Welcome to Richmond, Gilmores

The new merger of UPN and the WB brings happiness to Meryl: CW is going to replace Richmond’s UPN station, which means that I get to watch Gilmore Girls when the rest of the country watches it.

In announcing the merger, executives didn’t identify which shows from each network would be part of the new CW.

But specific shows were mentioned as assets, according to Gerald Walsh, general manager of Richmond’s UPN affiliate, WUPV-Channel 65.

Included were UPN’s “America’s Next Top Model,” “Girlfriends,” “Veronica Mars,” and “Friday Night SmackDown!” and the WB’s “Beauty and the Geek,” “Smallville,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Supernatural” and “Reba.”

In TV markets that have both UPN and WB affiliates, the merger will leave one station as an independent and scrambling for programs.

That’s not the case here.

Richmond has a UPN affiliate but has been without a primary WB affiliate since 1997, when Channel 65 switched affiliation from WB to UPN.

WWBT-Channel 12, Rich- mond’s NBC affiliate, carries most of WB’s schedule late night or early morning, making WB hits like “Smallville” and “Gilmore Girls” difficult to locate.

No, not difficult to locate. The TV guides are perfectly clear, and NBC12 shows the WB schedule after every WB show. Difficult to watch. And I refuse to admit if I ever watched any of the episodes in real time (they’re on Tuesdays at 2:30 a.m. in Richmond).

In any case, a great big YAY! from my neck of the woods.

Of course, I’m a bit worried about season seven. Six is showing some jump-the-shark signs, and Amy and Dan are going to be working on a new series for 2006. But still, to be able to watch the Gilmores at a normal hour… Bliss.