The CW is an odd beast. For the most part it really exists to be a syndication factory for Warner Brothers and CBS. CBS wants the CW to get good enough demographics that it will stay on air and defray the costs of producing shows that will go into syndication, international sales, streaming etc. It doesn't want the CW to get good enough ratings to threaten CBS. Warner Brothers is in a tight spot because networks more and more are producing their own shows to keep the syndication, streaming, international sales revenue and Warner doesn't have a strong network, so they are selling fewer shows. Warner needs the CW so it can keep producing content. The big result is that the network cares more about hitting syndication numbers than many other networks. That's the whole point of the CW.
Then there are the mechanics of the network. When CBS and Warner formed the CW, after UPN and the old WB were failing.My understanding was that the WB was bleeding money and couldn't or
didn't want to continue that. CBS wanted more younger shows for
syndication, so they came up with cash. The agreement was that the production companies would split the all the revenue of any shows that were produced for the CW, both advertising and subsequent revenue. The exceptions were shows the networks brought over, currently Supernatural for the WB and America's Next Top Model from the UPN/CBS side. For these shows the ad revenue gets shared but other distribution revenue belonged to the network that developed the program. The other exception was programs developed from material that was owned by the individual producers outside of the CW. For Warner this is all the DC products. For CBS this is BATB.
The truth is Warner is the side that has benefited from the syndication part of this equation. Most of the shows that have lasted are produced by Warner, which would split evenly except that most of the hits have been based on Warner Brother owned content i.e. Supernatural, Arrow, Flash, IZombie. I've always thought it was too bad that the old WB wasn't able to hold on for a few more years. DVD sales and Netflix streaming are paying a lot of the bills for the CW shows. It's one of the reasons Supernatural is so valuable. SPN is reasonably cheap to produce it has a smallish cast, only 4 regulars and really only two necessary cast members, Jared and Jensen*. It has so many episodes that it makes a ton of money in syndication and Netflix streaming where they are paid per episode. I heard once that Netflix pays something like $750,000 per episode for every CW show with 4 or more years of episodes. With 200+ episodes, Supernatural is making a nice chunk of change for Warner. Now SPN has the advantage of being one of their top shows, so as I said, Warner would be happy if the Winchesters keep hunting until they can collect Social Security.
*Note I am not talking about the value of Cas. Jared and Jensen decide to retire the show is over. They both say they will stay or go together. Cas is an important character, but Warner wouldn't automatically cancel the show if Misha left. I'm not trying to turn this into a discussion of the worth of characters, I'm just dealing with the structure of the show. It's built on the Winchester Brothers.
