LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Generally lost somewhere in the shuffle of last week's announcement about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" moving from The WB to UPN next season is the fact that, while widely acknowledged as the network's signature show, "Buffy" is not its number-one show -- or even its number two. The network's No. 1 rated spot is taken by the Monday-night family saga "7th Heaven," while "Charmed" is the second highest. "Everybody's always surprised to find out we're actually a higher-rated show," says Brad Kern, executive producer of "Charmed," which is rated just ahead of third-place "Buffy".

Airing Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET, "Charmed" stars Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano as San Francisco siblings who are demon-fighting good witches. Kern has gone on record saying that he thinks the show isn't given enough attention or promotion.

"Our show is successful, despite my complaints about publicity, which I maintain, and the lack of promotion, which I maintain. But the network has been very supportive of us internally."

Although "Charmed" is produced by Paramount (owned by Viacom, as is UPN), and Spelling Television, Kern sees no need to jump ship.

"They've helped us, as we've helped them," he says of The WB. "It's my opinion that a show is successful because of the symbiotic relationship between the show and its network. There's a shared loyalty there to some extent."

He's also ambivalent about any positive fallout for "Charmed" -- another supernatural drama with female leads -- because of the departure of "Buffy."

"I think it's never good when a show is going to leave the network," Kern says. "But at the same time, maybe we will get a little more publicity, and maybe they will be talking about us a little more, because 'Buffy' won't be in The WB's vocabulary next year. On that level, it will be good."

"On the other hand, `Buffy' airs on Tuesdays, we air on Thursdays, so whatever publicity we got was from Tuesday. So, whatever benefits there are will be outweighed by the detriments. A lot of it will depend on how good WB's development is."

"We're just going to push ahead with our show and hopefully build off whatever momentum we've developed for the first three years."

Right now, Kern is concentrating on the show's finale, airing May 17, called "All Hell Breaks Loose," which he wrote and star Doherty directed.

"I just saw the rough cut for the last episode," he says. "I think it's great. It's a big show. In it, the sisters are exposed to the world as witches. They vanquish a demon live on Channel 8. It's a big problem for them. It turns up to be a bigger demon than they ever imagined having to go up against. They don't succeed in beating this demon called the media."

"It seems like a high-concept episode idea, but it's central to the DNA of the series, because they've always had this great secret. Like, what if your next-door neighbor was a witch with supernatural powers that vanquished demons, and you didn't know it - then one day you do."

And whatever happens, don't expect it to be all undone in the fourth-season premiere.

"Yes," says Kern, "we could use magic to undo everything, but we won't use magic to undo everything."