The ratings-challenged CW network has employed a curious strategy this season. Because next to nobody is watching their shows, they’ll just make fewer of them. Some of its old WB stalwarts like “One Tree Hill” and “Smallville” have been running for what seems like centuries. And the old UPN’s “America’s Next Top Model” (7 p.m., CW) is entering its 16th season tonight.

Tonight’s big wrinkle is the arrival of guest judge Erin Wasson, who teaches the would-be mannequins how to walk. Next week, Heather Bauer, host Tyra Banks’ personal nutritionist, will quiz the young lovelies about their eating habits and their understanding of healthy foods.

• Food also looms large on “Shedding for the Wedding” (8 p.m., CW), that rarest of all entities, a new show on the CW. OK, “new” may be an exaggeration. “Shedding” is basically a hybrid of the many popular basic-cable series about wedding obsessives and NBC’s seemingly indefatigable “Biggest Loser” franchise.

Sara Rue, who was rather funny and charming on the old ABC series “Less than Perfect,” hosts “Shedding.” She was also on the old WB show “Popular” and has a current recurring role on “Rules of Engagement.”

Rue has lost considerable weight since her days on “Less than Perfect,” and that is obviously the objective for the participants here.

As each pair is introduced, we’re told how and where they met, how they both got so heavy and their plans for their wedding, dreams that generally involve some humongous production costing the gross national product of an emerging nation. Nobody here suggests that this mindless materialism and craving for consumer satisfaction may be linked to the sedentary lifestyle and gluttony that got them fat in first place. No, it’s not that kind of show.

We’re supposed to laugh at their rather sanguine stories of larding up on fast food while playing video games and then watch them lumber along on treadmills as they moan and sweat and even vomit, all with their eyes on the prize — that mega-expensive dream wedding. For reasons unexplained, every couple has chosen the official colors for their wedding. When did this start? And how can it be stopped?

Who, exactly, wants to watch this? Men? I think not. Married women? They’ve already had their big day. Single women? Well, did anyone imagine a potential viewer sitting alone on a Wednesday night and wondering why she’s still single when all of these plus-sized whiners have found a man? That’s gotta hurt a girl’s self-esteem.

No, I don’t think the CW really thought this through. I have a feeling those women will take one glance at this and go back to watching “Miss Congeniality” (7 p.m. and 9 p.m., WE) for the 47th time.

Tonight’s other highlights

• The winnowing process continues on “American Idol” (7 p.m., Fox).

• Claire and Phil’s fight has obscure origins on “Modern Family” (8 p.m., ABC).

• A murder conspiracy in the Queen City on “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior” (9 p.m., CBS).

• Murder in the art world on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC).

• A medical helicopter crashes in the jungle on “Off the Map” (9 p.m., ABC).