Editing The WB (section)

===2003–2006: Decline===
Despite some early success, The WB struggled to shift its focus from the female 12–24 demographic to the broader 12–34 range, in its attempt to attract a broader young adult audience. In 2005, The WB retired Michigan J. Frog, as The WB's trademark mascot. The WB's president of entertainment at the time, David Janollari, explained in July 2005 at the network's summer press tour that "[Michigan] was a symbol that perpetuated the young-teen feel of the network. That's not the image we [now] want to put to our audience."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Colin Mahan |date=July 26, 2005 |title=Michigan J. Frog has no leg to stand on |url=http://www.tv.com/news/michigan-j-frog-has-no-leg-to-stand-on-482/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904005155/http://www.tv.com/news/michigan-j-frog-has-no-leg-to-stand-on-482/ |archive-date=September 4, 2014 |access-date=May 27, 2022 |website=[[TV.com]] |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Josef Adalian |date=July 22, 2005 |title=WB seeks bigger aud, commits Frogicide |url=https://variety.com/2005/scene/markets-festivals/wb-seeks-bigger-aud-commits-frogicide-1117926413/ |access-date=September 2, 2015 |publisher=Reed Business Information |periodical=Variety}}</ref>

Still, the move did not seem to help The WB. The period from 2003 to 2005 produced only three viable new series, the teen-oriented drama ''[[One Tree Hill (TV series)|One Tree Hill]]'', social experiment reality competition ''[[Beauty and the Geek]]'', and fantasy drama ''[[Supernatural (American TV series)|Supernatural]]'' (all of which ultimately moved to successor network The CW), and even still their ratings paled in comparison to the ratings peaks of ''Dawson's Creek'', which had ended its run in May 2003. Ratings dropped for many of The WB's shows, while also cancelling shows with steady ratings such as ''[[Angel (1999 TV series)|Angel]]''; the network failed to launch new hit shows to take their places.

Although The WB's well-known inability to launch successful comedy series was nothing new (''Reba'' being a notable exception), this period saw The WB struggling to establish new dramas as well. High-profile failures included ''[[Birds of Prey (TV series)|Birds of Prey]]'' (a series inspired by the [[Batman]] mythos, which premiered in October 2002 with an impressive 8 share), ''[[Tarzan (2003 TV series)|Tarzan]]'', ''[[Jack & Bobby]]'', ''[[The Mountain (TV series)|The Mountain]]'', the [[Jerry Bruckheimer]]-produced legal dramedy ''[[Just Legal]]'', the [[Marta Kauffman]]-created dramedy ''[[Related]]'', and the [[Rebecca Romijn]] vehicle ''[[Pepper Dennis]]''.

During the 2004–05 season, The WB finished behind rival UPN for the first time in four years and fell even further behind in fall 2005. Both networks fell behind Spanish language network [[Univision]] in the overall 18–34 demographic. Between November and December 2005, the network laid off approximately 40 employees amid continued ratings and profit losses (with viewership down 12% by November 2005), with network representatives expecting The WB to lose about $35 million during the 2005–06 fiscal year.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Meg James |date=December 10, 2005 |title=WB Network Cuts Jobs as It Faces Losses, Falling Ratings |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-dec-10-fi-wb10-story.html |access-date=September 2, 2015}}</ref>  The WB was programming six days and 13 hours per week at this time.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Crupi |first=Anthony |date=January 24, 2006 |title=UPN, WB to Merge Into CW Network |work=Ad Week |url=http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising/upn-wb-merge-cw-network-83687 |access-date=November 12, 2015}}</ref>