Yesterday, The CW announced the renewals of their four top-rated shows (all genre entries) Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Arrow, and The Originals as well as the renewal of freshman period drama Reign. The renewal of the first four comes as no surprise as they have performed consistently well for the fifth place network and pair up of The Originals and Supernatural on Tuesdays has allowed that network to get a foothold back on that night which was a disaster for it last year. The pickup of Reign (which follows the early years of Mary Queen of Scotts) was not a foregone conclusion, but also not too surprising considering it was their fifth highest rated show. The relatively early renewal announcement is also no surprise as The CW did the same about this time last year with its best-performing shows.
This leaves struggling series The Tomorrow People hanging, though, and the pickup of Reign (which is only doing slightly better in the ratings) could mean that the former series is getting edged out. The Tomorrow People has dropped to series lows in the ratings since its return from hiatus and the network will be shifting it to Mondays (another disaster night for The CW) next month to allow mid-season sci fi entry The 100 to take up the Arrow lead-out slot on Wednesdays. If The 100 pulls better numbers in that hour than The Tomorrow People, then consider TTP a goner. Also bowing next month is Star-Crossed, and chances are that only one of these three at best survives into the 2014-15 season seeing as the network only programs ten hours a week and they also have some strong pilots in the works such as Flash, iZombie, and the Supernatural spin-off.
If The Tomorrow People continues at its current level of around a 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demo based on the overnights, it will probably be sent for a date with the network executioner by season end. The CW renewed Beauty and the Beast after pulling numbers like that last year and that has not worked out well for them (and consider that show a certain goner as well). The fifth place network has shown more of a pulse this year than the last few (with most of their success coming from genre entries, I might add) and I’m sure they have no desire to hold onto ratings slackers if they have better options (which they do). Keep a close eye on The Tomorrow People’s numbers, especially when it moves to Mondays, but short of a ratings surge I do not see this one winning another season.
There have been no new episodes of the broadcast network genre shows the last few days because the networks seem reluctant to counter program against the Olympics (though FOX and CBS did throw Almost Human and Intelligence at them on Monday resulting in ratings dives for those shows). That may continue into next week, so the ratings reports might be sparse until the Sochi games are over. Keep an eye on this site and the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site, though, for any updates as well as breaking news like these CW renewals.
