CW Goes Full “Red Wedding” And Cancels Almost Half Of The Shows On Its Schedule
“It’s the Red Wedding at WBTV/CW today,” tweeted showrunner Julie Plec, after her shows Legacies and Roswell, New Mexico got the axe at the CW Network upfront on Thursday.
Seven other CW shows, including the previously announced Batwoman and Legends of Tomorrow also got cut, along with In The Dark, Dynasty, 4400, Charmed, and Naomi.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, many of these cancellations have to do with behind-the-scenes changes at The CW, specifically the streaming ventures from co-owners CBS Studios, which is part of Paramount and streams on Paramount+, and Warner Bros. TV, now part of Warner Bros.-Discovery which sends all their streaming fare to HBO Max.
For many of the last few years, The CW auto-renewed most of its scripted content, as it made most of its money from a highly lucrative licensing deal with Netflix that saw all of those original scripted shows placed there after each season aired, but that deal wasn’t renewed. Now Paramount and Warner are looking to sell the network to someone else, thus the content bloodbath.
Riverdale, Walker, and The Flash all lived to see a new season.
There will be some programming added to the network, with three new shows coming to the fall lineup. The first of two prequels is The Winchesters, about the father of Sam and Dean from the original Supernatural, with Jensen Ackles from Supernatural working on it. The network also picked up a Walker prequel, about Jared Padalecki’s Walker ancestor (Katherine McNamara) moving to Texas for some cowboy vengeance after her husband is murdered.
The final show pulls characters from the DC catalog but isn’t part of the network’s Arrowverse continuity. Gotham Knights feature’s Batman’s “rebellious adopted son” (could it be Jason Todd?) teaming up with the children of Batman’s villains after Batman gets killed.
The CW isn’t the only network pruning their programming; CBS cancelled five shows including a Chuck Lorre sitcom and its reboot of Magnum P.I., and NBC dropped Kenan and the Tina Fey-produced comedy Mr. Mayor.