CW President Mark Pedowitz was very enthusiastic about picking up Supergirl from CBS when he spoke to the Television Critics Association this morning.
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A DC superhero from one of the four CW shows will be coming out in its upcoming season as a homosexual.
When CBS and Warner Brothers offered CW the show, Pedowitz jumped at the chance to add it to his slate that also includes Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.
“Without question, that is the way we’re intending to build these things out”, Pedowitz said.
“It probably won’t hit the numbers that it was getting on CBS”, Pedowtiz said, acknowledging that the show was still pulling millions of viewers each week.
“We weren’t expecting to have four this season”, Pedowitz said, referring to the 11th-hour negotiations that put “Supergirl” in play.
“Because Jane the Virgin’s first season was on Netflix, it became our second most watched series behind The Flash”, Pedowitz said. “I was asked prior to May schedule, would you like to have Supergirl”, he said.
“We thought Legends past year did not perform as well as it should have”, Pedowitz said. That required moving Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to Fridays. “Series that have been passed on by someone else, we’ll take a look at it”. But the show has corrected course this year.
Last month, the CW announced that it would be ending its current deal with Hulu that gave subscribers the ability to stream episodes of CW shows the day after they were aired and made a billion deal with Netflix instead. “If the ratings hold, it could outlast my tenure in this chair”, he said.
The Vampire Diaries is ending its run after this season, but spinoff The Originals could continue without it. We hope it won’t have an effect.
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The CW now has 15 scripted series, which it can launch in fall, midseason and summer, offering year-round programming which Pedowitz said is important to advertisers, audiences and for the network’s identity. “That’s the right amount”, he said.
