UPFRONTS 2018: The CW's Official Fall Schedule

And here is the CW schedule!

Check back next week for my recap of the 2017-18 season!

Past CW Upfronts: 2017

MONDAYS
8:00 DC's Legends of Tomorrow (4th season)
9:00 Arrow (7th season)

The CW is consolidating their superhero shows in the sense that Arrow is coming to Mondays, but they are also adding a superhero show on their new Sunday lineup so maybe it's not much of a difference. On Mondays, DC's Legends of Tomorrow keeps the slot it had for a few months this winter and it was solid there. It is paired with Arrow, which has quietly gone from being the CW's second strongest show to their weakest superhero show. Paired with another superhero show and in a fairly low pressure slot is not a bad situation for the veteran show.

TUESDAYS
8:00 The Flash (5th season)
9:00 Black Lightning (2nd season)
Tuesdays continues the superhero trend to begin the CW's week. It will keep the successful midseason pairing of The Flash and Black Lightning on Tuesdays. While it is far diminished from its greatest days, The Flash is still the CW's strongest shows and Black Lightning had a steady and solid freshmen run. I don't think they needed to use The Flash as a lead-in, I think this lineup makes perfect sense and the condensed DC shows schedule will certainly help with the crossover.

WEDNESDAYS
8:00 Riverdale (3rd season)
9:00 ALL AMERICAN

Last fall, the CW put Riverdale at 8pm Wednesday and it was looked at as an impending disaster. Then Riverdale caught fire on Netflix over the summer and had a shockingly strong debut last fall in this slot. It waned as the season went on, but is still capable of being one of the CW's anchors. It is paired with the new All American, a football/teen drama. While they both are teen-centric shows, the trailer for All American seems as though the CW is pairing a very earnest drama in All American with the cult hit, trashiness of Riverdale. I guess it still makes the most sense as far as a pairing goes but it seems like All American is going to need some strong reviews to have a chance on a network not known for sentimental dramas.

THURSDAYS
8:00 Supernatural (14th season)
9:00 LEGACIES

The CW is keeping the venerable Supernatural in the same slot, which can be a pretty rare occurrence. It has moved Arrow off the night so Supernatural will lead into Legacies, which is set in the Vampire Diaries/Originals universe. It will hold down the fort for those two recently ended but very popular CW show and it does seem like an adequate partner to Supernatural. Speaking of Supernatural, I don't know that it always gets the respect it deserves because it's on the CW, but entering a 14th season is pretty incredible, especially for a genre show.

FRIDAYS
8:00 Dynasty (2nd season)
9:00 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (4th season)

Friday nights are low priorities for the CW with their parade of 0.1 and 0.2 demo shows. Dynasty got many 0.1 demo results but got renewed nonetheless in the best example yet of the CW's lack of care for linear ratings. It will lead off Friday nights and hope it picks up some viewers on Netflix over the summer. It is followed by Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which is having its announced final season and will probably giveway at midseason for the final season of Jane the Virgin. Both critically acclaimed shows had decent runs considering their ratings.

SUNDAYS
8:00 Supergirl (4th season)
9:00 CHARMED

The CW is returning to Sunday nights for the first time in over a decade and they are bringing a show back that had a great run on Sundays on the WB in the early 2000s. First up though is Supergirl, which is moving off the only slots its known on both the CW and CBS on Mondays and heading to open up the new night. I would have been more excited about this a couple years ago, but it seems less of a "start a new night" show that it was then. It leads into the reboot of Charmed. It has a new cast but the original one still has many fans and this will probably get some eyeballs, at least early on. The CW really needs this lineup to work to make their Sunday gamble worth it.

MIDSEASON: IN THE DARK, ROSWELL NEW MEXICO, The 100, iZombie, Jane the Virgin
In addition to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Jane the Virgin, it will also be the final season for iZombie.

CANCELLED/ENDED: Life Sentence, The Originals, Valor

TO SUM UP:
This is a decent schedule for the CW. I like that they are consolidating the DC shows to the beginning of the week, though I probably would have had the five shows share four timeslots on just Mondays and Tuesdays. I think the three newbies are scheduled pretty well and Friday is going to be what it's going to be. If the CW can get Sundays going and stop the bleeding of some of their veterans, it will be a successful season.