Ta-Ta, UPN. So Long, WB. Hello, The CW.

Eleven years ago, when CBS was averaging more than 20 million viewers, ABC nearly 19 million, NBC 16 million and Fox 11 million, the marketplace was presumed capable of accommodating a fifth and even a sixth broadcast network.

These days, facing so much more competition from satellite, digital cable and other forms of distribution, neither network seems likely to ever achieve parity with Fox -- the youngest of the Big Four (it launched in April 1987).

In terms of ratings, UPN's best season was its first, when it averaged 6.2 million viewers but programmed only Monday and Tuesday nights. Its shows included "Star Trek: Voyager," the latest incarnation in the then-still-powerful "Star Trek" franchise.

The WB's ratings heyday came during the '97-'98 and the '98-'99 TV seasons; it averaged 4.5 million viewers, programming Monday through Wednesday and adding Thursday nights for the latter season.

(CBS won the TV season that wrapped last May with an average of nearly 13 million viewers; ABC and Fox finished with an average of 10 million and NBC 9.8 million. WB and UPN trailed far behind with 3.3 million and 3.4 million, respectively.)

UPN has never been profitable and the WB turned a profit only a couple of years. This month the latter announced it would cancel its most watched program, "7th Heaven," because the network would lose about $16 million on that show alone this season.

"WB was always a strategic asset," Meyer told The TV Column yesterday, explaining that the goal was to create value for the programming produced for the network by Warner Bros. But looking at the economic realities of the network going forward, he said, "we were going to be creating less and less original programming and repurposing or repeating more and more of it." Programming produced jointly with CBS "is a much better way to serve our strategic end than to continue with WB," he said.

According to ad-buying firm Magna Global, the WB's lineup already is 51 percent reruns this season, the Associated Press reported.

Or, as Moonves so succinctly put it, "Fifty percent of a winner is better than 100 percent of something that's breaking even."

He told The TV Column: "UPN had made great strides over the last couple years" but was only approaching break-even.

"Looking down the road, there wasn't great upside."

The new deal leaves in the lurch some of the biggest UPN stations, which are owned by News Corp. When UPN launched in '95, a station group called Chris-Craft provided, among its stations, those in the country's three largest markets -- New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. In 2001, those stations later were sold to News Corp., which is also home of the Fox network. Nine News Corp. stations are currently UPN affiliates; yesterday a News Corp. spokesman told Reuters those stations will seek new programming, adding, "Every change is an opportunity."