The CW’s 2017-2018 Schedule: Thoughts & Predictions

WEDNESDAY

SHILO: 8:00 Arrow; 9:00 Valor
CRAIG: 8:00 Supergirl; 9:00 Jane the Virgin

SHILO: Despite its immense success, Arrow has not been the greatest lead-in for The CW. So I toyed with the idea of pushing it to 9:00 and having The CW slot a fairly compatible new show at 8:00, which could in turn bolster Arrow and keep The CW’s flagship comic drama in the network’s upper tier next season. However, I genuinely don’t think The CW would move Arrow at this point, not when it’s still one of their top shows and not when they don’t have something perfectly compatible to take over 8:00. With Legends of Tomorrow otherwise occupied, I went with CBS drama Valor, a military conspiracy thriller focused on helicopter pilots. It’s the CBS drama that makes the most sense here, given that Dynasty shouldn’t go against Empire and Insatiable is about as incompatible as you can get with Arrow, and CW president Mark Pedowitz is rumored to want a military drama on the air. Plus, it being heavy on action sequences and seemingly very, very male skewing would work with Arrow and not conflict with any of its presumed competition, so if the military development boom translates to viewers, Valor could do okay for itself.

CRAIG: This is another case where I get weird which is probably not what The CW schedulers will actually do. I’ve slotted Supergirl on Wednesdays, away from the comic book madness that will probably happen on Monday nights anyway, but also taking advantage of the opportunity that Blindspot is likely vacating the Wednesday 8PM slot and there might not another “female-driven” show on Wednesdays at 8 that it could compete with. Supergirl could really benefit from not being in a Dancing With The Stars and Voice world when it comes to those female eyes. Moving Jane the Virgin to Wednesdays is trickier. I know Jane might face competition in the forms of Empire and ABC’s comedies, but it’s a Season 4 show, and as long as the show keeps some kind of numbers and gets through Season 4 so that they can sell it to Netflix, it’ll be fine. For this theoretical Wednesday night I’d sub in Insatiable and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend where necessary; I was tempted to include Insatiable in the Fall, but too many new launches at once could become problematic.