CW: Not the country-western network
The CW, the new network that resulted from the combination of UPN and the WB, is presenting today at the TV Critics’ Association meeting. We’re all bathed in a wash of green, since green is the network’s color and their new logo is everywhere. Their pages got the worst of it, though, these helpful young folks who hand critics’ microphones out at the presentations are decked out in bright green blazers over white shirts, pants and ties (for the men) and green blouses with white jackets and skirts (for the women). Looks kind of like a Shamrock Shake convention. Or slightly Oompa Loompa-y.

CW president Dawn Ostroff’s name is well-known (and perhaps well-cursed) by various fan bases across the U.S., thanks to her role in deciding which shows survived (“America’s Next Top Model,” duh) and which  didn’t (“Everwood”) when UPN and WB took that long walk off the Santa Monica Pier.

Ostroff announced the new network’s official premiere date will be Sept. 20, with a two-hour “Top Model” premiere. Shows will continue to roll out through the next three weeks, with “Veronica Mars” getting the latest premiere, Oct. 3. Shows are grouped in theme nights, with “7^th Heaven” leading into new drama “Runaway” on Mondays, “Smallville” preceding “Supernatural” on Thursdays, and, the biggie, “Gilmore Girls” starting the estrogen flowing before “Veronica Mars” on Tuesdays. UPN will officially go dark Sept. 15, with the WB turning out the lights on the 17^th. Reruns and specials will run on those channels before the CW takes them over. The CW is trying to skew young, aiming for 18-34 year olds, the only network specifically targeting that group.

One aspect of the new CW that’s almost as controversial as anything involving its shows: The network is selling something called “content wraps” (note the initials) to its advertisers. Essentially they’re three-part mini-shows into which product placement is shoehorned in. A product, say a makeup line, would buy the entire night on one show. Then instead of cutting to commercials, the show will cut to part one, two, or three of the content wrap, in which a real couple might be given makeovers (using the sponsors’ products, duh) before going on a filmed blind date.

So if you’re not getting enough plugs for Lash Exact mascara on “Top Model” itself, you could get more in the content wraps. My sense is that they’re like the advertorials so many magazines now run—the content is bought and paid for, but they try to put legitimate looking content around it so the viewer doesn’t feel the product is beating him or her over the head. Yet in the example shown, an eye doctor is seen fitting the male half of the blind date for contacts while exclaiming “This contact lens is brand new!” Wow. Subtle.

“Everwood”
TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello asked Ostroff about the “Everwood” cancellation, making the CW execs aware of the online campaign by fans to transport a Ferris wheel to the CW executive offices this week. Ostroff took the news that a carnival ride was coming to her workplace with aplomb, claiming it was an “agonizing decision” to cancel “Everwood” but allowing that it was “never really able to anchor a night.” And can I just say” A Ferris wheel? I remember when folks were sending cans of Raviolios to try and keep “Relativity” on the air. That didn’t work either, but at least was a bit smaller in scope. (A Ferris wheel was featured in the “Everwood” finale, Raviolios were a favorite of a “Relativity” cast member.)

“7^th Heaven”
Speaking of seemingly doomed shows, “7^th Heaven” was saved from the dustbin of history at the last second. Ostroff’s plot info for that show: Haylie Duff’s character, Sandy, will be entering seminary school in the new season. Duff will be appearing in Broadway’s “Hairspray,” and some of her scenes will be shot in New York as she is located there for the time being. Ostroff did agree that some other “Heaven” regulars might slip into recurring roles only, but promised that the Camden parents and Lucy will remain series regulars.

“One Tree Hill”
She touched briefly on the decision to bring back “One Tree Hill,” saying while the show is “not a critic’s darling,” it “has a great audience for us,” and that the show could have turned into a bona fide hit had it stayed behind “Gilmore Girls.” (The Yule Log could also become a hit with a “Gilmore” lead-in, is my guess.) She added that the network “felt there was a lot of room for [“One Tree Hill”] to grow.”

Other CW notes:

• Whoopi Goldberg will appear on multiple episodes of “Everybody Hates Chris.” She’ll play a neighbor of the family, Tyler James Williams, the actor who plays young Chris, told me. He hasn’t met her yet, but he said he’s really excited about working with her.
• At midseason, look for a new Kevin Williamson show, “Hidden Palms,” which features one of my favorite “American Dreams” alumni, Gail O’Grady, fresh from the wreck of “Hot Properties.” “Reba” is also on the shelf awaiting a midseason call.
• Ostroff was vague about the departure of “Gilmore Girls” executive producers Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino, but she did say “it’s hard to follow in Sherman-Palladino’s footsteps.” (More on Gilmore Girls in its own entry.)

Random notes from the day:

• Amazing what you learn from the LA Times’ health session. Apparently what I have always called “trampolines” are now called “rebounders.” I love LA. (No, I really do…but…”rebounders”?)
• When I grabbed some Internet time on a computer provided for general press use, I found its home page had been set to that of the American Headache Society. Insert your own joke here.
• It’s my first press tour, but I catch on fast: I’ve learned that if you want to be sure to get a question asked, ask it at a panel for a new show. The old shows are familiar to so many people that critics are jumping over each other to get their questions in, but the new-show panels sometimes feature some uncomfortable silences.
• Former TV critic and now network publicity guy Keith Marder apparently is known for starting things off with a comedy routine. His best two jokes: That the CW’s new slogan is “Two wrongs [UPN and the WB, one presumes] DO make a right,” and a comparison of the World Cup to “The Sopranos”: “The Italians won, everybody watched, and now they’ll go away for four years.”