The CW has announced its midseason schedule and after a solid fall, the network to look to shore up a few of its weaker spots, adding premieres for “Star-Crossed” and “The 100” and moving around the pieces for Monday and Friday nights.
The juggling starts on Monday, February 17, with the series premiere of “Star-Crossed,” a “Roswell”-esque drama about human-on-alien sexy time, which will take over the 8 p.m. hour from current occupant “Hart of Dixie.” “Beauty and the Beast” will continue to air in the 9 p.m. hour until after March 10, when it will go on hiatus and it will return at a later date where its ratings can’t drag The CW down. The CW ordered a full season of “Beauty and the Beast,” so there should still be a bunch of episodes in that limbo.
Taking the place of “Beauty and the Beast” starting on March 17 is “The Tomorrow People,” which will vacate its cushy post-“Arrow” time period, where it has been losing half of its lead-in in recent weeks.
Starting on Wednesday, March 19, the futuristic drama “The 100” will take over the post-“Arrow” time period, either a big boost of confidence for the show, or else a sign that The CW thinks “The 100” skews slightly more male than the romantic “Star-Crossed.”
On that Friday, March 21, The CW will premiere a new cycle of “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” with consecutive new episodes of the improv comedy smash taking the 8 p.m. hour. After the first week, the 8 p.m. hour will feature new “Whose Line” episodes at 8 p.m. and encores at 8:30, a strategy that showed solid carryover in the summer. Moving to 9 p.m. on Fridays is “Hart of Dixie,” which has the advantage of being the closest thing The CW has to an hour-long comedy. Don’t believe me? “Hart of Dixie” has submitted as a comedy for Emmy consideration in recent years, not that you’d necessarily notice.
The idea of a CW comedy block on Friday may cause at least five people to flash back to the glory days of the 2008-2009 season when “Everybody Hates Chris” and “The Game” took the 8 p.m. Friday hour as the last stand of CW sitcoms.
That means that The CW is sticking with its strong Tuesday of “The Originals” and “Supernatural” and that “Reign” will remain in its post-“Vampire Diaries” safety spot for the foreseeable future.
Here’s the revised schedule in list form:
Monday, February 17
8:00-9:00pm “Star-Crossed” (Series Premiere)
9:00-10:00pm “Beauty And The Beast”
Monday, March 17
8:00-9:00pm “Star-Crossed”
9:00-10:00pm “The Tomorrow People” (New Night)
Wednesday, March 19
8:00-9:00pm “Arrow”
9:00-10:0pm “The 100” (Series Premiere)
Friday, March 21
8:00-8:30pm “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (Cycle Two Premiere)
8:30-9:00pm “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
9:00-10:00pm “Hart of Dixie” (New Night)
Will these changes impact you in any way?