The CW Television Network (most commonly referred to as The CW) is an American broadcast television network that is operated by The CW Network, LLC, a limited liability joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of the United Paramount Network (UPN), and the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, former majority owner of The WB Television Network. The "CW" name is an initialism derived from the first letters of the names of its two parent corporations (CBS and Warner Bros.).

The network made its debut on September 18, 2006, after its two predecessors, UPN and The WB, respectively ceased independent operations on September 15 and September 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. The network's programming lineup is intended to appeal mainly to young adults between the ages of 18 and 34. The network currently runs programming six days a week: airing Monday through Fridays in the afternoon and in prime time, along with a Saturday morning live-action educational programming block produced by Litton Entertainment called One Magnificent Morning.

A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small number of broadcast networks. Many early television networks (such as the BBC, NBC or CBC) evolved from earlier radio networks.

Overview

In countries where most networks broadcast identical, centrally originated content to all of their stations and where most individual television transmitters therefore operate only as large "repeater stations", the terms "television network", "television channel" (a numeric identifier or radio frequency) and "television station" have become mostly interchangeable in everyday language, with professionals in television-related occupations continuing to make a differentiation between them. Within the industry, a tiering is sometimes created among groups of networks based on whether their programming is simultaneously originated from a central point, and whether the network master control has the technical and administrative capability to take over the programming of their affiliates in real-time when it deems this necessary – the most common example being during national breaking news events.