This year’s television upfronts are a week away and, now that a writers’ strike has been averted, television network executives are busy watching pilots, determining which shows to renew/cancel, and piecing together next year’s schedule.
I’ve given the chances at renewal for this past season’s shows, evaluated some of the pilots in contention, and looked at how I would schedule ABC and CBS‘s schedules for next season. Now it’s the CW’s turn.
The CW hasn’t had a great season. The pillars of their schedule—DC superhero shows—are down across the board in ratings and their new shows struggled out the gate, none of them capturing the critical acclaim that Jane the Virgin or Crazy Ex-Girlfriend did. Word is the network is trying to re-balance the gender skew, once a network that seemed to exclusively cater to young females with fare like Gossip Girl and 90210 now seem to more heavily favor young males with The Flash and Arrow and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. There’s still another DC superhero show in the crop of pilots though.
Monday
Current Schedule: Supergirl/Jane the Virgin
While Supergirl may have instantly provided a boost to the time period for the CW, it, like the rest of the CW’s superhero lineup, has seen decreasing returns throughout its second season. Though the rate at which Supergirl has drop is cause for alarm: its latest episode pulled in half the 18-49 rating that its season premiere did (0.5 from a 1.1). None of the other CW DC shows’ drops have been as steep: LoT has stayed around 0.6-0.7; The Flash 1.0-1.3; the Arrow’s also hit a 0.5 for its last few episodes but it started the season at 0.7. Supergirl‘s fortunes are fading fast, but that doesn’t mean its position as the Monday night lead off has lost all merit. It would be hard to see where best to re-schedule given the CW is already squeezed for DC space. While 9/8c Thursday is enticing to follow Supernatural, it’s better to leave Supergirl in place at the start of the season after having already recently been transplanted from CBS.
Jane the Virgin however, is a prime candidate to move. While the reviews suggest the show hasn’t lost a step in its 3 seasons, its ratings, while never great, are at Friday levels. So move it to Friday and launch Life Sentence in the post-Supergirl period.
Tuesday
Current Schedule: The Flash/iZombie
With perhaps 5 DC shows next season, it would take a lot of scheduling gymnastics to avoid doubling up on a night. Sod that, follow up The Flash with Black Lightning to give the show the best lead-in.
Wednesday
Current Schedule: Arrow/The 100
Arrow‘s ratings (and reviews for that matter) have fallen enough the CW may want to re-think its position as Wednesday anchor. But for now, it’s serviceable enough to provide a launchpad for a new show.
Thursday
Current Schedule: Supernatural/Riverdale
Thursdays on the CW have had the most volatile scheduling, moving programs around from season to season as well as having multiple iterations within a season. There are plenty of ways to program this night (keep Riverdale for fall?) but including Legends of Tomorrow during the fall launch gives it the opportunity to benefit from a late-autumn crossover bump with the rest of the CW’s DC shows.
Friday
Current Schedule: The Originals/Reign
Originals is surprisingly seemingly on the brink of cancellation, especially so with the CW’s packed slate. It may very well get the axe but, operating under the assumption it’ll at least get a forewarning for a truncated final season, it leads off Friday night into a relocated Jane the Virgin. If it doesn’t get another season, make last season’s Monday line-up (Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) into next season’s Friday line-up.
2017-18 CW television schedule
new shows in italics
Monday: Supergirl/Life Sentence
Tuesday: The Flash/Black Lightning
Wednesday: Arrow/Searchers
Thursday: Supernatural/Legends of Tomorrow
Friday: The Originals/Jane the Virgin
AVthatsme 