The rise of female superheroes will get another boost this fall:
Now Batwoman and Supergirl will be back-to-back on Sundays, TV’s strongest night.
“Batwoman,” a spin-off of the just-ended “Gotham,” is one of only two new shows this fall on the CW mini-network. The other is “Nancy Drew,” about a teen crimesolver. A third one, “Katy Keene,” will wait until mid-season, along with four returning shows.
The CW has drawn praise for quirky, youth-oriented shows. But for three of its most-praised ones — “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” “iZombie” and “Jane the Virgin” — the current season was announced in advance as the final one.
Next fall, the network will take few chances, bunching similar shows together. It has female superheroes on Sundays, black heroes on Mondays, male superheroes on Tuesdays, teens encased in mysteries on Wednesdays and the supernatural on Thursdays. Only Fridays (“Charmed and “Dynasty”) offer a mismatch.
And for its new shows, CW is clearly young-women’s turf. The new shows are:
— Ruby Rose first played Batwoman in a three-show crossover this season. Now we learn her backstory: After being expelled from military school and facing fierce survival training, she returns to Gotham City (shown here), where her estranged father (Dougray Scott) has a private security firm fighting rampant crime.
— At least six people have already played Nancy Drew, including Emma Roberts, Maggie Lawson and Pamela Sue Martin. Now newcomer Kennedy McMann has the role; this version has Nancy out of high school, but delaying college because of her mother’s death.
— On “Riverdale,” Josie (Ashleigh Murray) – of “Josie and the Pussycats” fame — has been a side character, an earnest teen with a great singing voice. In “Katy Keene,” she moves to New York with three roommates.
The title character (Lucy Hale) is an aspiring fashion designer, struggling with her day job in a department store. Jorge (Jonny Beauchamp) is a drag performer and Pepper (Julia Chan) has a mysterious source of money and wants to creat the modern version of Andy Warhol’s world.
This is the last of the five networks that announced their fall line-ups. Look for Fox and ABC here under “stories” (because they include the programmers answering questions) and NBC and CBS under “news and quick comments.”
Here is the CW schedule:
— Sundays: “Batwoman” (new), 8 p.m.; “Supergirl,” 9.
— Mondays: “All American,” 8 p.m., “Black Lightning,” 9.
— Tuesdays: “The Flash,” 8 p.m., “Arrow,” 9.
— Wednesdays: “Riverdale,” 8 p.m.; “Nancy Drew,” 9.
— Thursdays: “Supernatural,” 8 p.m.; “Legacies,” 9.
— Fridays: “Charmed,” 8 p.m., “Dynasty,” 9.
— Mid-season (new): “Katy Keene.”
— Mid-season (returning): “Roswell, New Mexico,” “The 100,” “In the Dark” and “Legends of Tomorrow.”