The CW Renews 12 Shows Including The Flash and All American

Covid-19 changed The CW this season, forcing the delay of most of its schedule from fall until early 2021. But the pandemic didn’t prevent the network from continuing its annual tradition of renewing almost its entire slate at once. The CW has picked up 12 shows for next season, including several series that have yet to premiere. All American, Batwoman, Charmed, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Dynasty, The Flash, In the Dark, Legacies, Nancy Drew, Riverdale, Roswell, New Mexico and Walker were all renewed for the 2021-22 TV season. The CW also ordered additional episodes of two new series: Walker—which was the network’s most-watched premiere in five years—will have five more episodes (for a total of 18 this season), while the network’s next superhero series, Superman & Lois (premiering Feb. 23), will have two more episodes, for a total of 15. “Though we’re just a few weeks into the new season, we wanted to get a strategic head start on next season with these early renewals, which allows our production teams to start laying out story arcs and hiring staff, and at the same time continues to provide us with a strong, stable schedule to build on for next season,” The CW CEO and chairman Mark Pedowitz said in a statement. The early pickups include All American, which received a huge Netflix bump early in the pandemic. Its Season 3 premiere was the most watched ever on the network, and was the No. 1 streamed episode ever on The CW app. The CW had previously announced that two current series, Supergirl and Black Lightning, will end with their upcoming seasons. Still undecided Missing from today’s renewals are DC’s Stargirl, which won’t premiere until midseason (though several other midseason shows received renewals: DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, In the Dark, Dynasty and Roswell), and some of the shows that the network acquired from other outlets to fill holes in its schedule caused by pandemic-related production delays. Last month, Pedowitz told Adweek that he’s open to renewing Italian drama Devils (starring Patrick Dempsey) and Canadian supernatural drama Trickster under the right circumstances. With today’s renewals, Pedowitz is looking to project stability into next season, and expects to see something closer to a traditional season schedule by this fall. However, he told Adweek, things won’t be “fully normalized” until 2022. Even as vaccine distribution ramps up and things start returning to normal, said Pedowitz, “then the issue is, when do you stop production for ’20-’21 shows and begin production for ’21-’22, so they have enough time to rest and get going again? It is a friggin’ puzzle.” The CW was one of the first networks to throw in the towel following Covid shutdowns and delay its 2020-21 TV season until January 2021—airing mostly acquired and unscripted shows in the fall. “We made a hard choice not to try to rush stuff into production, for health and safety,” Pedowitz told Adweek. “It was the right strategy.” But the network’s ratings have taken a big hit without the meat of its lineup: season-to-date, The CW is averaging just a 0.1 rating in the adults 18-49 demo in Nielsen’s most current ratings. That’s a whopping 66% drop from the 0.3 rating it had a year ago, when the bulk of its lineup had already been airing for three months. “You’re starting to feel pain after awhile, let’s be candid about it,” Pedowitz said.

Programming & Performance

The CW Renews 12 Shows Including The Flash, All American and Riverdale

Network looks to project stability into next season, when normalcy could return post-Covid

Jason Lynch

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Jason Lynch