The CW Gets its End of Season Report Card

Good Moves: After countless seasons that culminated with the inexplicable cancelation of some of our favorite shows (R.I.P: PRIVILEGED and JACK & BOBBY), the CW network finally threw fans of quality television a bone by renewing the critically adored LIFE UNEXPECTED for a second season. Not so unexpected was the audiences seemingly insatiable appetite for all things Vampire, resulting in the fledgling network’s first bonafide breakout hit in THE VAMPIRE DIARIES (Note: By CW standards, “bonafide breakout hit” translates to about 4 million viewers). Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the rest of the CW’s new offerings, which brings us to the…

Bad Moves: There was very little to ‘talk, text and tweet” about with regards to the Ashton Kutcher produced BEAUTIFUL LIFE, which after a splashy ad campaign, quickly fizzed. Also falling into the category of ‘bad,’ was the the way in which the CW’s target demo summarily rejected the guilty pleasure that was the now defunct MELROSE PLACE reboot. And from bad to ugly, lest we forget the budget-conscious network’s biggest blunder: Scheduling. Seriously. Just how any Network can expect to build audience awareness after benching shows for weeks on end in lieu of repeats of AMERICA’s NEXT TOP MODEL we’ll never understand.

Prognosis for the Coming Season: Cautiously optimistic. In the network’s favour was the surprising renewal of a trifecta of aging hits including SUPERNATURAL, ONE TREE HILL and SMALLVILLE which at the very least should help with the oft mentioned scheduling problems by allowing for the CW to fill out an entire Monday to Friday lineup for the first time since the WB and UPN merged. Working against the network: Their Fall offerings including the Tom Welling produced HELLCATS (which has THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE bomb written all over it) and NIKITA (an action-adventure that we can’t help but feel would be far more of a fit on USA.)

Last Season’s Grade: C-