Analyzing the 2016 Fall Schedule: The CW

TUESDAY

CRAIG’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 The Flash; 9:00 Riverdale
SHILO’S PREDICTIONS: 8:00 The Flash; 9:00 Riverdale
ACTUAL SCHEDULE: 8:00 The Flash; 9:00 No Tomorrow

CRAIG: Unless it was penance for having something like 11 Warner Bros. shows vs. only 4 from CBS, it perplexes me that Riverdale is not premiering in the Fall. It has all of the hints of a major hit for the network, and I think it would be easier to launch a show like that in the Fall. (Then again, Dawson’s Creek was a midseason launch for The WB, and it did fine… as did Buffy.) I’m not sure that No Tomorrow — a show about a quirky young woman surrounded by even quirkier people, a trope of almost every CBS-on-CW show lately, but hey, they get awards — will take the best advantage of its Flash lead-in, and I’d imagine most of the Fall promotion will go to Supergirl, so I wonder if it’ll just get lost. I’d like to think The CW didn’t just put it there so it could or would fail so something potentially better could take its place.

SHILO: This type of scheduling gives me indigestion. On one hand, I’m thrilled that a CW dramedy is able to get out of the CW dramedy ghetto and that The CW is trying to get niche-y shows sampled; on the other, this could be a mess. The Flash is one of The CW’s lighter shows, making it not an entirely horrible lead-in for something like No Tomorrow, but it’s The CW’s most male-skewing drama and I don’t know if a significant portion of that audience is going to want to watch something as eccentric and light as No Tomorrow. This type of scheduling can work when it’s something like The Originals and Supernatural – an on-brand female-skewing drama with strong awareness and a male-skewing serial-procedural hybrid that’s fairly open to casual viewers. Whereas No Tomorrow is A) off-brand from what a typical CW show looks like and B) not based on any intellectual property, CW or otherwise, so it’s not going to be bringing a whole lot of audience on its own.

Plus, No Tomorrow will be going up against This Is Us, which seems like a show that could appeal to a similar demographic. Not that No Tomorrow was ever going to contend with the buzz-y NBC drama, but when you’re a very specific type of show and something airing against something in the same food group, it’s worrisome. The one thing going for No Tomorrow, at least before we know how much buzz it generates and how much acclaim it can attract, is that The CW was happy with the sub-40% retention that iZombie sometimes had, so if No Tomorrow can bring around the 0.3 or so of a typical CW dramedy and its association with The Flash can give it an extra tenth or two, it should be in okay shape. It’s such a shame, though, that The CW developed something right in line with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Jane the Virgin and likely won’t end up airing it with either.