with Paramount and WBD beyond that season. Nexstar stated in September 2022 that it would seek to supplement The CW's content by acquiring projects from studios beyond solely Paramount and WBD. while any The CW content not licensed to other streaming services would continue to appear on its own streaming platform CW Seed.


title: The CW

text: On October 3, Nexstar officially announced that it had closed the deal to acquire the majority ownership of The CW. Longtime Chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz resigned from his role, with Dennis Miller taking over as the president of The CW. Rick Haskins, President of Streaming and Chief Branding Officer, as well as Chief Financial Officer Mitch Nedick were let go on the same day. Thirty to forty employees were laid off on November 1, including several executives. Longtime executive Paul Hewitt was replaced with Beth Feldman as the Senior Vice President of Network Communications. On the following day, Brad Schwartz was appointed as the President for the Entertainment division, overseeing programming strategy, creative and brand development, and day-to-day operations.


title: The CW

text: On November 8, Nexstar announced that the carryover programming from the former parent companies of The CW, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, would be minimal by the 2023–24 season.


title: The CW

text: The CW airs its prime time programming for only two hours every night, compared to the three hours on Monday through Saturdays and four hours on Sunday nights programmed by the three longest-established networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC. This "common prime" scheduling (which was originated by Fox when it launched its primetime schedule in April 1987, and later adopted by CW predecessors The WB and UPN when they launched in January 1995) allows the option for affiliates to air either a local newscast, syndicated programming or both during the 10:00–11:00 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific Time) time period. As with The WB and UPN, The CW formerly did not run network programming on Saturday nights – even though it maintains a syndicated children's program block on Saturday mornings – allowing affiliates to run syndicated programs, sports, movies or network programs that were preempted from earlier in the week because of special programming carried by the station, in the 8:00–10:00 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific) time period (MyNetworkTV also does not carry any weekend prime time programming, having turned network time on Saturday evenings over to its affiliates in March 2007).


title: The CW

text: The CW, unlike the "Big Four" broadcast networks, does not air any national newscasts, network-supplied sports, or late-night programming.


title: The CW

text: Because of these factors, The CW's affiliates handle the responsibility of programming non-network time periods, with the majority of its stations filling those slots mainly with syndicated programming. However, some of the network's affiliates broadcast their own local news and/or sports programs (either produced by the station itself or through outsourcing agreements with an affiliate of another network). Many affiliates also carry telecasts of basketball, football and in some cases, other collegiate sporting events (such as baseball or hockey) that are produced by syndicators such as American Sports Network and Raycom Sports, while a few carry games from local teams of major professional sports leagues such as Major League Baseball and the NBA.


title: The CW

text: The CW provides 17 hours of regularly scheduled network programming each week, over the course of seven days. The network provides fourteen hours of prime time programming to its owned-and-operated and affiliated stations nightly from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (nearly as much programming as Fox which airs 15 hours of primetime programming). Outside of prime time, a three-hour educational programming block called "One Magnificent Morning" (which airs as part of the CW schedule through a time-lease agreement with Litton Entertainment) airs on Saturday mornings from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in all time zones.


title: The CW

text: The Litton-produced Saturday morning block (the latter of which is subject to scheduling variances similar to the weekday hour in some markets, such as in Atlanta and San Diego) are designed to be tape delayed and are therefore recommended to air in the same time slot in all time zones, though both are broadcast one hour earlier on affiliates of The CW Plus in the Central, Mountain and Alaska Time Zones. In Guam, CW Plus affiliate KTKB-LD in Hagåtña airs the CW schedule day and date on a one-day tape delay from its initial broadcast because of the time difference between Guam and the continental United States as the island is on the west side of the International Date Line. "Supernatural" (which originally aired on The WB) was the final CW series carried over from either of the network's respective predecessors that continued to be broadcast on the network, airing its final episode in November 2020.


title: The CW

text: The CW formerly aired short segments during commercial breaks within certain episodes of its programs known as "Content Wraps" – a play on the network's name – in order to advertise one company's product during part or the entirety of a commercial break, a concept since classified under the term of native advertising. The entertainment magazine series "CW Now" was inspired in part by the success of the Content Wraps as it was intended to be a series with product placement; the program was cancelled in 2008, after a single 23-episode season. For the 2006–07 season, The CW reached an agreement with American Eagle Outfitters to incorporate tie-ins with the company's aerie clothing line as part of the Content Wrap concept within the network's Tuesday night schedule, which included subjects in the commercials commenting on plot points in each of the shows. The agreement was cut down to regular advertising in February 2007, after a fan backlash by viewers of both shows and general criticism of the campaign.


title: The CW

text: On May 12, 2021, executives with the CW Network announced it would start offering prime-time programming seven days a week for the first time since the broadcast network launched in 2006. As part of the deal, the CW Network said it returned its 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. weekday programming block to its affiliates.


title: The CW

text: The CW does not produce any national news content, and most of its affiliates do not have their own autonomous news operations. The network has four affiliates that produce their own local news programming, which were all carry-overs from previous affiliations: WPIX in New York City and KTLA in Los Angeles started their news departments as independent stations and/or during early affiliations with other networks including DuMont; WCCB in Charlotte, North Carolina started its news operation as a Fox affiliate; and WISH-TV in Indianapolis has been airing local news since 1956. KTLA has the largest number of weekly hours devoted to local news programming of any CW affiliate with 89¾ hours of scheduled news each week.


title: The CW

text: Eight other CW-affiliated stations maintained in-house news operations, but have since disaffiliated from the network or discontinued in-house production:


title: The CW

text: News programming on CW affiliates – if the station carries any – is often outsourced to another major network affiliate in the market, especially if they are operated as part of a duopoly or management agreement, such as Nexstar Media Group's respective CW-Fox duopolies of KWGN-TV/KDVR in Denver and KPLR-TV/KTVI in St. Louis (the Fox stations in both duopolies – KDVR and KTVI – were formerly owned by Local TV, with Tribune-owned KWGN and KPLR respectively consolidating with those stations through local marketing agreements formed as part of a wider partnership involving Local TV, which Tribune bought outright in 2013); Evansville, Indiana affiliate WTVW (which joined The CW in January 2013) and ABC affiliate WEHT (a virtual duopoly formed through Nexstar Broadcasting Group's 2011 purchase of WEHT and trade of WTVW to partner group Mission Broadcasting); and the CW-CBS O&O duopoly of KMAX-TV/KOVR in Sacramento (the former of which has produced a morning newscast, "Good Day Sacramento", since it was a UPN owned-and-operated station, and – despite the two becoming a duopoly in 2005 – has remained separate from a more traditional morning show on KOVR pre-"CBS This Morning", which produces KMAX's evening newscast). Another station that has newscast is KASW in Phoenix, Arizona during ABC's broadcast of Good Morning America.


title: The CW

text: The scheduling of news programming on The CW's affiliates often mirrors that of Fox stations, with morning newscasts (designed to compete with the national morning shows on ABC, CBS and NBC within the 7:00–9:00 a.m. timeslot; in duopolies, these are typically an extension of a sister station's morning newscast) and a prime time newscast within the 10:00–11:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific (9:00–10:00 p.m. Central/Mountain) time slot. Rarely (but more common on the few major-market CW affiliates with in-house news departments), they may also include midday and/or early evening newscasts, including the network newscast slot of 6:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. CT.


title: The CW

text: On September 23, 2006, the "Kids' WB" children's programming block – which originated on The WB in September 1995 and continued to be produced by Warner Bros. Television – was carried over to The CW as part of its inaugural programming lineup; although the network on which it originated ceased operations the week before, the "Kids' WB" branding was retained for the block. On October 2, 2007, through a joint decision between corporate parents Warner Bros. Television and CBS Corporation, The CW announced that it would discontinue the "Kids' WB" block due to competition from cable channels aimed at the demographic such as Cartoon Network (which carried many series shared with the block and vice versa), Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, and would sell the programming rights to the network's Saturday morning block to 4Kids Entertainment (which at the time of the announcement, had produced a competing children's programming block, "4Kids TV", for Fox). "Kids' WB" ended its run on May 17, 2008 (though some CW affiliates that delayed the block to Sundays, such as Atlanta O&O WUPA, aired the block for the last time on May 18).


title: The CW

text: The following week on May 24, 4Kids took over responsibility for The CW's Saturday morning children's lineup, with the debut of a new block called "The CW4Kids". The block's lineup initially consisted mostly of programs carried over from "Kids' WB", before eventually adding 4Kids-produced shows such as "Chaotic" as well as new seasons of "Yu-Gi-Oh!" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". The block was rebranded into "Toonzai" on August 14, 2010 (though The CW4Kids name was retained as a sub-brand to fulfill branding obligations that the network had to comply with per 4Kids Entertainment's contract to lease The CW's Saturday morning timeslots); "Toonzai" ended its run on August 18, 2012.


title: The CW

text: On July 3, 2012, Saban Brands and Kidsco Media Ventures, affiliates of Saban Capital Group, entered into an agreement to program the five-hour Saturday morning time slot with a new action-adventure and comedy programming block for The CW. TheCW4Kids/Toonzai was replaced by "Vortexx" on August 25, 2012, featuring programs such as "Power Rangers Lost Galaxy" and "WWE Saturday Morning Slam", the latter of which marked the return of WWE programming to the network since "WWE Smackdown" moved to MyNetworkTV in 2008.


title: The CW

text: On June 5, 2014, The CW announced an agreement with Litton Entertainment to program a block of live-action series designed to comply with the FCC's educational programming guidelines. Vortexx (which was the last remaining non-educational children's block on the major U.S. broadcast networks) was replaced by "One Magnificent Morning" on October 4, 2014. The block features a mix of wildlife and lifestyle-themed programs, similar in vein to those featured on the Litton-produced blocks aired by ABC and CW sister network CBS (one of its initial programs, "Expedition Wild", was moved over to "One Magnificent Morning" from the ABC block; while one of the CW block's early entries, "Rock the Park", moved to "Litton's Weekend Adventure" after one season). On January 7, 2016, The CW and Litton announced a five-year renewal for the block, extending it through the 2020–21 broadcast season. Starting with the 2017–18 broadcast season, the block's running time was reduced to three hours and began airing from 8:00am to 11:00am. The CW returned the two hours of reclaimed time to the affiliates.


title: The CW

text: The CW has 32 owned-and-operated stations, eight stations owned by CBS, and current and pending affiliation agreements with 220 additional television stations encompassing 50 states, the District of Columbia and three U.S. possessions. Counting only conventional CW affiliates and over-the-air affiliates of The CW Plus, the network has an estimated combined national reach of 100% of all households in the United States (or 330,866,316 Americans with at least one television set); this makes The CW the largest U.S. broadcast network by population reach percentage. Since January 2016, three U.S. states (Delaware, New Hampshire, and New Jersey) lack a locally licensed CW affiliate, largely due to a lack of a need for a local affiliate as those states are located within the broadcast ranges of stations in nearby states. Delaware is served by Philadelphia's WPSG and Salisbury, Maryland affiliate WMDT-DT2, while New Hampshire is served by three CW stations based in surrounding states (including Boston affiliate WLVI). New Jersey is served by WPSG and New York City affiliate WPIX.


title: The CW

text: As a newer broadcast network, The CW maintains affiliations with low-power stations (broadcasting either in analog or digital) in a few markets, such as Reno, Nevada (KRNS-CD) and Boise, Idaho (KYUU-LD). In some markets, including both of those mentioned, these stations also maintain digital simulcasts on a subchannel of a co-owned/co-managed full-power television station. The CW also maintains a sizeable number of subchannel-only affiliations, the majority of which are with stations in cities located outside of the 50 largest Nielsen-designated markets and receive the network's programming via The CW Plus; the largest subchannel-only CW affiliate by market size, as of May 31, 2017, is KFMB-TV DT2 in San Diego, California.


title: The CW

text: The Sinclair Broadcast Group is the largest operator of CW stations by numerical total, owning or providing services to 25 CW-affiliated stations, nine subchannel-only affiliates and one cable-only affiliate, covering 17% of all U.S. television markets; Nexstar Media Group is the largest operator of CW stations in terms of overall market reach, owning or providing services to 28 CW stations (including its largest affiliates in New York and Los Angeles), covering 28% of the U.S.


title: The CW

text: On the day of the network launch announcement, The CW immediately announced it had reached ten-year affiliation agreements with Tribune Broadcasting and CBS Television Stations. Tribune originally committed 16 stations that were previously affiliated with The WB (including its flagship broadcast stations WGN-TV in Chicago, KTLA in Los Angeles and WPIX in New York City; another committed station, KSWB-TV in San Diego, joined Fox in August 2008, and two others, WLVI-TV in Boston and WCWN in Albany, New York were respectively sold by Tribune to Sunbeam Television and Freedom Communications shortly after the network launched), while CBS committed 11 of its UPN stations (including WKBD in Detroit, WPSG in Philadelphia, KBHK-TV (now KBCW) in San Francisco and WUPA in Atlanta). These stations combined to reach 48% of all television households in the United States. Both companies also owned several UPN and WB-affiliated stations that did not join The CW in overlapping markets (such as Seattle, Philadelphia and Dallas). As part of its affiliation agreement with the network, the Tribune Company agreed to divest its ownership interest in The WB (a move it made partly to avoid shouldering shutdown costs for The WB) and did not acquire an equity stake in The CW.


title: The CW

text: The network stated that it would eventually reach 95% of all U.S. television households. In markets where separate affiliates of both UPN and The WB operated, only one station became a CW affiliate. Executives were on record as preferring the "strongest" stations among The WB and UPN's existing affiliates. As one example, the new network's first affiliate outside the core group of Tribune and CBS-owned stations, WJZY in Charlotte (which was later acquired by Fox Television Stations and converted into a Fox O&O in July 2013), was tied with Atlanta O&O WUPA as UPN's fifth highest-rated station. In most cases, it was obvious where the new network would affiliate; there were only a few markets (such as Philadelphia, Miami–Fort Lauderdale, Boston, Charlotte, and Atlanta) where the WB and UPN affiliates were both relatively strong in terms of local overall viewership. For example, one of the earliest affiliates to be announced outside the core group, WKCF in Orlando, Florida, had not only been The WB's highest-rated affiliate for the virtual entirety of that network's run, but had also been the fourth highest-rated television station in Central Florida.


title: The CW

text: Nearly all of The CW's affiliates were formerly affiliated with UPN or The WB, with very few having been independent stations or affiliates of other networks prior to joining the network; a notable exception was Las Vegas affiliate KVCW, which had been a fairly successful independent before joining The CW. Although it was generally understood that The CW was a merger of UPN and The WB, the new network's creation was not structured as a merger in the legal sense. Rather, it was one new network launching at the same time that two others shut down, although it did assume certain programming content, operations, and management from its predecessors. As such, The CW was not obligated by existing affiliations with The WB and UPN; it had to negotiate from scratch with individual stations. As a result, in several markets, the CW affiliation is on a local station different from either the former WB and UPN stations (for example, the CW affiliation in Las Vegas ended up on KVCW, instead of former WB affiliate KVMY or now-defunct former UPN affiliate KTUD-CA). The network has also affiliated with some digital subchannels, usually those launched by a local Big Four affiliate as a new service, in several other markets – especially if fewer than six commercial television stations existed at the time of affiliation, requiring The CW to carry its programming on a subchannel by default (for example, The CW opted to affiliate with a subchannel of WKRC-TV in Cincinnati – which has only five commercial full-power stations – instead of former WB affiliate WSTR-TV, which instead became an affiliate of MyNetworkTV).


title: The CW

text: Because of the availability of "instant duopoly" digital subchannels that will likely be easily available on cable and satellite, and the overall lack of a need to settle for a secondary affiliation with shows aired in problematic timeslots that would subject the timeshifted programs to lower average viewership in certain markets, both The CW and MyNetworkTV launched with far greater national coverage than that enjoyed by UPN and The WB when they both launched in January 1995. UPN, for several years, had affiliation gaps in the top 30 markets, and by 2005 managed to cover only 86% of the country. This resulted in secondary affiliations with other networks and the resulting diluted ratings when programs were shown out of their intended timeslots, or the lack of the program airing at all (a problem experienced by many fans of the "Star Trek" franchise with "" and "").


title: The CW

text: The announcement of The CW caused the largest single shakeup in U.S. broadcast television since the affiliation alliance between Fox and New World Communications in 1994 (as well as a separate alliance with Burnham Broadcasting that began a year later) and the subsequent launches of UPN and The WB the following year. While The CW's debut affected more markets, it likely did not cause the same degree of viewer confusion, as no affiliates of the four major networks dropped those affiliations to join The CW (some "Big Four" affiliations did change at this time, but for unrelated reasons). The WB and UPN were the first major television networks to shut down since the collapse of the DuMont Television Network in August 1955, although other small broadcast television networks have also ceased operations over the years.


title: The CW

text: It became clear that Fox Television Stations, which purchased several UPN-affiliated stations from that network's former co-owner Chris-Craft Industries in 2002, would be affected. Its UPN affiliates in five major markets (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Houston) did not receive affiliations with The CW, due to the agreement with Tribune, and Fox made it clear it would not even seek carriage of the network for its UPN stations in four other markets. All network logos and references were quickly removed from Fox's UPN stations. Shortly thereafter, Fox parent News Corporation (which spun off its American media and entertainment properties into 21st Century Fox as part of the company's July 2013 corporate separation) announced that it would launch MyNetworkTV, a programming service meant to fill the two nightly prime time hours that UPN would vacate on the network's Fox-owned affiliates after The CW launched. Fox also offered the service to stations owned by other broadcasting groups.


title: The CW

text: In markets where The WB and UPN were carried on separate stations, one of the two local outlets was left out in the merger; most of the stations that did not join The CW had signed affiliation agreements with MyNetworkTV instead, while others elected to become independent stations. Some stations (mainly digital subchannels, some cable channels that were formerly part of The WB 100+ Station Group, and struggling low-power stations) which did not affiliate with either network opted instead to shut down permanently.


title: The CW

text: Like its predecessors UPN and by technicality, The WB (as none of Tribune Broadcasting's WB stations were considered to be O&Os since Time Warner held majority ownership of that network), The CW does not have owned-and-operated stations in any of the three largest U.S. television markets – New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. The network's "de facto" owned-and-operated flagship stations are CBS-owned WPSG in Philadelphia and KBCW in San Francisco, both of which also became UPN's largest O&O after Chris-Craft Industries (which sold most of its UPN stations, including its affiliates in New York City and Los Angeles, to Fox Television Stations in 2001) had its ownership stake in that network acquired by Viacom in March 2000 (neither UPN nor the DuMont Television Network had an O&O in Chicago at all; a similar situation arose with DuMont's O&O in Los Angeles, present-day CW affiliate KTLA – which had disaffiliated from the network in 1948 shortly after the FCC ruled that it and WDTV in Pittsburgh (now KDKA-TV, a CW corporate cousin through CBS Corporation), to be O&Os through their then-owner Paramount Pictures' voting stock interest in DuMont).