Perceptions of the Second Fifth Channel

 There are two groups of people who comes to mind when anybody talks about the legacy of UPN. The first group of people tends to talk about shows that played a huge part in their childhood like Moesha, Half & Half, One on One, Malcolm and Eddie, The Parkers, Eve, Girlfriends, All of Us, and Everybody Hates Chris and shows like Star Trek: Voyager, America's Next Top Model, Enterprise, WWE Smackdown, and Veronica Mars. 

The second group tends to look at the channel in a mockingly light and love to talk about network failures like The Strip. Desmond Pfeiffer, Jake 2.0, Platypus Man, Shasta McNasty, and Homeboys in Outer Space. Home Movies oddly gets left out of this conversation despite it having only one season on UPN. 

Go figure. 

The reason UPN is popping up in conversations lately is because the creator of one of the channel's shortest-run shows died this week. Or, rather, the creator of the source material behind one of those shows. Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert comic strip died on January 13, 2026, at the age of 68.

Now, when talking about this guy, I have to maintain "the Thumper rule," so I'll keep my thoughts about him very, very short. 

Anyway, this hateful little bigot stated that the was canceled because he was white and it was on a channel that catered to Black audiences. At least that was his excuse back in 2020 when he was placating the base of the Administration at the time. Back in 2006 when he was a little saner, he acknowledged that it was canceled because UPN moved it around a couple of times and paired with Shasta McNasty in its second season.  

Never mind it was up against shows like King of the Hill, Futurama, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and JAG that second season as well as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, one of the biggest shows on television that year. In his mind, Dilbert ended because of the Blacks and on a network that nobody watches, even though somebody DID watch the first season and helped it get a Primetime Emmy for its excellent intro. 

It's funny that when people talk about the failings of UPN, Dilbert never get brought up despite being on TV for a little over a year. I figure it's because a show like that doesn't fit the narrative of the usual hater of UPN. I hesitate to call them "haters" though because it's not like they hate the channel. 

They just love to call the channel a failure. But here's something you won't hear them talk about.

Genuinely and generally speaking, UPN was a more successful channel than The WB, and people don't want to admit that. I think that's mostly because in the grand scheme of things, the mainstream often looks down on programming targeted towards Black audiences, which UPN definitely put more of a focus on compared to other broadcast networks at the time. Believe it or not, Black people watch broadcast TV, spend money on products seen on TV networks, and wouldn't mind seeing more shows featuring characters who look like them. Funny situation, ain't it? And if a network was more than willing to present those kinds of stories to that audience, why not support and watch them? That's one of the main reasons folks watched UPN and why it actually was successful, even more successful than a channel that largely abandoned that market. 

UPN's ratings ended up a higher across many demographics, ultimately having better ratings than The WB for many years, but folks don't want to hear that. In fact, even when pointing that out, there are always people who will always deviate from the topic, like this one guy who was like "Yeah, UPN had better ratings than The WB. But Univision beat them both!" 

That's petty, a fallacious statement, kind of racist, and just plain sad.  Also, every major broadcast network (NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX) had higher ratings than UPN and The WB. Citing Univision gives the assumption that they're a lesser channel compared to the "Big 4" and even beneath UPN and The WB says a whole hell of a lot about you, so noting that Univision was "kicking both of their asses" wasn't the flex or slam you thought it was. 

And then you get this bit of big-brained stupidity from folks who love to talk about UPN's so-called failures:

"If UPN was so successful, it'd still be around."

A little historical background for a moment. 

In 2000, FOX Television Stations bought Chris-Craft's broadcast channels, including WWOR and KCOP, UPN's flagship stations in the New York and Los Angeles markets, respectively as well as WPWR in Chicago. This meant that FOX owned nine UPN affiliates, including the UPN affiliates in the top three television markets in the country, and although they ultimately renewed its affiliation until September 2006, FOX was already preparing to kill the network.

In January 2006, FOX introduced a network concept to create a network targeted towards younger audiences that would showcase English-language versions of telenovelas. This unnamed network was going to launch in September 2006... right around the time the UPN affiliation deal was set to expire.

What a coincidence. 

And here's another thing you won't read about on Wikipedia or in most oral histories about UPN. The folks at UPN likely knew they were going to be screwed over by FOX, who was more than ready to shut down the flagship UPN affiliates in September. 

Meanwhile, across town, the folks at The WB were growing more and more disappointed at the direction of the channel. With sagging ratings and high production costs with nothing to back it up, the network was losing money annually (as was the rest of Time Warner, which was still reeling from the disastrous merger with AOL and ultimately selling off several units to recoup money, most notably Warner Music Group) and nearly decided to close up the network. Then, an opportunity a decade in the making finally arose.

The WB and UPN almost merged very early in their runs. Really, they nearly became one network in the fall of 1995, and the only reason they didn't was because their established affiliate partners, Tribune and Chris-Craft, respectively, didn't know how to divide the would-be combined network's footprint in the larger markets they were both in. However, in 2006, the world changed. UPN was about to be screwed over by FOX, which owned the former Chris-Craft channels. The WB was losing money and wanted to get out of the broadcast network business despite having a great relationship with Tribune. 

So, in January 2006, The WB and UPN decided to merge their operations into a new network, The CW, whose initials stood for CBS (which was now the operator of UPN after getting split from old Viacom) and Warner Bros. The new network would have the scheduling model of The WB, the management of UPN, and flagship stations owned by Tribune in the top three TV markets.

FOX, on the other hand, feigned shock and betrayal after not being part of the launch of The CW despite literally pitching a new network that exact day. So, about a month later, they made their own theme park with blackjack and hookers, officially branding their new channel concept MyNetworkTV and pitching it as an alternative to those channels that lost either UPN or The WB. FOX-owned UPN affiliates also stopped airing UPN programming two weeks before the network officially shut down, which is why UPN had a very low-key final broadcast compared to The WB. Can't fully say goodbye to an audience if they're not available in the biggest markets.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, The WB isn't here anymore either. It literally died the day before The CW went on the air. And guess what? The WB isn't even alive "in spirit" at The CW either, especially after the teen-centric channel shifted its priorities after new owner Nexstar, which bought Tribune, decided to turn it into a more conservative "middle America" outlet and got rid of those kinds of shows in favor of lower-priced content from other countries and sports programming. 

Hell, even the network that replaced UPN in most major markets, MyNetworkTV, isn't officially considered a "network" anymore. By FOX's own admission, MNT is a "programming service," not a "broadcast network," and hasn't been a network since 2009.

If people talked about The WB like they talk about UPN, they'd only focus on the failures like Jack & Jill, Jack & Bobby, Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane, Savannah, Kirk, The Army Show, Simon, Men, Women & Dogs, Rescue 7, Family Affair, The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Twins, Pepper Dennis, Safe Harbor, Do Over, and The Tom Show, among many, many others without focusing on the stronger shows on the channel.

But you're not ready for that conversation, apparently. 

In the end, UPN's failures have been woefully overblown by bad actors online who want to ignore why the network was ultimately successful, especially a guy who had a show on the channel for a year who had blamed Black people for its cancelation and continuously spouted hate toward them, ultimately calling them "a hate group white people should get far away from."

Well... he's far away from Black people now, and I will say no more. 

Thumper rule and all.