SHILO’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 Supernatural; 9:00 Riverdale
CRAIG’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 Arrow; 9:00 Supernatural
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: 8:00 Supernatural; 9:00 Arrow
SHILO: Moving Arrow and Supernatural to Thursdays to combat This Is Us? Okay, I understand it. I don’t love-love it, but I get not wanting to leave Riverdale here and utilizing the compatibility Arrow and Supernatural have demonstrated to keep a pulse on an important night. The ordering here is curious, though, in that it points to The CW being unhappy enough with Arrow‘s performance this season to give it a genuine demotion. For them to choose it to take the hit against This Is Us vs. 13-year-old Supernatural after spending its entire life at 8:00 feels like the wrong choice; Supernatural is the most resilient drama The CW has, thrived at 9:00 for years, and is just as different from This Is Us as Arrow is. If you’re a network that has to choose one show to (likely) take a hit, you go for the older show with the better ratings trend while trying to nurture the younger show that’s reeling after a tough season. I know that The CW is packed with comic shows right now, so they might not feel as desperate to keep Arrow as one of their cornerstones, but this feels like it could expedite the decline of the show that began their rebrand.
CRAIG: I do think Arrow and Supernatural go together well, but this order had me scratching my head, until I really thought about it: Who else but the Winchester Brothers can fend off The Big Bang Theory, Will & Grace, Grey’s Anatomy, Young Sheldon, and Gotham? Yes, Arrow will now be up against This Is Us (starring another Green Arrow, Justin Hartley), but with the lead-in from Supernatural, they’ll be fine, or at least doing as well as a CW show in Season 6 should do. I may go so far as to suggest it’s a better lead-out than Riverdale had been. And if all else fails… they can always move to Mondays with Supergirl or something.
