Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn't just one of television's best teen dramas—one of the greatest TV shows of all time, full stop. With '90s icon Sarah Michelle Gellar leading the Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast through seven seasons of supernatural hijinks and teenage hormones as its butt-kicking, vamp-staking heroine Buffy Summers, the series would come to define its network, The WB, and usher in a golden age of teen-focused TV. However, while TV fans may wistfully remember tuning in to the supernatural teen drama alongside other '90s-era The WB classics like Dawson's Creek, several seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer actually aired on another network entirely: UPN.
After five seasons at the WB, it transferred to the United Paramount Network for its final two editions, with the finale airing on UPN on May 20, 2003. But how, and why? Here's the story behind why Buffy the Vampire Slayer switched networks in the middle of its run.
