The CW To Air Content Seven Days A Week Starting This Fall
by Erik Amaya
Soon, The CW will have an additional two hours a week of content to fill.
The network announced on Thursday that it will begin broadcasting on Saturdays starting on October 2nd with the first night of the IHeartRadio Music Festival — an annual show which now marks the beginning of The CW’s new Fall season. Night two of the Festival will air the next night with, presumably, Batwoman making its Season 3 debut the next week.
Of course, that presumption could be wrong as the network has not released scheduling info for the Fall — including what will regularly air on Saturday nights. That announcement will be made on May 25th.
“Becoming a seven-night-a-week network has been a long-standing goal for everyone here at The CW, and in an extremely tight broadcast environment, the ability to expand our primetime by two more hours each week is a dynamic shift that will be gladly welcomed by our clients and the agencies,” CW Executive Vice President of National Sales Rob Tuck said in a statement. “Following the recent industry trend which has seen considerable contraction on a linear basis, The CW will buck that trend this season by adding a new night of original programming, creating new opportunities for us going forward.”
Expanding to seven nights is a very big deal for the network, which began as two separate networks — the WB and UPN — in the 1990s. Both aired two-hour blocks five nights a week and made attempts to expand to Saturday Morning programing in some markets. In 2006, the two networks merged as a join venture between their parent companies, now known as WarnerMedia and ViacomCBS, to success thanks to programs like Supernatural, Smallville, and the eventual Arrowverse family of shows; which aided the network in creating a successful Sunday Night in 2018.
Presumably, the addition of a seventh night means there will still be room for new Arrowverse shows despite both Supergirl and Black Lightning calling it quits in the nearish future. But would such a show do well on Saturday nights? Time will tell.
