​Matt Cherniss, WGN America’s new president and general manager, is taking aim at FX and AMC as he works to give the old superstation a new cable identity, greenlighting two new original series and shifting away from sitcom reruns and Chicago baseball games.

In a profile of his first months helming the cabler, Variety quotes Cherniss as saying, “I don’t think WGN America has a brand right now.”

The two shows he’s greenlit—“Salem,” about the witch trials of the 1600s, and “Manhattan,” a soap opera set at Los Alamos lab in the 1940s as the atomic bomb is developed—are the kind of dramas that viewers would normally find on FX and AMC. And that’s the point.

According to Variety: “For its inaugural lineup of original dramas, Cherniss and Liguori are looking for what they consider provocative adult programs that ‘take you to worlds you’ve never been to before and tell big operatic stories,’ Cherniss says. ‘If they share that, we’ll be successful.‘”

The only problem? Viewers have an ever-expanding array of channel options at a time when WGN America’s subscriber numbers are down and its advertising revenue is falling.

Still, Cherniss and crew are optimistic, Variety says, because dramas are hot right now, and they’re not focusing on the narrow 18-49 demo.

“This is not a network that is looking to cater to a younger audience in terms of its demographic skew,” he told the trade.

Read More: Variety

Brief Take: Original dramas are part of an ambitious—and risky—play that could reap big rewards for a network more closely identified with dated reruns and regional sports.

[Image via Variety.com]

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