Will Reign hold the Vampire Diaries audience?
SHILO: Although I was surprised at the scheduling of Reign, I do think that it makes sense and that I can see a world where the show holds a fair amount of its lead-in to become a solid enough success. There are two things, though, that are stopping me from saying that it can survive in the timeslot the way that The Secret Circle and Nikita couldn’t.
The main reason the scheduling works for me is because of how the most female-skewing new series on the network will get paired with the show with the highest female demographic. Even if the 18-49 numbers won’t be the best (and they won’t), the show could still be a success, particularly since online viewing is considered; however, Reign will be going against two female viewer powerhouses in Grey’s Anatomy and Glee. Granted, it will miss out on the season premiere of each by a few weeks, but that still might not be enough to guarantee that there will still enough live female viewers to give the show a chance to succeed.
What could kill it, though, is the fact that it’s decidedly off from what constitutes the CW’s wheelhouse, which has increasingly narrowed to action-infused genre programming over the past few seasons. Would the same people who watch Supernatural or Arrow be willing to watch a romantic costume drama? Honestly, I don’t know.
CRAIG: By premiering on October 17, it looks like Reign will miss the Glee bullet entirely, as I believe the Cory Monteith episode will be shown on the 10th. That’s one thing Reign will have helping its initial sampling. But, beyond having some incredibly attractive people in a very beautiful setting, I don’t know if this will take off.
I could be surprised and it could be the big hit of Fall 2013, taking a risk by doing a show so different than anything we’ve seen before on The CW. But will guys want to watch it? Will ladies be interested, or will they think it’s silly? My hopes aren’t too high, unfortunately.
The other thing to consider is how well The Originals episodes do on October 3 and October 10, especially in relation to the show’s Tuesday numbers. If The Originals does well on Thursdays, The CW will surely want to capitalize on that and put Originals back on Thursdays, effectively ending Reign’s reign prematurely. If this happens, I sure hope they line Adelaide Kane and Toby Regbo up with new projects as quickly as possible, because I think people will like them.
3 Comments
This is one female looking forward to Reign. I’m also a fan of SPN and Arrow. I watch most of the CW’s shows. But, I’m also 36, so not the target demo anymore.
Thursday is giving my DVR a workout! I already record TBBT, and now I have a conflict between Elementary and Parenthood. NBC moving Parenthood to Thursday at 10 really shocked me. It could get creamed and I hope NBC isn’t expecting too much, or it might end up the last season just because they moved it. I’ll be recording Elementary and watching it with the mister later.
I’m totally looking forward to Reign. It looks like an AMAZING show. I already ship Mary and Sebastian. (Torrance Coombs). Such a lovely potential couple, prince is also fine, but his step brother is better :)