In accordance with a precedent it set years ago, the CW on Thursday announced that it has made a number of early renewals in advance of the 2014-15 season.
Among the shows that will survive to see another year are two freshman dramas (Reign, The Originals), a superhero series (Arrow) and a pair of veteran thrillers (The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural).
The CW’s top-rated series, The Vampire Diaries is averaging a 1.2 in the adults 18-49 demo, per Nielsen C3 data. Arrow is the most-watched show on the network, drawing 2.82 million live-plus-same day viewers per episode.
The fate of the CW’s other scripted series, a roster that includes The Tomorrow People, Beauty & The Beast, The Carrie Diaries and Hart of Dixie, has yet to be determined.
“This season we’ve had great success with [pairing] our new hit series The Originals with Supernatural, giving us our best Tuesday nights in years,” said CW president Mark Pedowitz, by way of announcing the renewals. Pedowitz went on to praise the demographic composition of Arrow, which as with Supernatural, does very well with young males.
On the whole, it's been a very successful season for the network, which has improved 14 percent in the 18-49 demo compared to the first 20 weeks of the 2012-13 campaign.
“I’m very pleased to announce early pickups for all five series, and let our fans know they’ll have more great drama to look forward to next season,” Pedowitz said.
Among the pilots the CW has ordered for the coming broadcast season are the comic book adaptation iZombie, a sci-fi thriller titled The Messengers and a spinoff of both Supernatural and Arrow.
The CW will announce its entire 2014-15 prime-time slate on Thursday, May 15, in New York.
While the CW’s nightly deliveries are dwarfed by its more established rivals, its gender composition, digital reach and the relative “stickiness” of its programming make it a must-buy for marketers looking to reach younger female viewers. In fact, so many CW die-hards watch their favorite shows on VOD or via streaming digital video—environments that prohibit ad-skipping—that the channel boasts some of the best conversion rates from C3 to C7.
For example, where there are usually just a few points of variance when the extra four days of time-shifted viewing are tacked on, The Vampire Diaries over-indexes by seven points in the interval between C3 and C7 measurements. In other words, not only are CW viewers catching up to the content, but a disproportionate number are actually watching the ads.
With two shows left to debut, the CW still has plenty of new content in the hopper before the summer arrives. Star-Crossed bows Monday, Feb. 17, while The 100 arrives Wednesday, March 19.
