We’re at it again, and today it’s time for us (us being Craig Byrne and Shilo Adams) to talk about what we expect to see or hope for from The CW’s 2014-2015 schedule, which will be announced on May 15. It’s the second part of a series, with the first installment covering ABC being posted yesterday and the other nets coming later this week.
The CW just passed a year where they finally cracked Tuesdays and launched a few buzzy new hits. This coming year, we’ll hopefully be seeing a Flash spin-off and some other projects that have been talked about a lot. Now, chances are good this is NOT the schedule they go with; heck, some of these projects might not be picked up! With that in mind, let’s go, shall we?
MONDAY
CRAIG: Last year, The CW solved their biggest problem by finally finding a line-up to “fix” Tuesday nights. Now Monday is their biggest and most important challenge, and it’ll require the big guns.
What big guns am I talking about?
I think they should lead off the week with The Flash on Monday at 8PM. The only thing that would put me against this idea is if FOX were to, say, put Gotham on in the same slot. But here, I think The CW could provide a great alternative to The Voice on NBC, Dancing With The Stars on ABC, and comedies on CBS.
The Flash can’t do it alone, which is why – after 9 seasons on every other night of the week, I’d put Supernatural on Monday at 9. Supernatural helped launch Arrow and its fans will follow it anywhere. Again, FOX may be a concern, as Supernatural and Sleepy Hollow have a similar audience and could conceivably be on at the same time, but it could be a risk worth taking.
SHILO: Mondays have been a big trouble spot for years for The CW and they’ve tossed innumerable female-skewing dramas at the night to no avail. As such, I believe they should go as male-skewing as they can in order to counteract the likes of The Voice, ABC Family, and VH1, so putting a self-starter like The Flash at 8:00 should be a huge year-to-year gain for the night. If any new show in the 2014-2015 class can find a place for itself on Mondays, it’s this one and I would pair it with Supernatural, arguably the strongest CW drama nine seasons into its run. Supernatural has aided The Vampire Diaries and helped launch Arrow and The Originals, so with its loyal audience willing to follow it wherever it goes, it makes the most sense to use it to help The Flash and CW Mondays as a whole.
Navigate below as we move on to Tuesday!
9 Comments
Don’t they usually use The Vampire Diaries to launch a new series? I can’t see them keeping Reign at the Thursday 9pm slot. I would expect either iZombie or Bloodlines to be there. I would also think The Messengers would fit better with Supernatural. Otherwise the rest sounds good!
Sleepy Hollow will probably stay in the same slot, so making people choose between it and Supernatural is just wrong.
I wish CW would confine Top Model to summers only. It ceased being a must-watch relevant show years ago and shouldn’t get in the way of the regular season of dramas at all.
I haven’t watched The Tomorrow People, but I keep seeing articles and comments that the stories have improved over the season. EW writes about it a lot. So it’s still “buzzy”. They might get a 13-ep season.
For some shows, I think 13 eps is a benefit. Forces the writers to stick to what’s important, like an author writing a novella. You don’t have room for tons of fluff and filler.
Really hoping BATB gets some kind of renewal as I love the cast, and I’m not one of the super-harsh critics of this season. Sophomore slumps are “normal” in TV and are not reason alone to cancel a series. And part of audiences being down over past years is that too many people are afraid to love a show because we don’t trust the networks anymore!
I’m surprised that Bloodlines didn’t make either Craig or Shiloh’s schedule. It’s reviews were mixed, but the episode did well ratings wise.
I have not seen the “Bloodlines” episode myself, so I could be totally wrong here, but I think what I would have preferred was something more in the Supernatural universe, even if it meant bringing someone back from the dead or out of Oz to make it happen. Heck, do a series about Young John Winchester for all I care. What this concept seemed to be seemed too much like the Originals to stand out… maybe I’m wrong. Like I said, I haven’t seen it so what do I know?
The nature of the TV business often puts two strong shows up against each other. The benefits of putting Supernatural on Mondays might far outweigh the disadvantages.
I totally agree Top Model should be a summer-early show, or it should just take a break. But it seems like it’s sticking around for a while.
I really want BATB to be renewed because I love the cast and the premise of the show but for me this season has been horrendous. The last 6 epsides will no doubt be a bit more satisfying but I am worried what next season will bring. I think that for a lot of fans, there is a fair amount of negativity attached to some of the characters and to some of the crew. There are some good writers but there are too many of them and to build the viewership back up, IMO, and for fans to have faith in the show again, there needs to be some better PR and some changes. I want to believe in the other plusses this show has other than ratings but I just cannot see going into another season with ratings as low as they have been this season, unless there is a huge move to put some money into trying to get the ratings back up. I can’t see CW doing that. They tried the re-vamp this season, which for whatever reason people want to believe, failed miserably losing over half the viewership. If we do get another season and it is BATB 3.0, I will bail!
I totally agree with you on the 13 episode thing. Either that or if they do have 22 episodes, they should air them all back to back instead of with breaks/reruns between them.
There have been times when the longer seasons do seem to have “filler” episodes. I’d rather avoid that with shorter seasons.
I know it is SUCH a long shot, but I am still holding out for season 3 of The Carrie Diaries.
It sort of crazy that the networks are still fighting fo Prime time slots I guess they don’t know we (TV Fans) have DVR’s? I don’t care what night or time the shows I like on. I record them & watch them when I want. With my two DVR’s I can record 10 shows at the same time.