The CW has released it’s winter schedule. It’s raised a few eyebrows!
The good news: The 100 and new DC spinoff Legends of Tomorrow will air on the same night. (Yes!) Thursday! (Yes!)
The bad, or at least very strange twist: Vampire night is now Friday.
Yes, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals are moving to Fridays in January. It’s an interesting move from The CW, but on paper it was probably the only move they had. With The Flash on Tuesdays and Arrow on Wednesdays, Legends of Tomorrow had three options left, Monday, Thursday or Friday. Debuting a hotly promoted new franchise spinoff on a Friday is not wise and Monday and Tuesday seemed out of the picture given yesterday’s announcement that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and iZombie (you should really check out Crazy Ex BTW), were getting more episodes. Thursday was a no-brainer.
Still, The Vampire Diaries has held this Thursday at 8 pm slot ever since it premiered. It has struggled a lot in the ratings lately and Friday is a safer bet for a veteran show with a built in fan base. The Vampire Diaries still does well with DVR and online viewing so a Friday shift doesn’t seem too much of a stretch. The real surprise is that The Originals is going with it. The Originals has struggled behind its aging lead in and a shift to Friday at 9pm isn’t doing it any favors.
On paper, The 100 was destined for a Friday slot. It has always been a marginal performer, but one that has had a good base and a lot of good buzz critically. The fact that The CW would rather pair The 100 with it’s high profile DC property is a huge show of faith for this show and definitely a desire to give it a better lead in than an aging show on a dead TV night. Not to mention, I absolutely can’t wait to see what season three has in store. It looks very exciting!
It does make you wonder though, what does this mean for the future of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals? It moving to Friday just a technicality of a network with a really strong schedule or is this the beginning of the end? This announcement really doesn’t look good for the current Friday occupant Reign (other occupant America’s Next Top Model recently announced it was ending after 12 years, making Supernatural the lone remnant of the old WB and UPN merger). Reign will be officially displaced when it’s midseason finale airs on January 22nd. It looks like the second half will be back for a likely late Spring/early Summer run when newly extended iZombie or Crazy Ex-Girlfriend end their runs. Also missing is the new Julie Plec show Containment, which also seems like a sure bet for the summer now, joining the always versatile Who’s Line is it Anyway?
In the meantime, here’s the new extended trailer from DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Does it have you interested?
