Not to start a panic or anything among SMALLVILLE fans, but… um, yeah, enjoy the upcoming ninth season because chances are, it’ll be the last. Looking to place blame? Thinking maybe the rising production costs (including the ever-growing salary of star Tom Welling) or the shrinking audience (season two averaged 6.3 million viewers a week while the eighth season reached only 3.7 million) will prove to be the show’s kryptonite? Possibly… but it’s beginning to look like an assisted suicide with the network itself playing the role of Dr. Kevorkian.
Why do we say this? Well, the newly-released CW schedule (which you can see after the jump) reveals that the new season will air on Friday nights at 8 p.m. And while we’d love nothing more than to believe this is an attempt by the CW to reclaim the night — once home of CBS’ long-running powerhouses DALLAS and FALCON CREST — from those who’ve proclaimed it a dead zone, the fact that SMALLVILLE is not only the very last show to make its fall debut, but is being paired with reruns of AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL would seem to neutralize that theory. Adding insult to injury, the schedule sent out even misspelled the show’s name!
Sorry, folks, but this looks like a death trap that not even the not-quite-yet-a-man of Steel will be able to escape.
Tuesday September 8
8PM: 90210 (Season Premiere)
9PM: MELROSE PLACE (Series Premiere)
Wednesday September 9
8PM: AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL (2-Hour Season Premiere)
Thursday September 10
8PM: THE VAMPIRE DIARIES” (Series Premiere)
9PM: SUPERNATURAL (Season Premiere)
Monday September 14
8PM: ONE TREE HILL (Season Premiere)
9PM: GOSSIP GIRL (Season Premiere)
Wednesday September 16
8PM: AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL
9PM: THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE (Series Premiere)
Friday September 25
8PM: SMALLVILLE (Season Premiere)
9PM: AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL (Encore Episodes)