THURSDAY
SHILO: Despite its success, The Vampire Diaries has never been a good lead-in for The CW, as Nikita, Beauty and the Beast, and The Secret Circle all sank during their seasons behind the ratings giant. Reign might not be the next major building block for the network, but it’s done well enough, particularly in the W18-34 demo, to earn itself another season on Thursdays. The CW has to have some sense of stability to its schedule and with the upheaval on other nights, this would be a good twosome to stand pat on. The Vampire Diaries is weakening enough to where it would be a worse lead-in than what it already was and given what happened with Beauty and the Beast season two, it’s more advantageous for the network to stick with another season of Reign rather than trying a new drama and throwing Reign onto another night to fend for itself.
CRAIG: Vampire Diaries and Reign. Just like you, I’d keep it as is. Reign is still developing a following, and I think it might be a mistake to move it to a new place, kind of like how a move didn’t treat Beauty and the Beast so well. Reign has a thriving young audience and I think it’d be nice for them to be rewarded with some stability.
FRIDAY
SHILO: The CW has veered so sharply toward genre programming that its 2014 schedule will be an inverse of the Dawn Ostroff years, as any and all non-genre programming will now be quarantined to Fridays in a similar way to Smallville and Supernatural ending up on the night in favor of soapier alternatives. The fourth season of Hart of Dixie is all but guaranteed to be a final go-around for Zoe Hart and the gang – the only question is, how many more episodes will we have in BlueBell? Though I could see the network sticking with the show for 22, I believe it’ll have a 13-episode swan song that culminates in January/February 2015 and makes way for either a Monday – Thursday underperformer, a midseason drama, or the next batch of Whose Line Is It Anyway? episodes. 9:00 will see summer carryover America’s Next Top Model finish out its 21st cycle sometime in November, though what’s more interesting is what the network will do once the venerable reality competition closes out another season.
Last season, the network filled the schedule with the final season of Nikita and repeats before moving Hart of Dixie to 9:00 and this season should see similar movement. Rumors have circulated that there’ll be a third season of Beauty and the Beast, which seems earmarked for a Friday slot (possibly in a similar airing pattern to the second season of The Carrie Diaries), while something like Jane the Virgin sneaking onto Fridays or another CW bubble renewal getting 13 episodes wouldn’t surprise me at this point.
CRAIG: I think we can assume Top Model will be taking up the 8PM slot going a few weeks into the new season, and The CW usually launches a third new series a little bit after the rest. So, for that, I’d suggest Jane the Virgin, which has a pretty clever script and a diversity that could get some new faces watching the network. It’s also CBS-owned, which probably will help in the decision-making process.
At 9PM, a full, 22-episode “final season” for Hart of Dixie. Like Supernatural, HoD fans seem willing to follow it anywhere, and I don’t think any of us are ready to say goodbye to BlueBell just yet.
Next: Midseason thoughts, and our schedules!
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.