The CW Under Nexstar Continues To Take Shape, Renewing 'Walker', Saving '61st Street' And Canceling Three Series
There are three shows left from this season on the bubble. And that's even before their foreign acquisitions, especially for the summer.
Well, we’re heading toward the end of the broadcast season, and with it, Nexstar tightens its grip on The CW, which it bought a majority stake in from Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount in August. After promising minimal carriage of programming from either studio, Nexstar has added only a second renewal to All American in Walker, canceled its spinoff Walker: Independence, the Supernatural spinoff The Winchesters, and the Kung Fu reboot. All three were considered longshots even before the cancellations came down.
Walker: Independence‘s cancellation comes after a single season. It averaged 950,000 total viewers and a 0.1 demo rating (with Live+7 playback). Out of this season’s 14 CW dramas, it ranks No. 4 in audience and is in an eight-way tie for sixth in the demo. The season finished on March 2. In the late 1800s, Abby Walker, played by Katherine McNamara, was an affluent Bostonian whose husband was murdered in front of her as they moved out west. Out for revenge, she meets Matt Barr’s Walker character Hoyt Rawlins’s ancestor Hoyt Rawlins also played by Barr and they end up in Independence, Texas, full of dream chasers and those with troubled pasts as they all struggle to adapt in a changing world while becoming changers themselves of a town where nothing is what it seems.
The Winchesters, also canceled after one season, was a spinoff of The CW’s longest-running series Supernatural, which ran for 15 seasons from 2005-2020. The series was averaging 790,000 total viewers and a 0.2 demo rating (with Live+7 playback). Of the network’s dramas, it ranked No. 7 in audience in a five-way tie for No. 2 in the demo, trailing only All American. The Winchesters followed Sam and Dean’s parents, John Winchester, played by Drake Rodger, and Mary Campbell, played by Meg Donnelly from ZOMBIES. Claimed to have been their epic love story previously untold, narrated by Dean (Jensen Ackles) the now-series finale established a multiverse for the franchise, as Dean explained that when he got to Heaven, he took his beloved Impala for a drive, looking for an Earth where his family had a shot at a happy ending. Hearing of a new threat, he nudged his multiversal parents in the right direction.
Kung Fu, canceled after three seasons was a supernatural martial arts series that remade the David Carradine-starring series from the ‘70s. This version starred Olivia Liang as Nicky Shen, a Chinese American woman who drops out of college following a quarter-life crisis. After a life-altering journey to an isolated monastery in China, she finds her hometown filled with corruption and crime. Using her martial arts skills and Shaolin values, she protected her community bringing criminals to justice. This season averaged 792,000 total viewers and a 0.1 rating (with Live+7 playback), down 14% in audience but steady in the demo compared to Season 2.
As far as whether any of these will find new homes, Walker: Independence showrunner Seamus Kevin Fahey said there is a Plan B, while executive producer Jared Padalecki stated they are “aggressively looking” and is hopeful it will live on, as CBS Studios is very supportive. Warner Bros. Television quietly explored other options for Kung Fu but none could come to fruition. As for The Winchesters, executive producer Ackles is bringing the fans in on the rescue campaign, tweeting on Thursday afternoon, “Looks like we got work to do. #SaveTheWinchesters #spnfamily”.
This leaves three shows on the bubble: Superman & Lois, Gotham Knights and All American: Homecoming. Sources say only one of the two DC shows will be chosen. Superman & Lois has the bigger audience, averaging 1.2 million viewers over seven days to about 675,000 for Gotham Knights — but is also very expensive. A move to HBO Max is possible if it’s not picked. What makes that so? Gotham Knights is apparently the least expensive DC series The CW has ever aired, as it is very effects-lite.
Nexstar has ordered zero scripted pilots this season, instead, cheapness is the modus operandi. Bringing unscripted content like its HBO Max rescue FBoy Island, but also quadrupled down on foreign imports. Sure, acquisitions like that started under the Mark Pedowitz regime, but it was never to replace homegrown originals, only substitute, as their fall usage began in the 2020-2021 COVID-impacted season, with shows like Trickster, Devils, and Coroner. There are a bunch for this summer, but the two that have been announced for this fall are Canada’s The Spencer Sisters with Lea Thompson and Stacey Farber, and Sullivan’s Crossing, starring former network favorites: One Tree Hill and Riverdale’s Chad Michael Murray and Gilmore Girls’s Scott Patterson.
However, there is one American drama that’s been acquired: 61st Street, starring Courtney B. Vance. It was originally aired on AMC, or at least, the first season did last year. The series was given a two-season order, however, to “cut costs”, AMC decided against airing the second season. The first will reair this year, while the second will premiere in 2024. The series is about the corrupt Chicago criminal justice system, as “police and prosecutors investigate a deadly drug bust that threatens to unravel the police department’s code of silence”. CW President Brad Schwartz praised the show as he welcomed it to the lineup, while Vance seemed just relieved that audiences will get the full experience.
The trades have already started declaring that The CW has lost its identity in the name of profit, and with a mix like this, and it’s easy to see why.
