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The CW And ‘Supergirl’: Will CBS Be Handing Over This DC Superhero Series?

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 14:52 PST, May 11, 2016

While most fans assumed CBS’s Supergirl would soar into a second season, fans now have cause for concern as the network would need to make fairly dramatic cuts to the budget of the show in order to continue to afford the series. The alternative option CBS has is to move Supergirl to The CW. Naturally, fans wonder whether or not The CW can afford the hefty budget of the series that caused CBS to struggle to get the second season off of the ground.

Screen Crush reported that the conversations regarding whether or not to move Supergirl to The CW for Season 2 have intensified. As of early Wednesday morning, CBS had yet to make a decision regarding whether or not to make a move. Screen Crush also reported that the network has until late Wednesday to make a final decision. While Screen Crush and other news outlets are reporting the deadline to make the decision has come and past, the network may or may not immediately announce the decision.

Deadline reports that other new dramas to the CBS network including the medical drama Code Black, which is owned by ABC and CBS, has solidified its position to return to the network but is still expected to undergo some changes. Limitless, which is fully owned by the CBS network, has a 50-50 chance of being renewed. CBS’s Scorpion has already been renewed for another season, and Life In Pieces has a pretty good chance of being renewed as well.

Supergirl had a very high license fee during its first season which is part of the reason why CBS had to look at a partial order for the next season to bring down the price. The CW network has been mentioned several times by CBS as a possible alternative for the series. CW president Mark Pedowitz did make public comments suggesting that he regretted not going after Supergirl when it was originally pitched to The CW.

If The CW were to take over Supergirl, it would become fourth DC superhero series reoccurring on the network including Flash which has already crossed over into the Supergirl series. If anything, the crossover between Flash and Supergirl suggests how seamless the transition of the series into The CW network would be.

This is not the first time rumors started to fly about Supergirl moving to The CW. After the pilot of the series last year, there were rumors about the series transitioning to The CW to be with the other DC superhero series. There are, however, still many skeptics who do not know whether or not The CW will be able to foot the bill of Supergirl. These skeptics question whether or not taking on the series makes sense from a financial standpoint for The CW network.

This is also not the first time a drama has transitioned from CBS to The CW. Some CW fans may remember the drama Ringer which transitioned to CW following the pilot episode.

At the end of the day, this is going to be a decision for Les Moonves, the chairman of CBS Corps., to make. Since CBS Corp. controls the CBS network as well as the programming for CW, he makes the final decision regarding whether or not Supergirl stays put or moves to the CW.

Despite having numbers that tapered off a bit, Supergirl had a very strong start. This strong start was supported by solid DVR numbers. It received a 2.4 rating with young adults between the ages of 18-49, and it was in a very competitive timeslot. It was ranked as the No. 1 new drama for the CBS network and the No. 4 new network series overall. For its first season, Supergirl averaged 10 million views.

Did Mark Pedowitz make a mistake when he didn’t jump at the chance to have Supergirl on The CW from the start or, financially, would the series have been a big mistake for The CW network? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

[Image via CBS]

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