It was a brand extension of the syndicated Telepictures news magazine Extra, and featured anchors and correspondents from that show, including co-hosts Mario Lopez and Tanika Ray.

The program was devoted to topics of interest to young adults (ages 18–29, the audience targeted by the network), including entertainment news and technology topics, sometimes drawn from Extra itself, setting up the latter to inexplicably compete with its own weekend edition.

The "CWickies" concept would also be tried for the commercial breaks between Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday evenings in a more traditional ad format (this time tying in with American Eagle Outfitters's aerie underwear brand), where it also failed to attract interest due to the target audience of each series finding the conversations between actors in "CWickies" ads about aerie and the plot points in those two series unnatural and stilted.

On the January 20, 2008 episode, CW Now received a 0.2/0 in the 18–49 demo, earning what was then a rare broadcast network "scratch" Nielsen rating where too few ratings participants were watching to allow any tabulation, with the following repeat of Aliens in America attaining the lowest-possible 0.1/0.

Against Super Bowl XLII on Fox on February 3, 2008, the show indeed hit that same number with a 0.1/0 in the 18–49 demo, a 0.3/0 in the households, and only 349,000 viewers.