As TV Fanatic Turns 20, We Owe a Thank You to The CW

It’s hard to believe it, but TV Fanatic has been around for 20 years. I’ve been around for 12 of those years. Time really does fly!

Before I joined the team, I lived in the comments section, debating the latest developments on Gossip Girl and questioning whether One Tree Hill was far superior following its five-year time jump.

Without The CW, I wouldn’t have found my voice in entertainment journalism. And there’s a strong argument that TV Fanatic wouldn’t have found its identity either.

The site was well known for reviews, caption contests, roundtables, and everything in between.

Carissa and I had a bit of a back-and-forth when I responded to her call for writers in summer 2014, because screeners weren’t as prevalent back then as they are now.

Covering The CW meant watching live. There were no screeners. No early access. If you weren’t watching in real time, you were already behind.

There was no other way, and post-airdate feature coverage wasn’t as extensive as it is now.

Back then, live viewing wasn’t optional — it was the culture. Reviews had to go up fast. And if you were late, readers were already deep into someone else’s comment section.

Living in the UK, it wasn’t uncommon for me to watch TV until the early hours of the morning because these shows were so ingrained in pop culture that the only way to be a fan was to watch them as soon as they were available.

Dedication Was Required to Cover The CW Shows

Those 2 a.m. episode drops weren’t just about coverage. They were about belonging. The only way to be part of the conversation was to be there the moment it happened.

Back then, these TV shows required attention. They weren’t mere background TV you could scroll through on your phone while passively watching.

The Vampire Diaries‘ head-spinning cliffhangers wouldn’t have been possible with viewers glued to their phones.

Given the network’s target audience, there was a huge reliance on ‘ships, one of the things that has generated a lot of debate on TV Fanatic over the past two decades.

Many shows on competing networks had huge audiences, but generated so little conversation that we stopped covering them entirely.

For years, The CW carried a stigma. Its shows were dismissed as niche, unserious, or poorly rated. But anyone who spent time online knew better.

Maybe that’s why the network started to zero in on the 18-34 demographic: when it did, and the numbers were released, some of the shows were leaps and bounds higher than the competition.

It’s a shame what The CW has become in the Nexstar era, as the network pivoted toward broader programming and away from the identity that once made it feel singular.

Frankly, I can’t remember the last CW show I watched, but I can remember the shows I was last obsessed with — Dynasty, Legacies, and Riverdale.

The CW Is Very Different in 2026

Were they anything close to the network’s heyday in terms of ‘ships, twists, and everything else? Not a chance, but they were comfort TV that perfectly embodied the network’s target audience.

With the advent of streaming, teen dramas have changed, and with most series dropping all their episodes at once, there are fewer places than ever for such programming.

The CW fundamentally changed TV Fanatic. It taught us urgency. It taught us passion. It taught us that conversation mattered just as much as ratings.

And while the network looks very different today, the DNA it helped build — the ‘ships, the twists, the late-night recaps, the comment-section chaos — is still woven into who we are 20 years later.

It may seem like a struggle at times, but we’re still here, adapting to the ever-changing TV industry.

Now, it’s over to you, TV Fanatics.

Were you as enamored with The CW as I was? Did you round up your friends to dive into the latest relationship drama?

Let’s talk all about it in the comments section!