Upfronts Week: The CW


This is Upfronts Week, the time when all five major networks unveil their fall schedules to advertisers, and, of course, the public. Each day I'll be taking a look at the network schedules and weighing in on what we see and new shows. Today is The CW's turn.

The CW
Best Scheduling Move:
For its final season, "Arrow" is moving back to Tuesday nights to be paired with "The Flash." In addition, The CW is pairing its new offering of "Batwoman" with "Supergirl" on Sunday nights. The CW is a combination of both superhero shows from the D.C. Universe and other shows, and it makes sense to me that they would create a couple strong blocks for these shows, especially with "Arrow" wrapping up its run.

Most Curious Scheduling Move:
There is nothing on The CW that stood out as a red flag, but I think the move least likely to succeed is moving "All-American," last year's "It" show, to Mondays at 8 p.m. It will be against "The Voice" and "9-1-1," among others, in that slot, and it didn't light the ratings world on fire last year. This seems like a move that could kill the show in season two.

 Most Promising New Show:
The CW only has two new shows, and both look pretty decent and on brand. So this is really a tough section to write. However, I'll lean "Batwoman" as the better of the two because of where it's paired with "Supergirl" on Sunday nights, its strong cast, a trailer that looked a little darker and edgier than the world of some of the other D.C. shows, and the fact Ruby Rose and this character already debuted during the big "Arrowverse" cross-over in December. I think this should work pretty well for The CW.

 Least Promising New Show:
As noted above, both the new shows look on brand for The CW. Here, however, I'm going with "Nancy Drew." It looks like they're doing with this story what they did with "Riverdale," taking something that had a certain tone and morphing it into something a bit darker. This one has also already had some shakeups in production, changing the actor playing Nancy's dad. It could work, but I wasn't as confident in this one as in "Batwoman."

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