2020 Schedule: The CW

The CW decided to announce two schedules today: one for their fall 2020 plans, which includes none of their regular primetime series; and one for 2021, when they expect their flagship series to return.

Monday

8:00 - Whose Line Is It Anyway? (Back-to-Back)
8:00 - All American (2021)
9:00 - Penn & Teller: Fool Us
9:00 - Black Lightning (2021)

No changes at midseason.

Tuesday

8:00 - Swamp Thing (Broadcast Premiere)
8:00 - The Flash (2021)
9:00 - Tell Me A Story (Broadcast Premiere)
9:00 - Superman & Lois (NEW - 2021)

In the fall, the network will air Swamp Thing, which premiered last year on the DC streaming service to positive notices but a troubled production: it was originally intended to be 13 episodes but was cut short at 10 episodes due to "creative differences" between DC and their parent company, WarnerMedia. That will be followed by the broadcast premiere of Tell Me a Story, which ran two seasons on CBS All Access and stars several CW favorites (Paul Wesley, Danielle Campbell, Eka Darville) and should actually fit in quite nicely with the "fractured fairy tale" storytelling from The Vampire Diaries creator Kevin Williamson.

In 2021, the first of the CW's two direct-to-series orders premieres: Superman & Lois, the latest addition to the Arrowverse.

Wednesday

8:00 - Two Sentence Horror Stories (Broadcast Premiere)
8:00 - Riverdale (2021)
8:30 - Dead Pixels
9:00 - Coroner
9:00 - Nancy Drew (2021)

The current schedule returns in 2021, but in the fall it premieres a new season of Two Sentence Horror Stories, which originated on the CW Seed platform; the UK comedy Dead Pixels, which comes from the creator of Succession; and the Canadian drama Coroner.

Thursday

8:00 - Supernatural
8:00 - Walker (NEW - 2021)
9:00 - The Outpost
9:00 - Legacies (2021)

The final few episodes of Supernatural, including (hopefully) two that haven't been filmed yet, will finish out the show's final season in the fall, alongside summer transplant The Outpost. The other new direct-to-series order, a reboot of the 1990s Western Chuck Norris series Walker, Texas Ranger, shortened to just Walker, will assume Supernatural's slot in 2021. Jared Padelecki stars in both.

Friday

8:00 - World's Funniest Animals
8:00 - Penn & Teller: Fool Us (New Timeslot - 2021)
9:00 - Whose Line Is It Anyway? (New Timeslot, Back-to-Back - 2021)

At midseason, the Monday lineup moves to Fridays, giving the CW its first-ever unscripted Friday night. The schedule displaces Charmed to Sundays and Dynasty to an unspecified later date.

Sunday

8:00 - Masters of Illusion (New Timeslot)
8:00 - Batwoman (2021)
9:00 - Pandora (New Timeslot)
9:00 - Charmed (New Timeslot - 2021)

The network did not announce a fall Sunday night schedule, but at midseason, Batwoman returns and Charmed takes over for Supergirl, which is being pushed to summer to accommodate Melissa Benoist's pregnancy.

Midseason

The CW is now considering May "midseason," since its regular schedule isn't returning until January. Mark Pedowitz emphasized that this would not affect episode orders, with the shows typically producing 22 episodes continuing to produce that number, and the same for shows that produce 13 episodes. So around May of 2021, we'll get new seasons of Supergirl, Dynasty, Legends of Tomorrow, In the Dark, and Roswell, New Mexico, plus the premieres of new series Kung Fu and The Republic of Sarah.

Is there even a point in commenting here? Everything keeps getting more and more bizarre in the television landscape during this pandemic, and that's reflected here. The CW will have a glut of programming in 2021, should everything be able to resume production, and that could potentially backfire. Let's say there's a vaccine ready to go and everyone feels safe again: do you stay home and watch TV (or binge it), or do you go out because you've been cooped up for months at a time? Or maybe we'll all be so starved for content that we'll welcome it... I don't know. I do find it odd that the network decided to order so many new shows (four, in total) when they'd already renewed nearly their entire lineup, and seeing how crammed the schedule is going to be only adds to that confusion. When and where does Supergirl go? Legends? Clearly there will be no major Arrowverse crossover event next year (unless it's just between Batwoman, The Flash and Superman & Lois) since the shows aren't all on the air. Why does Nancy Drew get a slot over Dynasty or a new series? If Katy Keene gets renewed, where and when does it air? Fridays in summer? Crazy!

Read new series descriptions after the jump.

New Fall Series

Swamp Thing - Swamp Thing follows Dr. Abby Arcane (Crystal Reed, Gotham, Teen Wolf) as she investigates what seems to be a deadly swamp-born virus in a small town in Louisiana but when a mysterious creature emerges from the murky marsh, she finds herself facing the nightmares of a supernatural world where no one is safe. The series also stars Virginia Madsen (Sideways, Dune), Andy Bean (Power, It: Chapter Two), Henderson Wade (Riverdale), Derek Mears (The Flash), Maria Sten (Channel Zero) and Jeryl Prescott (The Walking Dead) with Jennifer Beals (Flashdance, The L Word) and Will Patton (Falling Skies, Hallowen). Based on the DC characters created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, Swamp Thing is produced by Atomic Monster in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Tell Me a Story - Tell Me a Story takes the world's most beloved fairy tales and reimagines them as a dark and twisted psychological thriller. Set in modern-day New York City, the first season of this serialized drama interweaves "The Three Little Pigs," "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Hansel and Gretel" into an epic and subversive tale of love, loss, greed, revenge and murder. The cast of the first season includes James Wolk (Watchmen, Mad Men), Billy Magnussen (The People v. OJ Simpson), Dania Ramirez (Entourage, Jumanji: The Next Level), Danielle Campbell (The Originals), Dorian Missick (Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.), Michael Raymond-James (True Blood), Davi Santos (Power Rangers Beast Morphers), Sam Jaeger (The Handmaid's Tale), Zabryna Guevara (Emergence, New Amsterdam) with Paul Wesley (The Vampire Diaries, 24) and Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City). From Aaron Kaplan's Kapital Entertainment, Tell Me a Story season one is written and executive produced by Kevin Williamson alongside Aaron Kaplan, Dana Honor and Liz Friedlander, who directs and executive produces the first two episodes.

Exploring an entirely new set of characters, season two features the stories of three legendary princesses - "Beauty and the Beast," "Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella" - like you've never seen them before. Filmed on location in Nashville, season two of Tell Me a Story stars Paul Wesley as Tucker Reed, Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix, Jessica Jones) as Rebecca Pruitt, Odette Annable (House, Supergirl) as Maddie Pruitt, Eka Darville (Jessica Jones) as Beau Morris, Matt Lauria (Friday Night Lights) as Jackson Pruitt, Natalie Alyn Lind (The Gifted, The Goldbergs) as Ashley Rose Pruitt and Ashley Madekwe (Salem, Revenge) as Simone Garland. In addition, Danielle Campbell returns in a recurring role as Olivia Moon. Garcelle Beauvais (Spider-Man Homecoming) as Veronica Garland, Caleb Castille (Wu Tang: An American Saga) as Ron and Christopher Meyer (The Affair) as Derek round out the cast with recurring roles.

Two Sentence Horror Stories - The critically acclaimed, psychological horror series from award-winning studio Stage 13, created by Vera Miao. Inspired by the viral fan fiction, the anthology series features diverse characters and a different sub-genre of horror in each episode, tapping into universal primal fears while tackling provocative social issues that exist within our modern society

Dead Pixels - Created by Jon Brown (Succession, Veep), Dead Pixels follows Meg (Alexa Davies, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), Nicky (Will Merrick, Poldark) and Usman (Sargon Yelda, Strike) who are obsessed with the online fantasy game "Kingdom Scrolls." Meg would happily cut a date short to go home and defend Castle Blackfinger. Nicky thinks the miscasting of Vince Vaughn as Tanadaal in the "Kingdom Scrolls" movie is an international outrage. And Usman has made a plywood lid for his child's playpen, so he can play the game in peace. Oh, and Nicky definitely isn't into Meg. That would be a cliché. Dead Pixels is split equally between the characters' tragicomic real lives and their computer-animated misadventures in "Kingdom Scrolls." Executive Produced by Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Phil Clarke and Jon Brown, Dead Pixels is a Various Artists Limited production for Channel 4 that airs on E4 in the UK and distributed by BBC Studios.

Coroner - Coroner is a character driven one-hour drama about Dr. Jenny Cooper (Serinda Swan, Ballers), a recently widowed, newly appointed coroner who investigates any suspicious, unnatural or sudden deaths in Toronto. Each death brings Jenny into a new arena in the city and sparks buzzworthy themes ... Jenny taps into her intuition, as much as her intellect and heart, as she solves cases along with the help of Homicide Detective Donovan "Mac" McAvoy (Roger Cross, Arrow), a man who isn't afraid of challenging the status quo; pathologist Dr. Dwayne Allen (Lovell Adams-Gray, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Power Book II: Ghost), his assistant River Baitz (Kiley May, It: Chapter Two); and Alison Trent (Tamara Podemski, Run), Jenny's assistant who keeps it real. And while Jenny solves mysterious deaths, she also deals with clinical anxiety, a teenage son, Ross (Ehren Kassam, Degrassi: Next Class, Degrassi: The Next Generation), who is still grieving the death of his father, and the prospect of starting a new relationship with the enigmatic Liam (éric Bruneau, Trop).

World's Funniest Animals - An all-new series hosted by Elizabeth Stanton (Popstar This Week) who, along and her celebrity guest panel, looks at animals doing the funniest things ever caught on video. The series includes viral internet clips of funny animal moments, hilarious animal clips from major motion pictures and your favorite TV series, animal outtakes that surprise the whole cast and crew, videos of babies and pets as well as celebrities and their pets.

 New 2021 Series

Superman & Lois - In Superman & Lois, after years of facing megalomaniacal supervillains, monsters wreaking havoc on Metropolis, and alien invaders intent on wiping out the human race, the world's most famous superhero, The Man of Steel aka Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin, Teen Wolf) and comic books' most famous journalist, Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch, Grimm), come face to face with one of their greatest challenges ever - dealing with all the stress, pressures and complexities that come with being working parents in today's society. Complicating the already daunting job of raising two boys, Clark and Lois must also concern themselves with whether or not their sons Jonathan (Jordan Elsass, Little Fires Everywhere) and Jordan (Alexander Garfin, The Peanuts Movie) could inherit their father's Kryptonian superpowers as they grow older. Returning to Smallville to handle some Kent family business, Clark and Lois are reacquainted with Lana Lang (Emmanuelle Chriqui, Entourage), a local loan officer who also happens to be Clark's first love, and her Fire Chief husband Kyle Cushing (Erik Valdez, Graceland). The adults aren't the only ones rediscovering old friendships in Smallville as the Kent sons are reacquainted with Lana and Kyle's rebellious daughter, Sarah (Inde Navarrette, Wander Darkly). Of course, there's never a dull moment in the life of a superhero, especially with Lois' father, General Samuel Lane (Dylan Walsh, Nip/Tuck) looking for Superman to vanquish a villain or save the day at a moment's notice. Meanwhile, Superman and Lois' return to idyllic Smallville is set to be upended when a mysterious stranger (Wolé Parks, All American) enters their lives. Based on the characters from DC created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman & Lois is written and executive produced by Todd Helbing (The Flash) and executive produced by Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Geoff Johns. The series is from Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

Walker - Walker, a reimagining of the long-running series Walker, Texas Ranger, stars Jared Padalecki (Supernatural) as Cordell Walker, a widower and father of two with his own moral code, who returns home to Austin after being undercover for two years, only to discover there's harder work to be done at home. He'll attempt to reconnect with his creative and thoughtful son (Kale Culley, Me, Myself and I) and his headstrong, somewhat rebellious teenaged daughter (Violet Brinson, Sharp Objects) and navigate clashes with his family - an ADA brother (Keegan Allen, Pretty Little Liars) who stepped in during Walker's absence, his perceptive mother (Molly Hagen, Herman's Head) and his traditional rancher father (Mitch Pileggi, The X-Files). Walker's former colleague is now his Ranger Captain, (Coby Bell, The Game). Walker finds unexpected common ground with his new partner (one of the first women in Texas Rangers' history) played by Lindsey Morgan (The 100), while growing increasingly suspicious about the circumstances surrounding his wife's death. The show also stars Jeff Pierre as Trey Barnett. Walker is written and executive produced by Anna Fricke (Being Human, Valor), and executive produced by Dan Lin and Lindsay Liberatore and Jared Padalecki. Walker is from CBS Television Studios in association with Rideback.

Kung Fu - A quarter-life crisis causes a young Chinese-American woman, Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang), to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to San Francisco, she finds her hometown is overrun with crime and corruption and her own parents (Tzi Ma and Kheng Hua Tan) are at the mercy of a powerful Triad. Nicky will rely on her tech-savvy sister (Shannon Dang), pre-med brother (Jon Prasida), Assistant District Attorney and ex-boyfriend (Gavin Stenhouse), and new love interest (Eddie Liu) as well as her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice ... all while searching for the ruthless assassin (Gwendoline Yeo) who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her. Inspired by the original series created by Ed Spielman, Kung Fu is from Warner Bros. Television in association with Quinn's House and Berlanti Productions.

The Republic of Sarah - The bucolic tranquility of Greylock, New Hampshire is upended when a massive vein of coltan - an incredibly valuable mineral used in tech - is discovered under the town. State-backed mining company Lydon Industries swoops in with plans to extract the mineral ... plans that include wiping Greylock off the map. With her friends and family in danger of losing their homes, rebellious high school teacher Sarah Cooper (Stella Baker) vows to stop Lydon's bulldozers. It won't be easy. Leading Lydon's efforts is Sarah's estranged brother, Danny Cooper (Luke Mitchell). After enduring a difficult childhood at the hands of his mother, former state senator Ellen Cooper (Megan Follows), Danny is eager to exact his revenge on a community he feels abandoned him. Sarah enlists her friends - fellow teacher Corinne Dearborn (Hope Lauren), police officer Amy "AJ" Johnson (Nia Holloway), and diner manager Grover Simms (Ian Duff) - in the fight against Danny, but there seems to be no way to stop the town's impending demise ... Until Sarah proposes an oddly intriguing solution: Greylock could declare independence. Citing various historical maps, she explains that the land on which Greylock sits was never properly claimed by the United States. If Sarah and her friends can convince the town to vote for independence, Greylock would gain international sovereignty and could protect its land for good. With the help of a group of supporters that includes three of her teenage students - LA transplant Maya Jimenez (Izabella Alvarez), introspective outsider Tyler Easterbrook (Forrest Goodluck), and preppy "popular girl" Bella Whitmore (Landry Bender) - Sarah and her friends win the vote. And after a federal judge agrees that Greylock isn't - and never was - part of the United States, the town becomes a new nation. Now, Sarah and her allies must confront an even more daunting task: building a country from scratch. The Republic of Sarah is a production of CBS Television Studios in association with Fulwell 73 and Black Lamb.

Comments