TUESDAY
CRAIG: 8:00 The Flash; 9:00 Riverdale
SHILO: 8:00 The Flash; 9:00 Riverdale
CRAIG: The most buzzed about CW pilot this year is definitely Riverdale, based on the characters from Archie Comics. This could be The CW’s salacious modern day Dawson’s Creek-type show. The cast is mostly made up of new and very pretty faces, which can only be good for The CW’s fortunes. It’s not a perfect match with The Flash, though The Flash lead-in could definitely get it some eyes that would ensure that The CW could be a major contender on Tuesday nights. And hey, there’s the Greg Berlanti connection. Really, this could be a big win.
SHILO: By all accounts, Riverdale is a lock to be ordered to series by The CW. However, it doesn’t really go with anything, which is what worries me about the proposed pairing with The Flash. I get the argument that The CW would want to get it in front of as many viewers as possible and that it has an established audience through the Archie brand that could make up for what incompatibility exists between it and The Flash. I just don’t know if “dark teen soap with a twist” is something that The Flash viewers are looking for or whether Riverdale is a show that might, thanks to its name brand recognition, be of better use self-starting on another night.
I’ll go with Riverdale Tuesdays at 9:00, though, on the chance that The CW will groom it behind The Flash before possibly plugging it into Mondays at a later date. Plus, the network didn’t really develop anything that would be a home run behind The Flash (which, frankly, is shocking and disappointing, considering how strong the show is and how most networks would try to translate what works for their biggest hit into other projects), so it would make sense for them to put their strongest project there, thereby maximizing Tuesday in the short term and giving yourself another lead-in option in the near future.
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What I wish is that they would go back to early(er) September premieres. I’ve had this feeling for a while that too many people are already hooked into their nightly schedules by the time The CW premieres come. Getting out of the gate first would breed loyalty.
It would be a great thing, although it’s rare for a show to have more than 9 or 10 episodes done before December, which is what they usually run all the way through to before reruns. If they started filming sooner, that would be a great solution.
Though, that also brings up the other problem CW viewers especially seem to have, and that is breaks. If people think three-week breaks between episodes in March are bad imagine what happens if they have to stretch 22-23 episodes between September and May.
Maybe, though, with so many shows on the schedule, they’ll have to start a little earlier.