The CW focuses on appealing to young women

If you're a woman between the ages of 18 and 35, the folks at The CW really, really want you to watch their network.

You're whom they're aiming to attract. You're who they've designed their fall schedule around. You're why they've added a new "Melrose Place," "The Beautiful Life: TBL" and "The Vampire Diaries" to that schedule.

"When we started this network, we did a lot of research," said CW Entertainment President Dawn Ostroff. "We went out, and we started talking to our advertisers. We talked to our affiliates. We talked to the consumer. And we tried to figure out where there was, what we call, 'white space' — what was left open.

"And what we found was there was nobody really speaking to women in this demographic, particularly with scripted programming."

With the addition of the three new dramas, The CW's fall schedule will consist of nine hourlong shows — eight dramas and one reality show ("Top Model," which will air original episodes on Wednesdays and repeats on Fridays).

The CW has never had much success with half-hour comedies, so it has given up. Not only did The CW cancel all its old sitcoms, it didn't film any pilots for new ones.

"I think it's they're probably not quite as engaging as our dramas are," Ostroff said. "The women who watch our network (are) so entangled in the relationships of all of these characters. They really find themselves just getting sort of sucked in."

Well, that's certainly the plan for the three new shows.

None of them are exactly high art, but all show at least some promise of attracting that young female demographic The CW is so focused on:

MELROSE PLACE (Tuesdays, 8 p.m., Ch. 30) is a sequel of sorts — sort of "Melrose: The Next Generation."

There are a couple of holdovers from the 1992-99 original — Laura Leighton is back as Sydney Andrews and Thomas Colabro returns as Dr. Michael Mancini. But the focus is on the 20-somethings who have moved into the old-but-remodeled apartment building.

Syd is the cougar of the building — she's been having an affair with handsome young David (Shaun Sipos), who's Michael's illegitimate son. And, of course, Syd had an affair with Michael, who was her brother-in-law on the original "Melrose."