The CW has unveiled its upcoming season schedule and made a big reveal – they won’t be debuting any new original scripted shows this Fall.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus-related production shutdown, the network is holding almost all of its original scripted fare until either January or May next year. The late start won’t impact the size of episode orders with the typical 13-22 episode season order (depending upon the show) still being handed out.
One big exception is “Supernatural” with the final seven episodes of its current fifteenth and final season to debut this Fall. Five of those seven had completed filming before the shutdown and so post-production on those and filming on the final two episodes will resume when they can. Showrunner Andrew Dabb, the cast and the network remain fully committed to filming and airing the two unproduced episodes to give the show a proper finale.
The final sixteen-episode season of “The 100” will kick off next week and, as reported the other day, The CW will otherwise fill out its Fall calendar with acquisitions like “Swamp Thing,” “Dead Pixels,” “Coroner” and “Tell Me A Story”.
January will see the return of “All American,” “Batwoman,” “Black Lightning,” “Charmed,” “The Flash,” “Legacies,” “Nancy Drew,” and “Riverdale” along with two new shows – “Superman & Lois” and “Walker”.
May will see the return of “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” “Dynasty,” “In the Dark,” “Roswell, New Mexico,” “Supergirl” along with two new shows – “Kung Fu” and “The Republic of Sarah”. The fate of “Katy Keene” is unclear at this time.
The upside of the push is that The CW will have more original scripted programming throughout next year, week in and week out, than they have ever had with potentially little to no interruptions. The push means the ‘season’ won’t technically end until July-August next year and the season after that is expected to return to its regular October kick off so there will be little downtime between seasons.
They also indicate the DC crossover will be a much smaller event – specifically a Superman and Batwoman crossover at this point, but a lot of characters will swing by from other shows.
Source: The CW
