On September 1, 2023, a series of network affiliation changes took place in nine television markets throughout the United States involving The CW Television Network. These changes were initiated after Nexstar Media Group, which owned multiple key affiliates in the network, acquired a 75 percent stake in the network on October 3, 2022. The CW's co-founders, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global, held ownership of the remaining 25 percent, split evenly between the two companies.
Under Nexstar, The CW agreed to a three-year broadcast deal in January 2023 with LIV Golf, a professional golf tour financed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, marking the first-ever national sports broadcasting contract for both the network and the tour. On February 14, 2023, the network said their LIV Golf coverage would be available in 100 percent of media markets in the United States, but encountered numerous affiliates that declined carriage of the tour, including all owned by Paramount Global's CBS News and Stations subsidiary. Consequently, LIV coverage in those affected markets aired on Nexstar-owned stations or subchannels, or on other stations via secondary affiliation agreements.
As part of the sale, Paramount Global was granted the right to withdraw their eight affiliates from the network—in Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle and the Tampa Bay area—which was exercised on May 5, 2023, effective September 1. In the Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Tampa Bay markets, Nexstar-owned MyNetworkTV stations (WPHL-TV, KRON-TV and WTTA, respectively) were announced as replacements for WPSG, KBCW and WTOG. Adell Broadcasting-owned WADL, Detroit's existing MyNetworkTV affiliate, replaced WKBD-TV; Mission Broadcasting, a closely related company to Nexstar, also filed to buy WADL, with Nexstar to provide services.
The remainder of the affected markets were addressed through new affiliation agreements with group owners Hearst Television, Gray Television and Sinclair Broadcast Group, each of which already owned multiple CW affiliates. Hearst's renewal included KQCA as the new CW Sacramento affiliate in place of KMAX-TV, while the Gray Television renewal included WPCH-TV in Atlanta, replacing WUPA. Sinclair included WPNT in Pittsburgh and a subchannel of Seattle's ABC affiliate KOMO-TV as replacements for WPCW and KSTW, respectively. As part of the Sinclair agreement, The CW moved from Sinclair's KOCB to Nexstar's KAUT-TV in Oklahoma City. Additionally, Nexstar took back the CW affiliation in Billings, Montana, when the statewide Montana Television Network ceased airing The CW on a subchannel of its stations.