The CW recently announced its renewal and cancellation decisions for this upcoming year on the network, and it looks like it’s early renewals for all the regular-season series!
The CW’s blanket renewal is particularly surprising because the network has historically cancelled a few shows each year and the network didn’t make room for its two new mid-season premiere pilots.
Below are some ratings for each show’s past half-season on the CW, along with my thoughts on its renewal.
Supernatural
Supernatural is perpetually in the clear if last year’s statement by the president of The CW Television Network Mark Pedowitz is any indication: “As long as I’m still here, and those numbers still hold, it can go as long as it wants.”
Future: Yeah, this show is Supernatural in the fact that it will never, ever go away.
Reign
The show was initially on the cancellation bubble in season 1 before it was optioned for early renewal in February 2014. There was some speculation that Reign might be on the chopping block for CW renewal- the show pulled in consistently lower ratings than the average rating in its first season. Reign’s second season average viewership is 1.21 million; its first season ranged from 1.2 million viewers to 1.98 million viewers.
Future: Tough to say – the second season just hasn’t been as quality as the first, but this historical drama is pretty much the network’s bread and butter. I’m a fan of this show, but the CW might clear it off the lineup in the future to make room for some new pilots. I’m surprised it wasn’t picked up for a half season order.
Hart of Dixie
This is the one show which the CW hasn’t announced whether or not will be renewed. Rachel Bilson’s show is in its fourth season after a mid-season (December) premiere, but it looks like the series will wrap up after its run in 2015.
Future: Dixie’s gotta go. Especially with the renewal of all these other series.
Jane the Virgin
This show was one of my favorites from this year, and it’s been getting a fair amount of critical acclaim. Despite fantastic reviews, the official word is that the show hasn’t been confirmed for renewal, however one of the CW’s syndicates prematurely confirmed a second season before the network stepped in and announced that they a decision hasn’t been made. Granted, the network turned out to be correct. With Gina Rodriguez’ recent Golden Globe win, hopefully we’ll enjoy this gem of a show for a long, long time.
Future: With all the positive buzz around this show, I think Jane and her family are in the clear for a second season of juicy, telenovela-inspired drama.
The Originals
This Vampire Diaries spin-off seems like it’s always been in pretty safe territory. A fan favorite, ratings have dipped from the show’s first season average 1.98 million viewers to 1.32 million. But like I said, this show is a fan favorite.
Future: We’ll probably see The Originals outlive The Vampire Diaries at this rate.
The Flash and Arrow
These DC-universe series have a loyal (Arrow) and quickly growing (The Flash) fanbase. Arrow’s second season has averaged around 2.79 million viewers, while The Flash pulled in an average of 3.99 million viewers in the first half of the season, and it has already been optioned for a full first season.
Future: With ratings like that, the fastest man alive and our cut, verdant hero are not going away anytime soon.
The 100
The average viewer count for this season is 1.62 million, which is higher than Reign’s second season. That being said, it may still have to go- some fans are nervous that the CW is going to cancel this post-apocalyptic thriller, as indicated by their petition to renew the series for a third season on Change.org.
Future: When a show has a campaign on Change.org, it means its time to wave goodbye to the mother ship because this one is gone. If not this season, then probably after next.
The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries is very close to my heart, but even I know that all good things must come to an end. One of the series leads Ian Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore) mentioned in an interview in August that season six’s story has a finality to it which indicated that season 6 was possibly the show’s last season. This, along with alleged issues between Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder after they broke up suggested that maybe the cast wasn’t willing to work on another season. Granted, the executive producer of the show Julie Plec thought that the series has at least one more season before the series wraps, and her prediction carried the day.
Future: Unless the actors don’t renew their contracts, I think the network wants to keep one of its most-watched series on air for as long as possible- but after season 7, TVD might finally crawl back to The Other Side for good.
iZombie and The Messengers
After a full slate of renewals, I’m not sure if that means the CW doesn’t have much confidence in its mid-season pilots. The network may very well be renewing its full fall slate because they don’t anticipate keeping around their two new pilots.
To that end, iZombie sounds like it may have had a fair amount of problems getting off the ground indicated by the series’ delayed release date and a lack of trailer until earlier this week. As for The Messengers, I’m not very invested in the current trailers, so I’m more inclined to think that series will fail early before summer.
That’s what I think so far -let me know if you agree or disagree below!
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