After years of trying to get a Supernatural spinoff going, The CW finally successfully launched one with The Winchesters this past Fall, but new ownership may be on the verge of killing it after one season. The first attempt at a spinoff came with the ninth season episode “Bloodlines” which was not well received (I rather liked it, though), and a series was not ordered. The second attempt was the fan-favorite “Wayward Sisters” which aired in the tenth season, but network execs decided not to proceed with a series (more on that at this link). And then last season the network greenlighted the prequel series The Winchesters which follows John and Mary Winchester in their early days as hunters. It debuted to decent ratings this past Fall, but the numbers have dropped off since it returned from hiatus, in a large part due to poor scheduling. And that has me wondering if the new owners are trying to tank the ratings to justify cancelling it.
The Winchesters premiered in October 2022 with a 0.12 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic which are good numbers for that network. It ended its Fall run as the top genre entry on The CW, averaging a 0.10 in same-day viewing (the network’s overall average was a 0.07 score), and it was the third highest-rated show on the network. In addition, it has been doubling its numbers when Live+7 delayed viewing is factored in. But since it returned from hiatus in January, the show’s numbers have taken a hit and that is largely due to an unfortunate scheduling shift. Its timeslot was moved up to 9 PM EST, and its lead-in is repeats of prior episodes which probably has viewers confused with many possibly tuning out thinking the show is still on hiatus. In fact, this past week the 8 PM EST repeat pulled a higher rating (0.06) than the new episode (0.04). The chart below shows the comparison of the ratings for Fall vs. Winter.
The new owners have already announced that not many of the current slate of shows will be carrying over to the upcoming season as they reconfigure The CW to an older-skewing network that will air mostly cheap acquisitions. I previously looked at the chances each of the current genre shows has for returning next season and considered The Winchesters as one of the two most likely to be back (along with Superman & Lois). But seeing how the network appears to be tanking the ratings along with the fact that James Gunn has suggested S&L still has a couple more seasons to go, I am much less confident about the fate of The Winchesters. I have had it On the Bubble since Fall despite the fact that it is one of the network’s top-performing shows. And now I am close to moving it to Cancellation Likely status.
The early numbers definitely suggested that the show had pulled over a fair number of viewers from Supernatural and the buzz I have been hearing on the spinoff is generally good. But if its own network is working against it, none of that really matters. Warner Bros. still has some say in the network decisions, but they may get to vote on only one renewal which looks like it will be Superman & Lois based on the comments by James Gunn. There is a chance that The Winchesters could shift to HBO Max, but that streaming service has been having problems of its own of late and has cancelled several of its own originals. If fans want to see a second season of The Winchesters, they should start making a Call to Action on the social networks now. There is also a slight chance it could move to Netflix to pair up with encore runs of Supernatural which continue to perform well for that streamer. But I believe that it will take some noise from the fans to keep the show going especially if the new owners of The CW are actively trying to get it booted from the schedule.
Are you watching The Winchesters and will you help with efforts to keep it going into a second season?
CancelledSciFi.com: Keep up with the status updates of all the airing, returning, and upcoming sci fi and fantasy shows for the current season with our Cancellation Watch posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
SciFiTVSite.com: Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and you can see the premieres for all the upcoming genre entries at this link.
