Once Again, The CW Hands Early Renewals To Almost Everything! 12 Shows Get New Seasons!
The CW, who we frequently describe as the “fluffiest” of all the networks, has once again lived up to up its cuddly reputation when it comes to renewing shows, and handed early new season orders to 12 of its series.
Shows returning for the 2021-2022 season will include ‘The Flash’ (Season 8), ‘Batwoman’ (Season 3), ‘DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’ (Season 7), ‘Riverdale’ (Season 6), ‘Charmed’ (Season 4), ‘Roswell, New Mexico’ (Season 4), ‘Dynasty’ (Season 5), ‘All American’ Season 4), ‘In The Dark’ (Season 4), ‘Legacies’ (Season 4), ‘Nancy Drew’ (Season 3) and ‘Walker’ (Season 2).
In addition to those renewals, new Arrowverse show ‘Superman & Lois‘ will be getting 2 additional episodes in its first season (bringing its episode count to 15), and Jared Padalecki’s new series ‘Walker’ will be getting 5 more episodes in Season 1 (bringing it to 18), alongside its 2nd Season renewal.
“Though we’re just a few weeks into the new season, we wanted to get a strategic head start on next season with these early renewals, which allows our production teams to start laying out story arcs and hiring staff, and at the same time, continues to provide us with a strong, stable schedule to build on for next season,” commented Mark Pedowitz, Chairman and CEO, The CW Network. “As The CW’s 2020-2021 season kicks into high gear, we are thrilled creatively with the direction of our first new shows out of the gate, WALKER and SUPERMAN & LOIS, that we wanted to order the additional episodes to complete their first seasons, and we are particularly pleased with the huge success of the launch of WALKER, which debuted as our most-watched series premiere in 5 years.”
Shows missing from the renews are freshmen series ‘Superman & Lois’, ‘Kung Fu’, and ‘Republic of Sarah’, none of which have begun airing yet, along with ‘Stargirl’ which airs its 2nd Season this Summer. There is an extremely high chance all those will get renewals once they have broadcast, so nothing really to worry about. The fact that ‘Superman & Lois’ has already been given additional episodes also shows confidence in the series.
As a general rule, it appears to be extremely difficult to get cancelled on The CW (as opposed to your show “ending” with a concluding season.) Your numbers really have to tank to not get picked up again. They do have a couple of shows which are coming to an end this year, with both ‘Black Lightning’ and ‘Supergirl’ airing their final seasons.
Regarding the state of these shows in the UK – we don’t yet have any premiere dates for the Arrowverse shows on Sky One (‘The Flash’, ‘Legends of Tomorrow’), or any news on whether they have picked up ‘Superman & Lois’. However, everything has started quite late on The CW, so we’re not really expecting them to air until Spring 2021 at the earliest here.
‘Black Lightning’ switched last year to airing as a boxset (rather than weekly) on Netflix, so won’t drop in the UK until the season has finished airing in the US. ‘Riverdale’ is currently airing on Netflix UK weekly. ‘Roswell, New Mexico’ Season 3 hasn’t yet aired in the US, but should land on ITV2 at some point following that. As for ‘Batwoman’ and ‘Charmed’… we don’t even know if E4 still have the rights to them, so that is anyone’s guess. All the other series do not currently have UK homes, but we’ll let you know when we hear more!
