Every May, the US television network executives travel to New York to put on the week-long Upfronts. Each day during this week, the networks present their plans for the upcoming television season to advertisers, trying to convince them to buy commercial time during their shows.
As viewers, though, this week is notable as the time when we finally find out, with certainty, which shows we watch will be returning, which are cancelled, and and get our first glimpses of the new shows we can check out in the fall. For the most comprehensive list of renewals, cancellations, and pick ups, head over to Futon Critic.
Each day this week, I’ll be looking at the news from each of the networks that caught my interest. Today is The CW.
As the smallest network, The CW is under less pressure to achieve huge ratings with its shows and is additionally buoyed by the fact that the shows it has skew heavily towards young females, the most lucrative market for advertisers. Because of this, it has picked up only five shows, and only three of them will premiere in the fall.
Cancelled
Nothing of note for cancellations, they were all pulled early or announced previously.
Renewed
Supernatural: After struggling for its first couple seasons, Supernatural has become a relatively large cult hit, and has now been renewed for its eighth season.
Picked Up
Arrow: Smallville got increasingly terrible as the series wore on, so my hopes are not high for this one. Additionally, the creative team seems to be taking rather large liberties with the character’s backstory, though, as I’ve never been a fan of Green Arrow, this may actually be for the better.
The Carrie Diaries: This Sex and the City prequel is going to be a bad show. Just as the original series episodes lost much of their polish and appeal when they were censored and edited to be able to be run on standard cable, this promises to be a bland, whitewashed imitation of the show that inspired it. That being said, I’m sure it will do very well for the network.
And that’s it for this year’s Upfronts! Overall, I didn’t find this year to be terribly strong. None of the new shows appear at this time to be extremely promising, and there are very few risks being taken. One of the more promising aspects is that it appears reality shows have fallen out of favour, with very few new ones being introduced and some notable cancellations. All of the networks look to be relying heavily on comedies, which makes sense given the strong performance of comedy this season, but it does demonstrate the risk averse, playing catch-up thinking that seems to dominate these new schedules.
I’ll check back in on all these shows, as well as some that didn’t catch my attention this time but may increase in buzz in the coming months, during premiere week in the fall.
Sleep well,
DTE
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