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

THURSDAY

CRAIG: 8:00 Arrow; 9:00 Supernatural
SHILO: 8:00 Supernatural; 9:00 Riverdale

CRAIG: I admit, my first instinct would’ve been to move Supernatural back to save Friday nights, but I don’t think it’ll be that time just yet. Instead, I’m using Supernatural for one of the things Supernatural does best: Helping to keep Arrow afloat. Those two shows made such a great pairing and saved CW Wednesdays a few years back; it would be only fitting if they were able to do that again. Arrow can work as a good male alternative to Grey’s Anatomy for the 10% of viewers who aren’t already watching The Big Bang Theory, and of course, Supernatural is Supernatural, which also should always be a 9PM show. The shows can help each other. I was, however, tempted to give Valor the 9PM slot; the lack of buzz so far is the main thing that kept me away. However, if Valor is a thing that happens, I totally could see it on Thursdays at 9.

SHILO: Riverdale literally has everything going for it but live ratings at this point. It’s backed by a solid brand, gives The CW a toe in the soap world, has a marketable young cast, found international distribution fairly early, and does well with both digital and DVR viewing, so The CW’s challenge this summer is to figure out how to build its live ratings. Which won’t happen if they keep it off the air until January, so with all the change earlier in the week, I think they’ll use this summer to rerun Riverdale and market the heck out of it ahead of a fall premiere; the higher viewing levels in fall could curb some of the decline it would face as a serialized sophomore, while the instability at the other networks might play to Riverdale‘s advantage. While I still don’t love that Supernatural only got moved to 8:00 so that it could lead into something it wasn’t greatly compatible with, I think the two have done alright enough together that they’ll get another 13-16 episodes together before Supernatural is paired with a genre show again.