CW orders a combination plate

For fans of programs on the soon-to-die WB and UPN networks, Thursday’s announcement of their offspring’s inaugural fall season looked a little like a reality-show knockoff: “Survivor: The CW Version.”

Picking mostly top-rated shows among 18-to-34-year-olds from the WB and UPN, the new CW is going with themed nights and combining former competitors “Top Model” and “One Tree Hill” into what the network hopes will be a strong one-two punch on Wednesdays.

Tuesday will be a Girls’ Night, with the WB’s “The Gilmore Girls,” about a single mother and her daughter, at 8 p.m. followed at 9 by UPN’s “Veronica Mars,” about a single father and his daughter. Thursday’s focus on science fiction and the occult would seem to make it Boys’ Night, with “Smallville,” about Superman’s early days on Earth, at 8 p.m. followed by “Supernatural,” about two brothers seeking the demon that killed their mother, at 9. Both shows are now on the WB.

As executives wrestled with the programming lineup for the new network they were heavily lobbied by fans of WB and UPN shows, including banner-toting airplanes over Burbank and special-delivery gifts.

For some fans, the news was good. Fan favorite “7th Heaven” found new life for an 11th season, airing Mondays at 8 p.m., and “Reba” returns as a midseason replacement.

But the WB’s “Everwood,” a critical favorite that drew older viewers, didn’t live up to its name -- the show is gone as the CW targets the coveted youth demographic, which has been flocking to Fox shows seven of the last eight seasons. About one-third of those viewers are minorities, according to the CW’s audience research.

“Picking our schedule was a scheduler’s dream,” said Dawn Ostroff, CW’s president of entertainment. “It was like playing fantasy football but with TV shows.”

Only two new shows made the fall cut: “The Game,” a comedy about pro football players’ wives and girlfriends, and “Runaway,” a new Darren Star drama following a family on the run as the father tries to clear himself of false murder charges.

Another new show, “Hidden Palms,” about dark secrets in placid Palm Springs, made the cut for midseason.

One notable shift in the fall lineup: “Everybody Hates Chris” goes from 8 p.m. Thursdays on UPN to 7 p.m. Sundays (not Mondays as was previously suggested), against the NFL and “60 Minutes.”

CW executives hope the show, followed by UPN’s “All of Us” at 7:30, will draw families leading into the network’s only night of comedies.

“It will give them an opportunity to find new audiences, and it’s early enough in the night that you can watch those with your kids,” Ostroff said.

While the CW touted the diversity of its programming, most of the shows on the new lineup feature white casts -- a development not lost on Chris Rock, who was part of CW’s presentation to media and advertisers at Madison Square Garden.

“Buy more ads because Chris next year is going to be played by a white girl,” Rock said, referring to his childhood self on “Everybody Hates Chris.” “And the girls on ‘Girlfriends’ are going to be white girls. We will see more white people. Some are just going to walk through and wave. They’re not even going to have lines or anything.”

Ostroff dismissed suggestions that the network was moving away from the minority-heavy programming on UPN in particular.

“This is a new network that will honor diversity in front and behind the camera,” Ostroff said. “There’s no other network that has as much diversity as we do.”

The CW’s offensive extends beyond television itself. It plans interactive features on its website, including the “CW Lab,” allowing viewers to post videos of themselves in hopes of getting them on the air, and the “CW Lounge,” devoted to chat rooms and Myspace.com-style personal Web pages.

And network officials hope new “content wraps” will ignite interest among advertisers. The concept centers on creating short, self-contained stories incorporating product placement that will play out over the course of an evening.

For example, contestants selected from an online dating game show would be followed by a camera crew on their date, which would then be edited into ad-length shorts that, over the course of a night’s programming, would complete a narrative.

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The fall lineup

Inside: Channel Island sees a headache developing for NBC over “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” and Fox decides to keep much of its schedule as is. Also, a look at next season’s lineups on CW and Fox. E20, E22, E23

On the Web: Get the latest news on the 2006-07 prime-time lineup, as well as dispatches on celebrity appearances, network presentations and digital news. Also photo galleries, at latimes.com/upfronts.