When you heard that the bastard child formed from the DNA of The WB and UPN would be called "The CW," a natural first assumption would be that the un-catchy, definite-article-dragging name was just a placeholder until CBS and Time Warner focus groups came up with something a little less clunky. No such luck, says The CW prime mover Les Moonves:

What is not up for discussion, Moonves said, is the network's new name. Asked why it wasn't called CWB, he said, "That sounded too much like the WB network or CNBC. And we couldn't call it the WC for obvious reasons."

While The WC might have captured aptly the new venture's flushing away of the two network's low-rated waste products, we can see why they passed on that option. Compared to the early brainstormed output of their marketing departments, The CW was the clear choice over such possibilities as The UATNDN (The Urban and Teen Nielsen Demographics Network), Moonvestime (actually, kind of appealing), or the unwieldy (but briefly considered) The We Fucking Give Up, Let's Try This New Thing And Wait For NBC To Implode Channel (The WFGULTTNTAWFNTIC).

• CBS, Warner to Shut Down 2 Networks and Form Hybrid [LAT]
• Making The CW Coverage [Defamer]

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