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‘Supergirl’ Moves From CBS To The CW: Will A Lower Budget Kill The Show In Season 2?

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 05:10 PST, May 15, 2016

Supergirl has taken flight and is reportedly heading to a different network for its second season.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the Greg Berlanti-produced superhero series is leaping from CBS to the CW in a single bound.

On a bright side, this means that Supergirl will join the same network as the other superhero series produced by Greg Berlanti from the DC Universe, including Arrow, The Flash, and newcomer DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Quite a few Supergirl cast members shared their responses and reactions to the good news on Twitter, including the show’s leading lady, Melissa Benoist.

However, there is a bit of a downside to Supergirl moving from CBS to The CW that cannot be ignored – the budget.

Greg Berlanti opened up in a past interview with Entertainment Weekly about the cost involved with the show’s shooting location alone.

“The other thing I would say was incredibly hard, was just trying to do something of this scope and size and, quite truthfully, in Los Angeles. It’s an expensive city to shoot in. These things don’t come cheap, and we didn’t want to do it if we couldn’t give it the scope that it really deserves.”

Heading to the CW may cause the Supergirl cast and crew to drastically change their perspective about the scope of the show because a lower production budget will definitely shake things up a bit.

The pilot episode of Supergirl alone reportedly cost $14 million to make. The per-episode cost for the rest of the show’s first season reportedly was $3 million, meaning that the cost of the first season overall was nearly $70 million.

In addition to moving from CBS to The CW, Supergirl is also making a big move from Los Angeles to Vancouver, a solid business move that will likely lead to a significant drop in production costs. If the lower budget leads to lower production value and ratings, though, it could very well lead to Supergirl coming to an abrupt end much sooner than the show’s fans would like.

Keep in mind that the show had already experienced a massive decline in ratings during its first season on CBS. The pilot episode of Supergirl reportedly generated 13 million viewers and a 3.1 within the 18-49 demographic when it premiered last October. However, it dropped to nearly 6.11 million viewers and a 1.3 within the same demographic by the premiere of its season finale in April.

However, as long as Supergirl continues to build a solid fan base, it may very well have a long life on the CW even with the lower ratings.

Whether Supergirl will be a hit or miss during its second season is unknown at this time. Fans and critics alike will have to wait and see. However, many fans of the Greg Berlanti-produced DC series would likely argue that Supergirl is heading to the network that should have been its home in the first place.

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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