Analyzing The Fall Schedule: The CW

Two weeks ago, prior to the official announcements of 2013-2014 schedules and in some cases, before certain show pick-ups or passes were announced, KSiteTV’s Craig Byrne teamed up with TVHackr & TVOvermind writer Shilo Adams to discuss our predictions and hopes for those Fall schedules. Now that the schedules are in, we’ll be taking the time to offer our thoughts on the final results.

As we did with the prediction articles, we’re starting with The CW. We’ll be listing what our picks were, followed by the actual schedules for each given day. Enjoy:

MONDAY

Craig’s Picks: 8PM Hart Of Dixie; 9PM The Carrie Diaries; Reign or The Selection (midseason)
Shilo’s Picks: 8PM Beauty And The Beast; Reign (midseason); 9PM Hart Of Dixie
Actual Schedule: 8PM Hart Of Dixie; 9PM Beauty And The Beast

CRAIG: Well, between the two of us we got the shows right, but we weren’t entirely successful with the placement of the two. I’m, of course, okay with Hart Of Dixie leading off the night at 8PM, and I’d like to put myself on the list of people who doesn’t think Beauty And The Beast at 9PM Monday is a bad idea or incompatible with Hart. Yes, they’re different kinds of shows, but as I keep repeating, Gilmore Girls and Smallville weren’t the same thing either. But more than that, I think the loyal BATB fan base will follow it there, it’s pretty different from other things airing in the same slot, and in general, it might get a chance to shine when out of The Vampire Diaries’ shadow. A very smart move, in my opinion.

SHILO: Hart was always the scripted wildcard for The CW’s schedule next season. Even though they’ve gotten more into genre programming, they still had to find something to pair with it, especially considering that it’s been a solid performer for them. When I found out that The Carrie Diaries was renewed, I assumed that we were headed for a Carrie/Hart Monday, but pairing the southern dramedy with Beauty is a fine option, with both shows possessing steady fanbases and proving themselves to be known commodities in the CW world. I likely would have flipped the order, considering that Hart performed well at 9:00 during season one and Beauty could use the stronger lead-in from the affiliates to soften its post-TVD decline, but overall, I think it was a pretty decent move.

TUESDAY

Craig’s Picks: 8PM Oxygen (now Star-Crossed); 9PM Supernatural
Shilo’s Picks: 8PM The Originals; 9PM Supernatural
Actual Schedule: 8PM The Originals; 9PM Supernatural

CRAIG: Well, you certainly called that one. I’m very glad The CW realizes that Supernatural is the best way to fight against what seems like a cursed timeslot. Assuming Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t ever bleed into the 9PM hour, that should be good.

…And that’s what crosses my mind now when it comes to The Originals. ABC’s going with guns blazing for 8PM Tuesdays with S.H.I.E.L.D., and I know there’s a crossover audience (like me). I’m of two minds on this, though: While young females love Joss Whedon & co., an equal amount of young females like this generation’s vampire storytellers like Julie Plec and the Vampire Diaries universe, and want to see how The Originals pans out. It’s a very risky and bold move, but it just might work. If anything, The Originals is different than anything else on broadcast at that time… though I fear for it when Pretty Little Liars is airing new episodes, assuming PLL takes the Tuesday-at-8 slot again. Shilo — I am right that PLL airs Tuesdays, right?

SHILO: Yes, Pretty Little Liars is an 8:00 show, but I like that The CW has put some of their stronger shows in its line of fire. Just speaking in terms of network positioning, if they’re going to stop ABC Family’s growth and usurpation of the young female demographic, The CW is going to have to be aggressive and not hand over two key nights of its schedule, so it’s nice to see them come out firing. If any of their pilots is going to self-start, it’s going to be The Originals and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will (likely) skew so heavily male that I think they can co-exist fairly peacefully. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they decided to break up their Big Three and use them on separate nights, a move that uses their assets to launch new shows and progress as a network. Pairing The Originals with Supernatural gives it a pretty strong, reliable backup that will make the duo a huge net gain over last year and could lift the curse of Tuesdays at 9:00.

WEDNESDAY

Craig’s Picks: 8PM Arrow; 9PM The Tomorrow People
Shilo’s Picks: 8PM Arrow; 9PM The 100
Actual Schedule: 8PM Arrow; 9PM The Tomorrow People

CRAIG: I knew they couldn’t resist an “Amell Night,” though I wondered if the workloads of Julie Plec and Greg Berlanti might push The Tomorrow People to midseason. Unless The Tomorrow People is just not very good, which I don’t think is going to be the case, this is going to be a great night for The CW; perhaps even the network’s best.

SHILO: The only thing that kept me from putting The Tomorrow People on my fall schedule was the idea that Plec and Berlanti might not have the means to get it off the ground before midseason, given their immense workloads. However, it’s a move that makes a lot of sense, both in terms of content and marketing power, and should be one that keeps Arrow strong while producing another performer in the British remake. Wednesdays have weakened a bit, with ABC having two new comedies and FOX hamstrung by buzz-less X Factor, so there’s an opening for The CW to groom its next generation of hits, which I’m fairly confident The Tomorrow People will be a part of.

THURSDAY

Craig’s Picks: 8PM The Vampire Diaries; 9PM The 100
Shilo’s Picks: 8PM The Vampire Diaries; 9PM Star-Crossed; The Tomorrow People (midseason)
Actual Schedule: 8PM The Vampire Diaries; 9PM Reign

CRAIG: Can I just say I totally loved The 100 promo and I want to see the show already? I understand the need to wait, though; it might be pretty intensive for shooting and VFX. Instead, The CW has gambled, yet again, by putting Reign on at 9PM.

I think Reign could go either way — it could flop and flop badly, or it could be a great hit because it is so different from anything else on broadcast TV. I will give it this, without seeing the actual pilot: The cast is attractive. But, surely a show that looks like that would also be very expensive to make? Props to them, though, for putting something very different from The Vampire Diaries on at 9… something they haven’t really done there since the launch of Nikita.

SHILO: Reign is the CW show whose ratings I’ll be keeping my eye on come fall. Having it (surprisingly) positioned behind The Vampire Diaries, something I hadn’t even considered as a possibility, suggests that the network has confidence in their product, but it’s facing a still-powerful Grey’s Anatomy, still-strong-in-18-34 Glee, and four comedies that could go either way, so getting a foothold on the night won’t necessarily be easy. There’s no precedent for how a show like this could perform on The CW and I could see it being everything from a surprise hit, retaining most of its lead-in and garnering a more diverse audience than expected, to one of the bigger misses of the fall season.

FRIDAY

Craig’s Picks: 8PM The Originals; 9PM Nikita; Beauty And The Beast (midseason)
Shilo’s Picks: 8PM America’s Next Top Model; Star-Crossed (midseason); 9PM Nikita; Beauty And The Beast (midseason)
Actual Schedule: 8PM The Carrie Diaries; 9PM America’s Next Top Model

CRAIG: Boy, did I get this one wrong. The actual CW schedule surprised me, and I hope it does well for them in the way the surprise Supernatural move to Wednesdays did last year. I really don’t want The Carrie Diaries to die on Friday, but maybe – just maybe – it could instead shine. We’ll see. I’m assuming Nikita’s shortened “final season” run will probably happen on a Friday, unless the network has some holes to fill elsewhere.

SHILO: As a CW viewer, I absolutely love a Carrie/Top Model combination and have already conceded my 8:00-10:00 every week to Carrie Bradshaw and Tyra Banks. As a fantasy network head, I think that the pairing makes a lot of tonal sense and could feed off of one another through clever marketing/promotional tie-ins, especially since Carrie will be the only drama in the hour and Top Model held up well in its move to Fridays last season. As long as Carrie can keep up the strong online numbers that won it a second season, this is a nice way to keep Fridays relevant and the network from becoming too lenient on genre programming while securing a cast ready to break out and a brand name title that’s exactly right for CW audiences.

What I’m most curious about, though, is what they do after Carrie’s 13-episode second season airs. As you mentioned, Nikita’s final season is an option, but that’s only for six episodes. Would they be willing to launch a new scripted show on the night, even if it has to be paired with another Top Model cycle? Or will the night become unscripted-heavy come midseason?

SO, HOW DID WE DO?

Tallying it all up, counting what we actually know rather than the unannounced, here is how much we got right. .5 points are given if we got the night right but not the slot; fractions of a point are also given if we had more than one selection for a timeslot.

Craig: 5/10
Shilo: 5.5/10

CRAIG: I’d say we did pretty well. As I said, some choices were really surprising, so I’ll be curious to see how it all does.

SHILO: For my money, The CW put out the best schedule during upfronts week for the second year in a row and I think that fact, along with a strong development class, will help them progress as a network.