The CW network has a fresh plan for stocking a fall schedule in the age of COVID:
It will simply wait. It will have a patchwork of acquired shows this fall and hold back the main ones – “Flash” and “Batwoman” (shown here) and “Riverdale” and such – until January.
Faced with shutdowns this spring – a time when they usually churn out pilot films – the bigger networks have had mixed reactions. CBS renewed virtually all of its current shows, listing (for now) only three new ones. Fox delayed two spring shows until fall and added two shows (“Cosmos: Possible Worlds” and “L.A.’s Finest”) that have aired elsewhere. ABC and NBC have paused.
CW, however, has its own way: Its fall will seem like a second summer.
That will include some low-budget shows it has aired in past summers (“Pandora,” “The Outpost,” “Two Sentence Horror Stories”) and some unscripted shows: “Masters of Illusion,” “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” “World’s Funniest Animals” and “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
It will also include two shows that have aired on streaming services — “Swamp Thing” and “Tell Me a Story” — plus the Canadian “Coroner” and the British comedy “Dead Pixels.”
For the delayed new season, CW had already picked up four shows without pilot films. They are:
– “Superman and Lois.” It stars Tyler Hoechlin (already Superman in several CW shows) and Elizabeth Tulloch (“Grimm”).
– “Walker.” It’s a “Walker, Texas Ranger” reboot, with Jared Padalecki of “Supernatural.”
– “Kung Fu.” It’s also a reboot, but switches gender. Olivia Liang plays a college drop-out who goes to a Chinese monastery, then uses her new martial arts skills in her home town.
– “The Republic of Sarah.” It has young misfits starting their own country, due to a map loophole.
The January line-up is:
Mondays: “All American,” 8 p.m.; “Black Lightning,” 9.
Tuesdays: “The Flash,” 8 p.m.; “Superman & Lois,” 9.
Wednesdays: “Riverdale,” 8 p.m.; “Nancy Drew,” 9.
Thursdays: “Walker,” 8 p.m.; “Legacies,” 9.
Fridays: “Penn & Teller: Fool Us,” 8 p.m.; “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” 9 and 9:30.
Sundays: “Batwoman,” 8 p.m.; “Charmed,” 9.
Later: Two of the new shows — “Kung Fu” and “The Republic of Sarah” – will have to wait, perhaps until spring. So will five returning ones: “Supergirl,” “Legends of Tomorrow,” “Dynasty,” “In the Dark” and “Roswell, New Mexico.”