2006 United States broadcast TV realignment

The 2006 United States broadcast television realignment consisted of a series of events that resulted from the January 2006 announcement that the country's two "second-tier" television networks, UPN and The WB, would both cease operations. The two networks respectively shut down on September 15 and 17, and their operations were transferred to a new joint-venture "fifth" network, The CW. Meanwhile, Fox Television Stations (which owned several UPN-affiliated stations in large cities that were blocked from affiliating with The CW) signed up with MyNetworkTV, a new network owned by then-parent company News Corporation's Fox Entertainment Group.

In January 1995, The WB Television Network and the United Paramount Network were launched, each hoping to recreate the success of the Fox network, which had launched in October 1986 and became one of America's "major" networks through the successes of several early series (such as The Simpsons, Married... with Children and Beverly Hills, 90210) and its 1993 deal with the National Football League (NFL) to assume the broadcast rights to the National Football Conference from CBS. Like with Fox at the time, The WB targeted a mostly teenage and young adult audience; UPN, however, aimed its programming at a broader demographic of adults between 18 and 49 years of age.

All three networks had been joint ventures between major Hollywood studios and large owners of previously independent stations – The WB was owned by the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, in a joint venture with the Tribune Company, and UPN was founded by Chris-Craft Industries, in a programming partnership with Paramount Pictures. In October 1993, Chris-Craft and the Paramount Stations Group reached affiliation agreements with most of the independent stations owned by the respective groups to serve as charter UPN affiliates. That November, Tribune cut affiliation deals with The WB for all eight independent stations it owned at the time (including stations in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago) – as well as a station in Boston that Tribune bought from the Gannett Company the following year, though only seven would join the network at launch due to the company's Atlanta station affiliating with CBS (its New Orleans station would follow suit in 1996, switching its affiliation to ABC); Chris-Craft and Paramount also each owned independent stations in large and mid-sized markets (with the former owning stations in New York City and Los Angeles).

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