Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the most critically acclaimed show on the WB network, will be heading to archrival UPN next fall.  Buffy debuted on the WB, and along with Dawson's Creek has formed a formidable programming block on Tuesday nights where it attracts the key young demographic that advertisers love.  Buffy is important to specialty retailers since the show represents one of the strongest TV licenses of the past five years with comics from Dark Horse, trading cards from Inkworks, toys from Moore Creations and numerous other licensed items  (see 'Score Gets Buffy CCG').

 

The reason Buffy is leaving the WB is simple economics.  Each episode costs over $2 million to produce and the Frog was willing to pay only a little more than the $1.6 million in advertising that each episode brings in.  Fox television, which produces Buffy, felt that a successful show in its sixth season should be able to recoup its costs right away.  Fox found a willing taker in UPN which agreed to pay an average of $2.33 million per episode for a two-year, 44-episode agreement that will keep the show going through the end of a seventh season.  If the Frog decides to cancel the Buffy spin-off series Angel, UPN will also pick that up for a guaranteed two-year run.

 

Will the switch hurt Buffy's ratings and eventually diminish demand for licensed Buffy merchandise?  UPN is talking about keeping Buffy in the same Tuesday 8 pm timeslot, which should help, and the feeling here is that as long as the writing on the series stays as fresh and inventive as it has been over the past five years, the series will do just fine.  It's true that UPN's ratings lag behind the WB's, but getting Buffy should help UPN as should the debut next fall of the fifth series of Star Trek, tentatively known as 'Enterprise.'