The CW's Dawn Ostroff Talks MELROSE and More

The CW’s president of entertainment, Dawn Ostroff, discussed MELROSE PLACE, 90210 and more with TVWeek's Josef Adalian.

On the new MELROSE PLACE:

TVWeek: Where do you stand with getting Heather Locklear to be involved in the show?

Ms. Ostroff: You know, we are going to talk to Heather. We’ve talked to her representatives, and we can either do the show with or without, and we have a creative way to do it either way.

TVWeek: Has she indicated she’s interested?

Ms. Ostroff: I think she’s interested, although we don’t know if that means interested in one episode, we don’t know if that means being in a few episodes, we have no idea what that means yet. So we’re just now [talking], because the script is coming in this week. So as soon as we have the script we’ll really be able to talk to her about it.

She goes on to talk about 90210 and GOSSIP GIRL as trendsetters for the network:

TVWeek: You say you’re making process breaking through as a brand for young women. What sort of evidence do you have for that, besides ratings?

Ms. Ostroff: We just recently got the Cassandra Report. They do this report every year. (It’s) used by most people in the network business and cable business … (and) over 100 advertiser clients. They go out to 1,000 people, and they ask a bunch of unaided questions, which means it’s not multiple-choice questions, you have to just give them top-of-mind. And when they asked women who are 14 to 34 what their favorite network was, CW was one of the top three. Which is amazing, considering we’ve only been on the air for 2 1/2 years. And then, in the top five shows consistently, they ask what your favorite show is, but they break the people who participate down to two different groups—trendsetters and traditional viewers. And with both traditional viewers and trendsetters, both GOSSIP GIRL and 90210 popped up everywhere.

CBS Corp. chief Leslie Moonves told analysts in January that in its first season, 90210 is already netting his company $30 million a year in profit. This is the same 90210 that, despite it's great improvement during the season, has a smaller number of total viewers than most daytime soaps.