SHILO:The Originals was the first CW series to receive a series order for the 2013-2014 season, which was pretty much a no-brainer. It scored good-ish ratings for its April 25th airing and generally positive fan response, so those likely dissolved any doubts that the network had about the show potentially being a bust. (The thought of iTunes sales, online streams, and online coverage should have also had this effect.) While I would bet a dollar that it’s used behind The Vampire Diaries in the fall, I think it should go on Tuesdays at 8:00 where it can self-start on a night that The CW has had trouble with in the past. It’s got a built-in audience already and might be able to add once its series run kicks in, so I think you use that to its fullest extent and get yourself competitive on a night you haven’t been in a while. Hart’s done okay this season while being pretty much on its own, but The Originals could fall 30% from its in-season premiere and still be ahead of the southern dramedy, so placing it here would be a win for The CW…
….Especially if they pair it with Supernatural, another strong utility player with a dedicated fanbase that would follow it anywhere on the schedule. The Originals is too safe a bet to use with Arrow or The Vampire Diaries, properties that could be used to launch shows that are much less certain, so it needs to go with the last remaining WB drama. Supernatural’s shown that it’s strong enough to handle airing during the week, so it could break the “curse” of the Tuesdays at 9:00 slot and provide The Originals with solid backup just in case the spin-off fails to jump start. The show was a part of helping Arrow become the hit that it is and it might provide the same service for The Originals.
CRAIG: I’d start the night with Oxygen at 8. I am not extremely wowed from what I’ve heard thus far, but this is another case where there are actors involved that people like (folks like Matt Lanter, in this case) and I think it’s something that could appeal to the younger audience the way certain other shows have. It sounds like there’s a modern-day Roswell feeling to it; if they play their cards right, this could even be a bit like I Am Number Four, which I still to this day think would make for a great TV show.
I do hope, though, that they change the name, because this title still makes me think of a TV network for women.
At 9, I’m with you: It’s a great timeslot for Supernatural. I debated moving this from Arrow as the two go together well, but at the end of the day, Supernatural’s fan base is so loyal that if ANYTHING would possibly work on Tuesdays at 9, it would be this.
WEDNESDAY
CRAIG:Arrow is just perfect where it is. No change needed for that one. For 9, though, I’d slot The Tomorrow People… it could have similar comic book sensibilities and it also stars an Amell, which would be perfect for Wednesday night promotion. The only real question mark here depends on how involved Julie Plec would be, since she is also launching The Originals on the Fall schedule; and of course Greg Berlanti, who is already in charge of everything. Would either one be spread too thin? Hopefully not. Because of those workloads, I wouldn’t be shocked if Tomorrow People was held to midseason, though I kind of hope not, because I’m anxious to see it.
SHILO: A case could arguably be made for moving Arrow to another night/time, but it’s much too soon to think about that. The CW has few pieces that can be used to their advantage, so if they’re already moving Supernatural, they need to keep this second year superhero drama in its time slot and use the 9:00 slot to launch something else. They have an anchor in Arrow that’s been drawing ratings in the ballpark of The Vampire Diaries, the show that changed the network, and they don’t want to do anything to either confuse the audience or slow the momentum they have with its success. It’s a show that could conceivably become another Smallville and run for a decade, which is something they need to nurture as best they can. Plus, the show is powerful enough where it makes sense to move Supernatural and use their three big pieces with three different shows, namely The 100, a post-apocalyptic drama about juvenile delinquents released to a vastly changed Earth. It sounds as if the show is the darkest (and despite the subject matter, most adult) pilot on the CW docket this season, so it would be an interesting fit with the network’s most adult-friendly genre show. Plus, there’s the whole matter of the “unfamiliar territory” parallel; a sizable portion of Arrow’s first season has focused on Oliver’s time on the island, which seems similar to what the juvenile delinquents will be dealing with in The 100. Arrow provides a solid enough lead-in to where it should get sampled fairly well and there’s nothing similar that it would be competing with, so it would have the genre audience all to itself. However, it needs to be capped at 13 episodes because I don’t know if the concept lends itself to 22 episodes a year for year after year, as well as the fact that The CW boss Mark Pedowitz has expressed interest in reduced orders for certain shows. (More thoughts on this later in this feature.)
THURSDAY
SHILO: Ratings may not be what they once were, but The Vampire Diaries is still The CW’s number-one show in pretty much every measure. While part of me wonders what a CW Thursday would look like if the show was moved to 9:00, considering that it’s never been a great lead-in, there’s no way they move their rock and give up what little bit of a toe-hold they have on the most competitive broadcast night. Oddly, The Vampire Diaries not being as much of a powerhouse could be helpful to the next show that it’s paired with, as the newbie will look better in comparison to how Nikita and The Secret Circle looked vs. their lead-in. I figure that if a dark spy show and a series about teenage witches doesn’t work, they should go with Oxygen, a drama about a pilot program where humans and aliens are desegregated. It might run into trouble facing Grey’s Anatomy, but it’s similar enough to The Vampire Diaries (namely, the human-meets-other-species-and-falls-in-love angle) without seeming like a carbon copy that it might be able to find a niche for itself. I don’t think that Oxygen is the breakout show of the season for the network, but I think it might be the show that holds the most Vampire Diaries audience yet and helps Thursdays at 9:00 become a solid slot rather than a network problem child.
For midseason, if Oxygen is setting the world on fire, by all means leave it there and see what it can do. However, if it’s already starting to sag by the time midseason comes around, the network should sub in The Tomorrow People, a drama about young people with exceptional powers from Greg Berlanti and Julie Plec. The only reason that I wouldn’t put it in the fall is due to each already having at least one show on the network and the assumed workload that would result were they to add anything else to their plates, in addition to the fact that the show might have to go through significant post-production anyway and need that time to get its look down cold. It’s a bit broader of a concept than Oxygen, a combination of the network’s two identities (pretty young people and the supernatural), and different enough from everything else in the hour that it might not have the same problems that past Vampire Diaries lead outs have had, especially considering the booming success of Heroes season one and critical acclaim of something like Alphas.
CRAIG:The Vampire Diaries at 8 is also something of a tradition, though I admit I was tempted to put The Originals here and have TVD lead off another night, possibly Tuesday. At the end of the day, I figured, keep it here and use it to launch something new…
…and my choice of “something new” is NOT The Originals as some may predict. My thinking is that fans who watch TVD want to tune in to TVD and then tune out to talk about it online. TVD and The Originals back-to-back might be too much of a good thing, and I’d worry that people might tune out after an hour, unless the show after TVD is significantly different. Soo…. my choice for 9PM Thursdays would go to The 100. It looks a bit like that new Will Smith movie After Earth, and it’s something so different that it could really stand out in a different way. I liked your analysis about The 100 exploring “unfamiliar territory,” though I still don’t think The CW will be able to resist the lure of an Amell night, which is why I put The 100 on a different night.
A dollar says The CW goes with a TVD/Originals combo, though.
