The CW at 20 swaps dramas for 700 hours of live sport
The CW has reached its 20th anniversary as an almost unrecognisable network. Four years after Nexstar took control from Warner Bros. and CBS, the home once known for teen dramas now runs on live sport.
CW president Brad Schwartz says the network will air 700 hours of live sport this year, up from zero a few years ago, in an anniversary feature published 30 Sept 2026 by Variety. That is a sharp turn. Nexstar took over The CW in 2022 and rebuilt the schedule around low-cost entertainment and games.
The sports build started with LIV Golf. It then added Atlantic Coast Conference college football, a weekly package that put the network into the Saturday scramble for viewers.
The list has grown since. The CW later added college football deals with the Mountain West and Pac-12 conferences. It signed a seven-year NASCAR deal to carry 33 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series races a year. It reunited with WWE in 2024, with WWE NXT airing live on Tuesdays.
WWE has history here. SmackDown was part of The CW’s initial 2006 launch line-up, so the return closed a 20-year loop.
The payoff came on 29 Aug. Florida State’s 34-17 win over New Mexico State kicked off at 6:30 p.m. ET on The CW in Florida State’s 2026 season opener. It became the most-watched sports broadcast in The CW’s history, averaging 2.1 million viewers, according to that Variety feature.
The late window did the heavy lifting. The broadcast peaked at 2.4 million total viewers between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. ET, according to figures shared by Nexstar. A year earlier, the scale was smaller. A NASCAR Xfinity Series race averaged 906,000 total viewers, according to Nielsen figures shared by Nexstar.
Scripted shows from the old CW have now left the grid. All American, the final scripted holdover from the previous ownership, wrapped its run with a series finale on 28 Sept.
For viewers flipping on The CW, this means a familiar channel number with unfamiliar nights. Football on Saturdays. Wrestling on Tuesdays. Motorsport through the season. And far fewer weekly dramas in between.
