The CW Expands To Sundays This Fall
The CW has needed more than five days to work with for quite some time. They’ve had to shuffle shows around, order shorter seasons, and in some cases move shows into the summer. The network premiered with a Sunday lineup in 2006, but lost it by 2009, mostly due to low ratings on that night.
Things have changed since then. The Dawn Ostroff years were marked by an intentionally narrow focus on teenage girls that didn’t quite pan out. She is long gone and The CW has successfully reinvented itself as an alternative genre network, offering offbeat premises the other broadcast networks won’t touch. Plus lots and lots of comic book characters.
So the network and its affiliates have struck a new deal. Prepare for at least two bonus hours of superheroes, monster hunters and singing unhinged redheads (assuming Crazy Ex-Girlfriend survives another year). The CW’s 2018-2019 season will include a Sunday Night lineup! Currently, my affiliate is filling that space with a solid block of Two And A Half Men repeats. No loss there.
This announcement explains the unusually large amount of pilots The CW has ordered recently — eight so far, including new versions of Charmed and Roswell, plus a Supernatural spinoff called Wayward Sisters. Not all of them will make it to series, but they stand a better chance now. CW president Mark Pedowitz says he could fit as many as 20 shows on his schedule next fall.
[Source: Variety]