 In markets where both UPN and WB affiliates operated, only one station became a CW affiliate.CW executives were on record as preferring the "strongest" stations viewership-wise among The WB and UPN's existing affiliates.However, as the reorganization was structured not as a merger in the legal sense, but as a new network launching concurrent with the shutdowns of The WB and UPN, The CW was not obligated by existing affiliations with The WB and UPN.