After six seasons, one on CBS and five on the CW, Supergirl wrapped up its run last November. I’m not quite sure how, as I’m a bit behind in my watching, but I’ll get to it eventually. Along with the cancellation of Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman, the remains of the Arrowverse gets smaller and smaller on the CW.
Tag / Batwoman
The CW Upfronts
It’s a year of change at The CW, which has reduced the number of series it will air this upcoming season in anticipation of being sold. Monday stays the same with the returning All American followed by its spinoff All American: Homecoming. Tuesday is all new, with the Supernatural prequel The Winchesters leading off the night followed by Professionals, an international collaboration starring Tom Welling and Brendan Fraser.
Stargirl moves from summer to the fall to anchor Wednesday night, followed by Kung Fu. Walker continues to lead-off on Thursdays followed by a new spinoff, Walker Independence. Friday and Saturday remain reality-heavy, with Penn & Teller: Fool Us followed by an hour of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and then Magic With The Stars followed by a double dose of World’s Funniest Animals. The Sunday night offerings are Family Law, starring Jewel Staite as a highly-paid personal injury lawyer, and Coroner.
Waiting in the wings for midseason are the final seasons of Riverdale and The Flash, along with Nancy Drew, Superman & Lois, and new shows Gotham Knights, where Bruce Wayne’s son is charged with murdering Batman, and Recipe For Disaster, a reality cooking show.
Lost to the sands of time are DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, 4400, Charmed, Dynasty, In The Dark, Naomi, Roswell, New Mexico, and Legacies.
The CW Upfronts
The CW has finally decided to expand to a 7th night of programming for the first time in their existence this fall, with 3 new shows added to the schedule. Monday gets a brand new look, with the returning All American followed by 4400, a reboot of the USA show from the mid-2000s. Tuesday brings the new seasons of Flash and Riverdale, while Wednesday leans in to the DC multiverse with DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman.
Walker lead off on Thursdays, followed by Legacies. Friday has Penn & Teller: Fool Us and Nancy Drew. The weekends are given over to reality programming, with Saturday’s initial offerings being 2 episodes each of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and World’s Funniest Animals. The Sunday night offerings are Legends Of The Hidden Temple, a reboot of a Nickelodeon game show from the 90s, followed by Killer Camp, a US version of the British competition where a mix of 13 campers navigate through new deadly twists and surprises while competing to expose the “killer” among them.
Waiting in the wings for midseason are All American: Homecoming, from the producers of All American, Naomi, the latest DC adaptation from the book created by Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker, and Jamal Campbell, alongside returning seasons of Charmed, Stargirl, Dynasty, In The Dark, Kung Fu, Superman & Lois, and Roswell, New Mexico
Lost to the sands of time are Black Lightning and Supergirl.
Midseason Review – Sundays
With the advent of winter premieres, the start of the premium cable network shows, and with February sweeps around the corner, it’s time to revisit my thoughts from the beginning of the season and look ahead at what’s to come for Sunday nights.
Well, Sunday fell a little barren in the fall, leaving me with nothing to watch, but some things have started to show up as we approached the mid-season.
Shameless – The final season. Maybe I will catch up soon.
Your Honor – A judge uses his knowledge of the law to keep his son safe after he accidently kills the son of a crime boss.
Batwoman – A new woman is wearing the cowl after Ruby Rose cut bait.
Post Mortem – Arrow
Say what you will about Arrow, but it certainly did not fail this network. Premiering on The CW on October 10, 2012, the show ran for 8 seasons and spawned what would become known as the Arrowverse, which includes fellow DC-based programs The Flash, Supergirl, Legends Of Tomorrow, and Batwoman. As of today, the Arrowverse has been responsible for 25 seasons of programming on The CW.
The abbreviated 8th, and final, season was a precursor to the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, which not only brought together the heroes from all of the Arrowverse series, but changed the footing underneath them moving forward. Whatever the actors move on to next, they will always be able to say that, after years of floundering, they gave an identity to The CW.
The CW (Not-So-Quite) Upfronts
Yesterday, the CW became the first network to release their plans for the 2020-2021 season, announcing that they would return with a full slate of new programming in January due to shutdowns from the corona virus. The late start will not impact the number of episodes, with series still producing seasons of 13 to 22 episodes, depending on the show. That will stretch the season in to July or August, leading to a very short summer break before the 2021 fall season starts in October. The final episodes from some shows’ current seasons, which could not finish filming because of the pandemic, will be included in their next seasons.
Monday stays the same, with All American followed by Black Lightning. Tuesday kicks off with The Flash, followed by the latest installment of the Arrowverse, Superman & Lois. Riverdale and Nancy Drew continue to hold down the fort on Wednesdays.
While Supernatural may finally be over, Jared Padalecki returns to Thursdays in Walker, a re-imaging of Walker, Texas Ranger. The night wraps up with Legacies. Friday goes all reality, with Penn & Teller: Fool Us followed by back-to-back episodes of Whose Line Is It Anyway? The Sunday night offerings are Batwoman and the new version of Charmed.
The network is planning a smaller version of its traditional Arrowverse crossover to air either late 1st quarter or early in the 2nd quarter of 2021.
To accommodate Melissa Benoist’s pregnancy, Supergirl gets bumped to mid-season. Joining it are Dynasty, Roswell, New Mexico, In the Dark, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, alongside two new series: Kung Fu and The Republic of Sarah. Supernatural, which still had two episodes to film in its final season before the shutdown, will air its final seven episodes in the fall, alongside some usual summer and/or streaming fare.
All of this, of course, assumes that the production shutdown due to the corona virus lets up and crews can get back to work.
Midseason Review – Sundays
With the advent of winter premieres, the start of the premium cable network shows, and with February sweeps around the corner, it’s time to revisit my thoughts from the beginning of the season and look ahead at what’s to come for Sunday nights.
7:00
Batwoman – The Arrowverse expands once again, with this entry coming out of last year’s crossover event. Ruby Rose puts on the cowl to protect the streets of Gotham.
Outside of the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover episode, I haven’t actually gotten around to watching this yet, though the episodes are piling up on the DVR.
7:30
God Friended Me – The latest “do-gooder has a direct line from God” returns for a second season after being surprisingly entertaining.
I’m still enjoying this, but I am a little concerned that they’ve already leaned hard into the “keep the obvious couple apart for dubious reasons” trope.
8:00
Supergirl – The fifth season sees the return of Jeremy Jordan and the exit of Mehcad Brooks.
We’ll see how the outcome of the Crisis crossover impacts the show moving forward, as it looks to have a completely new status quo.
9:00
Silicon Valley – The Pied Piper gang returns for their final season.
The show got an honorable wrap up, with the crew finally succeeding, but forced to kill their own creation for the good of the world.
Shameless – Season 10, the first without Emmy Rossum, may be a bit of a stretch. But, I guess if I’ve watched this long, why stop now?
I am slowly working through the season, which is turning out to be a bit of a slog without Emmy Rossum. It’s been renewed for an eleventh, and final, season, so I may as well keep going with the finish line in sight.
New entries hitting the screen this winter include:
Doctor Who – Jodie Whitaker returns for her second go-around as the Doctor.
Homeland – The Showtime drama returns for its final season.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist – Jane Levy returns as a coder who starts to hear people’s inner musical dialogue.
The Outsider – Based on a Stephen King book, the new HBO drama stars Jason Bateman.
Avenue 5 – A sci-fi comedy from the creators of Veep.
2019 New Fall Season – Sundays
It is time once again to dive in to the new fall lineups for the television season that will kick into gear tomorrow night. We start this year with Sunday night’s offerings, which features a little less programming that interests me than last year’s slate.
7:00
Batwoman – The Arrowverse expands once again, with this entry coming out of last year’s crossover event. Ruby Rose puts on the cowl to protect the streets of Gotham.
7:30
God Friended Me – The latest “do-gooder has a direct line from God” returns for a second season after being surprisingly entertaining.
8:00
Supergirl – The fifth season sees the return of Jeremy Jordan and the exit of Mehcad Brooks.
9:00
Silicon Valley – The Pied Piper gang returns for their final season.
Shameless – Season 10, the first without Emmy Rossum, may be a bit of a stretch. But, I guess if I’ve watched this long, why stop now?