WB aims for older audience

On the heels of a season that left the WB at the bottom of the ratings heap, chairman Garth Ancier called his network’s long-standing strategy of targeting teens a mistake and acknowledged that he is looking to attract older viewers this fall.

Although younger viewers vanished from all major networks this season, the problem has been particularly egregious at the WB, which has targeted the 12-to-34-year-old audience with such shows as “Charmed” and “Smallville.” Young adults, however, have been flocking to cable, video games and the Internet for entertainment. This fall, young actors such as Chad Michael Murray of “One Tree Hill” will share space on a network with seasoned actors like Christine Lahti, who plays the mother of a future U.S. president on “Jack and Bobby,” and veteran comedians like Jeff Foxworthy and Drew Carey.

Ancier also admitted he’s disappointed with the racial homogeneity of the casts for the WB’s fall shows.

“We are openly not happy about the lack of diversity on the schedule,” said Ancier, speaking to a gathering of television critics in Century City. “The only thing you do to fix it is to develop shows that are more diverse going forward. We did develop other shows that were more diverse but didn’t pick those up.”

In fact, the network’s most diverse cast is on the reality game show “Studio 7,” which premieres July 22, said Ancier, who became chairman of the WB in June when co-chairman Jordan Levin resigned. (The WB is owned by Time Warner Inc. and Tribune Co., which publishes the Los Angeles Times.)

David Janollari, who joined the WB as president of entertainment in June, echoed that sentiment. “We’re living in a more ethnically diverse country, and we have to put that on our shows.”

The move to pull in more adults doesn’t mean the network will abandon science fiction or fantasy shows, such as “Charmed,” “Smallville” or “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which put the 10-year-old network on the television map. “We’re not moving away from anything,” Janollari said. “We have to continue to try every kind of show to see what becomes a big hit. We are looking for something, like ‘Buffy,’ to galvanize audiences.”