CW

The CW has pulled the Zac Efron travelogue after two episodes. The network also has jettisoned Fantastic Friends (starring Harry Potter twins James and Oliver Phelps) from its primetime lineup.

The network will broadcast all NASCAR Xfinity Series races starting in 2025: 33 race weekends per year.

Mark Critch, creator and star of the autobiographical coming-of-age comedy series Son of a Critch, is bringing his Newfoundland, Canada, export to U.S. TV screens via The CW this month. He’s hoping its nostalgic charms strike the same chord as The Wonder Years did in his own childhood. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

It will air games every Saturday throughout the seasons. Coverage kicks off Sept. 9 with Pitt football playing host to non-conference foe Cincinnati.

The CW and the Roku Channel have teamed up to announce their collaboration on Fight to Survive, an eight-episode survivalist competition. Hosted by American Ninja Warrior alum Akbar Gbajabiamila, the social experiment pits 17 competitors — including former Survivor, Alone, Naked and Afraid and American Ninja Warrior contestants — against each other in an attempt to survive 25 days on a remote tropical island while facing brutal conditions to win $250,000.

All American, The CW’s lone homegrown series originally set for the fall has been moved to midseason. The network confirmed the move on Wednesday after announcing premiere dates for the rest of its fall schedule. Also being pushed to midseason is 61st Street and the I am documentary film franchise.

This news will be a major bummer to fans of the Australian surfing drama Barons: The CW has pulled it from the primetime schedule after four episodes. Repeats of Nancy Drew will take over the Mondays at 9 p.m. time slot, effective next week.

“Since many of you have been asking about the possibility of Gotham Knights finding a new home, we wanted to let you know that, over the last few months, our producing partners at Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Discovery had been working extremely hard to get the show picked up or possibly even moved to a new network,” showrunners James Stoteraux and Chad Fiveash wrote Wednesday on social media. “Unfortunately, despite all their efforts, The CW wasn’t able to renew the show, and the studio wasn’t able to find a new home for it.”

The CW’s Superman & Lois has set the returning cast for the recently picked up 10-episode fourth season, with four of the 12 Season 3 series regulars coming back amid budget cuts. Departing as series regulars are Dylan Walsh, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Erik Valdez, Inde Navarrette, Wolé Parks, Tayler Buck and Sofia Hasmik. Five of them had been on the show from the start, Walsh, Chriqui, Valdez, Parks and Navarrette. The hope is for the septet to guest star/recur next season, reprising their roles, subject to interest on their part and availability.

The company’s WPHL, KRON and WTTA drop their MyNetworkTV lineups to carry Nexstar’s CW’s primetime entertainment, live sports and special event programming.

Nexstar has spent the past two years building its national media business with The CW as a central part of that strategy. The CW will soon be put to the test as its third iteration hits viewers.

The series about the life of Jesus is from creator, director and producer Dallas Jenkins (The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, What If…, Midnight Clear) and stars Jonathan Roumie as the King of Kings. It will premiere on Sunday, July 16, and will continue its run through the fall, with the Season 3 finale airing on Christmas Eve.

The CW has given an early renewal to one of its fall dramas — and will become a creative partner in the show. The network has picked up a second season of Sullivan’s Crossing, a family drama starring Morgan Kohan and CW alums Scott Patterson (Gilmore Girls) and Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill). The series, based on novels by Virgin River author Robyn Carr, will make its U.S. debut in the fall after airing on Canada’s CTV earlier this year.

The CW has shared its summer programming plans, including premiere dates, which include Zac Efron travel show Down to Earth starting July 18; comedy Son of a Critch (pictured) beginning with back-to-back episodes July 24; and FBoy Island premiering Aug. 3.

The CW is the new home for Inside the NFL. The show debuted on HBO in 1977 and moved to Showtime in 2008, then Paramount Plus in 2021. In its broadcast TV debut, Inside the NFL premieres on The CW Tuesday, Sept. 5. It will be season 47.

The CW, which is under new ownership following Nexstar’s acquisition last year, is developing its own true-crime strand. Heather Olander, head of unscripted programming at The CW, said Tuesday that the network is currently working on its own version of NBC’s Dateline, CBS’s 48 Hours and ABC’s 20/20. “What’s nice about true crime is it also can be scaled, you can do a lot of episodes, and it’s very efficient,” she said.

After that, the newly merged golf entity’s broadcast rights need to be hammered out.

On July 19, 2012, a sharp CW social media staffer posted this: “#Emmy nomination day! Or as we call it, Thursday.” Those early days included Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kristen Bell as Veronica Mars, Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel as the Gilmore Girls, Brandy as Moesha and others — none of whom received their Emmy due at the time. The kudo drought continued as The CW launched in 2006, even as it launched a new round of enduring franchises. But where Emmy really fell short was with standout female-led shows like Nikita (Maggie Q), Jane the Virgin (Gina Rodriguez), iZombie (Rose McIver) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Rachel Bloom).

Nexstar CEO Perry Sook: “We, as the owner of The CW, are constructing a new affiliation agreement template that is going to allow affiliates to opt out of The CW deal with the virtual MVPD and cut their own deal — or they can opt in to the deal that we have already established for them.”

CW network president Dennis Miller and entertainment president Brad Schwartz talk about the network’s plans for adult dramas, programming to Black audiences following the success of All American, going hard on unscripted with FBoy Island, and the path to making the former Paramount/Warner Bros. Discovery-owned network profitable for Nexstar.

“The CW is now run by broadcasters whose only goal is to build a strong brand and cultivate emotional attachment to the largest audience possible,” Entertainment President Brad Schwartz told reporters Thursday. “Our goal is to do what’s best for viewers, for stations and for advertisers. No longer will The CW be built for the benefit of two content studios.”

The CW is reopening the book on The Librarians, ordering a spinoff of the TNT series five years after its cancellation. Aptly titled The Librarians: The Next Chapter, the sequel will center on “a ‘Librarian’ from the past, who time traveled to the present, and now finds himself stuck here,” according to the cryptic logline.

The CW has put together a fall schedule full of international series and unscripted formats alongside scripted returner All American, while Walker is moving to midseason. The move is not a huge surprise given the company’s recent acquisition by Nexstar amid plans to lean into lower cost programming. Decisions are yet to be made on the three outstanding dramas Gotham Knights, Superman & Lois and All American: Homecoming, although more information is expected to emerge during the network’s upfront presentation later Thursday morning.

The CW has bought Everyone Else Burns, Channel 4’s apocalypse comedy about a religious sect starring Friday Night Dinner’s Simon Bird. The show, which was the first to come from Emily in Paris producer Jax Media’s U.K. office and is co-produced with Universal International Studios, is expected to be be unveiled as part of the network’s fall lineup.

New owner Nexstar has gutted the network’s roster that former CEO Mark Pedowitz built in favor of low-cost imports and unscripted shows — and a rejected cable drama. Pictured: Sullivan’s Crossing, starring Chad Michael Murray, Morgan Kohan and Scott Patterson, is one of many low-cost foreign series that The CW will program instead of homegrown original series. It’s already aired elsewhere.

The broadcast network has picked up both seasons of the drama series 61st Street from AMC. The legal thriller stars Courtney B. Vance as an attorney defending a high school athlete (Tosin Cole) who get swept up in Chicago’s corrupt criminal justice system. AMC picked up the series with a two-season order and aired the first installment in the spring of 2022. Despite Season 2 already being finished, however, AMC scrapped the conclusion — part of a wave of cost-cutting un-renewals at several outlets in late 2022 and early 2023. The first season is set to air in the fall on The CW, with the unseen season two set for 2024.

The CW on Thursday canceled two more series as network owner Nextstar continues to whittle down its roster of scripted shows. Kung Fu and Supernatural prequel The Winchesters — both produced by Warner Bros. TV, one of The CW’s former owners — won’t return to the network in 2023-24. Kung Fu ran for three seasons, while The Winchesters ends after a single season. The cancellations follow that of first-year show Walker: Independence, which comes from the network’s other former owner, CBS Studios, on Tuesday.

The CW has been busy north of the border. The network has picked up The Spencer Sisters, a Canadian drama starring Caroline in the City star Lea Thompson and Superman & Lois’ Stacey Farber, for its fall lineup. It is the latest Canadian series that it has acquired, this time from eOne, as the Nexstar-owned company’s scripted strategy becomes a little clearer.

The CW Network today unveiled its slate of original scripted and unscripted programming debuting on the network in Summer 2023.

On Tuesday, The CW canceled Walker prequel Walker Independence after one season. The move, which was expected, followed the CW’s renewal of mothership series Walker earlier in the day. The bulk of the CW’s existing scripted series will be canceled this week as the network is transitioning to a new business model of lower-cost scripted programming in pursuit of profitability.

The CW has given a 13-episode Season 4 order to  Walker, starring Jared Padalecki, to air in 2023-24 broadcast season. This is the first renewal decision made by the CW under its new regime, flagship All American’s renewal, announced in January, was part of Nexstar’s deal to acquire the CW. Walker had been considered the frontrunner among the CW’s scripted series to snag a renewal. It is a strong ratings performer, ranking as the network’s most-watched linear show this season in total viewers.

The CW‘s latest acquisition (and its fourth in two weeks) is Son of a Critch, the hit comedy from Canada’s CBC and Lionsgate Television. Created by Mark Critch and Tim McAuliffe and based on Critch’s award-winning memoir This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Son of a Critch tells “the hilarious and very real story of a young Mark coming of age in the 1980s.”

The CW is about to lose eight important affiliates: the CBS owned and operated stations that are currently affiliated with the Nexstar-owned network will become independent in September. The  stations are WPSG Philadelphia, WUPA Atlanta, KBCW San Francisco, KSTW Seattle, WTOG Tampa-St. Petersburg, WKBD Detroit, KMAX Sacramento and WPCW Pittsburgh. This will give the CBS stations group 14 CBS Television Network stations and 13 independents.

The reality dating competition series has been picked up for a third season by The CW after its cancellation at Max with returning host Nikki Glaser. The franchise also announces the new spinoff series FGirl Island, also hosted by Glaser — a seed that had been planted by creator Elan Gale when he launched the series.

The CW has always had a thing or two for an international acquisition and it seems that this strategy is continuing under new ownership. The network has acquired British supernatural drama series The Rising and Australian surfer drama Barons for its summer lineup. It comes after Nexstar acquired the network and brought in Brad Schwartz to oversee programming.

In lieu of a formal presentation, the company said Monday that it will unveil its fall programming lineup in its usual Thursday morning timeslot on May 18. Rather than a large-scale event, the network will host a press breakfast at Park Lane Hotel in New York City, followed by a press conference with Dennis Miller, president of The CW Network, and Brad Schwartz, president of entertainment at The CW Network.

Nexstar Media Group’s The CW Network has appointed Ashley Hovey chief digital officer, a new title at the network, effective April 17. Hovey had been senior director for AVOD at The Roku Channel. At The CW, she will oversee business strategy and day-to-day operations of the network’s digital operations and streaming platforms.

TV’s nail-biting season has arrived. Although most of the cancellation headlines continue to be focused on the continuing purge at big streamers and premium cablers like Showtime, attention has begun to shift to the beleaguered Big 5 broadcasters as the May upfronts draw closer. While many in-limbo shows are a lock to return (NBC’s #OneChicago and Law & Order troikas and ABC’s Good Doctor, Station 19, The Conners and assorted Rookies), there are a handful of high-profile series on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and The CW that remain very much on the bubble.