Even as Superman, Walker et al Get ‘Pushed Further Into 2024’ by Strikes, Nexstar CEO Likes The CW’s Chances
Perry Sook, CEO of The CW‘s owner, Nexstar, likes the netlet’s chances even as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes push the returning scripted series Walker, All American, Superman & Lois and All American: Homecoming “further and further into 2024.”
“We are confident [the strikes] will not hurt our forward progress at The CW,” Sook said Tuesday during a quarterly earnings call (per Deadline). “The majority of our fall slate was material already developed, and for unscripted.”
The CW’s first stab at a Fall 2023 slate, announced back in May, hoped against all hopes that All American would be back in production in time to make the cut. But with both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA still waiting for meaningful talks with the AMPTP to resume and their strikes ongoing, All American wound up riding the pine, to now return at “midseason” with Walker, Homecoming and Superman & Lois.
The CW’s updated game plan, unveiled in July, features at least six hours of scripted programming, though they are all series acquired from Canada and other sources. Among broadcasters, NBC fares second-best in that measure with five hours’ worth of scripted programming this fall, most of which (save for Season 3 of Canada’s Transplant) will actually be 100% new to all viewers.
But with just 14 weekly hours to fill, The CW boasts “the most scripted as a percentage of our schedule” — 43% — “of any of the Big 5 broadcast networks going into the fall,” Sook noted.
“We also have some more high-profile and noisy reality shows, which will bring attention to the network as well,” he said, referring to the two-hour FBoy Island block that will air on Thursdays this fall and then the midseason offshoot FGirl Island. “So, we kind of like our chances in this chaotic environment. When others are afraid, we tend to take some big swings.”
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Superman & Lois writers better know this is their last season and plan accordingly.
I’m just surprised that nextar has yet to pull CW from DirectTV due to negotiations while we haven’t had our local nbc affiliate since July 3rd
Must be your region. I haven’t had CW on since early July.
A swing and a miss most likely. They aren’t even keeping their imported series on the air!
Right, I’d be surprised if they can ever get 500k live again for any show they air.
What’s crazy is the imported airs are the ones that were suppose to make the network profitable and yet they’re yanking them off the air. This was the business strategy that was suppose to work when they canceled so many shows but it feels like they still are having issues.
I wonder if any of these renewals end up reversed like in COVID times. I’ve heard some companies are using the strike as an excuse to cancel overall deals with showrunners, I imagine reversing renewals is next. S&L barely got renewed as it was.
I’ve thought the same thing. I think there’ll be some shows on broadcast that’ll have their renewals reversed, too. Someone had posted on another site that unless the strikes end before October, the entire season will likely be scrapped because the writers won’t have enough time to formulate scripts/storylines. And by that point it’s getting into the holiday season, & that’d delay production even more.
Still hoping to see this forward progress of which he speaks. But I can hardly wait for more S&L and Walker.
And I do look forward to seeing more NASCAR on broadcast….
Not a big fan of Xfinity series, so I don’t expect to be spending any time watching it on The CW.
I wonder if it would have been better to make TheCW stations independent again?
Cw’s errror was not sticking with unique programming like Republic Of Sarah and to an extent Roswell,N.M. Brilliant casting, acting, and writing but network bozos with nada between the ears.
What happened to Mysteries Decoded?
Return date TBD.
Does anybody really think he’s going to say ” We’ve messed up totally! We’re doomed!” ? As has been pointed out, they’re already yanking the imported shows that were supposed to be their key to being profitable off the air. They have no idea what they’re doing. But they’re certainly never going to admit it.