CW summer shows

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CW, Freeform set scripted summer shows

The CW network is expanding its lone (almost) mission to have new, scripted shows this summer.
The latest step is to add a third season of “The Outpost” (shown here), a modestly budgeted fantasy adventure. That will arrive July 15; also, two Canadian dramas will adjust their debuts slightly: “Burden of Truth” starts its fourth and final season July 30, “Coroner” starts its third on Aug.19.
That’s part of a scripted summer that makes CW unusual in the broadcast (non-cable) world.
Cable networks will have summer scripted shows, as usual. Freeform, for instance, has just announced the starting dates for “Motherland: Fort Salem” (June 22), “Grown-ish” (July 8) and the second half of the “Good Trouble” season (July 14). Its “The Bold Type” will also have a brief, final season, from May 26 to June 30. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / May 10, 2021
Stories

Tough task: Be the quickest-canceled show ever

Television has now tied one of its least-desired records: Quickest cancellation of a show.
Viewers watching the CW network at 9 p.m. Sunday suddenly saw a “Supernatural” episode. The scheduled show, “Taskmaster,” had been dropped after one episode.
It ties other shows that were dumped after one outing … or maybe less. “It wasn’t even a full episode,” George Schlatter, the “Turn-On” producer, has said. “One guy canceled us at the commercial break.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / August 10, 2020
Stories

CW adds more summer pick-ups

While other networks recede into reruns this summer, the CW is trying an alternate route.
It keeps buying shows that have aired somewhere else, but haven’t been on a U.S. broadcast network.
Now it has added four more – three British, one Canadian. It has also set the second half of its summer schedule.
The British newcomers included a horror mystery show (“Killer Camp,” shown here), a reality competition (“Taskmaster”) and a reality show (“Being Reuben”) about a 14-year-old Welsh boy who became a social-media star as a singer and make-up expert. The Canadian show (“Fridge Wars”) has people scouring unknown contents of a refrigerator to assemble a meal. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / June 17, 2020