After announcing its 2018-2019 primetime schedule and the upcoming final seasons of iZOMBIE, JANE THE VIRGIN and CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND, CW President Mark Pedowitz spoke to reporters about the upcoming season.
One big question was the network’s decision to pass on WAYWARD SISTERS, the second attempt at a SUPERNATURAL spin-off. The show was presented as a backdoor pilot this past season of SUPERNATURAL, but the network didn’t ultimately order it to series. According to Pedowitz, they had a lot of great material to choose from for the new season and they’re really excited about the shows they did pick up. He said “we are big fans of the characters [of WAYWARD SISTERS] and the women who played those characters. But we did not feel cratively that the show was where we wanted it to be. And we felt we had a better shot with [ORIGINALS spinoff] LEGACIES.” Pedowitz added that they will likely have conversations with SUPERNATURAL’s showrunners after the Upfronts about whether they can repurpose this show or if they’ll go another route in the future for another possible spin-off attempt.
Pedowitz also highlighted the show’s diversity statistics for the new season — he stated that 30 of the 37 regular actors on their various shows are all women or minorities and highlighted the fact that all five of their new series have female writers/executive producers.
The CW is also opening up Sunday nights on its schedule — a move that Pedowitz said was a sign of confidence in the network on the part of their affiliates and parent companies. In order to be a contender on Sunday nights they opted to pair SUPERGIRL with a new reiteration of CHARMED. They felt that these were two shows with empowered females and believe that this duo will be strong contenders for Sunday nights. With respect to CHARMED, the original cast doesn’t seem happy about this reboot. Pedowitz said that he hoped fans would give the new show and new cast a chance to stand on its own. There’s some similarities with the new show, but it’s not quite the same as the original CHARMED — it’s been “somewhat reimagined”.
One reporter also asked about the possibility that The CW might have had discussions to pick up LUCIFER — a show recently cancelled by Fox that fans are trying to save. Pedowitz indicated that they have had no discussions about LUCIFER and are focused on their own development. So if LUCIFER gets a reprieve, it won’t be coming from The CW.