The Fall TV Season presentations for all the new network shows take place this week with the fifth and final one announced. Here’s a full breakdown of which concepts have made the final list over on The CW.
With “Hart of Dixie” last season’s sole surviving new show and “Gossip Girl” finishing up with a short final season this coming Fall, The CW is pushing hard on original content this season with five new shows ordered as opposed to the regular two or three. There’s also a bunch of timeslot changes with “The Vampire Diaries” the sole show to have not changed its place on the network’s schedule.
The additions have allowed the sub-35 skewering network to essentially have theme nights – prime-time soaps on Mondays, quirky medical dramas on Tuesdays, male-dominated genre action shows on Wednesdays, and female-oriented supernatural romancers on Thursdays.
The most notable change to the schedule is the move of “Supernatural” back to Wednesdays after being dumped into a late Friday 9pm slot for the past two years. Instead of dying as most shows do, it has retained much of its very strong and loyal audience and now even the network is saying they have every intention to continue the show beyond the upcoming eighth season in the Fall.
The network’s troubled “Nikita” has been pushed back an hour and is being paired with the dwindling “America’s Next Top Model” franchise in the unenviable wasteland of Friday night television.
One other notable change is instead of launching early in late August, this year The CW has decided to hold back on its premieres until October – pretty much after the other networks have premiered all their shows. The question is will it work?
Several other pilots didn’t make the final cut and won’t be seen including the Hunger Games-esque “The Selection” which is being put back into development and has a good chance of another shot next year. Not so lucky are “Dakota” about a time-traveling documentary filmmaker trying to prevent her 90’s music idol’s death, and the J.J. Abrams character drama “Shelter” about staff at a Maine inn.
Arrow
(Action/Drama, Wednesdays 8pm)
After a violent shipwreck, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) was missing and presumed dead for five years before being discovered alive on a remote island in the Pacific.
When he returns home to Starling City, his devoted mother Moira (Susanna Thompson), much-beloved sister Thea (Willa Holland), and best friend Tommy (Colin Donnell) welcome him home, but they sense Oliver has been changed by his ordeal on the island.
While Oliver hides the truth about the man he’s become, he desperately wants to make amends for the actions he took as the boy he was. Most particularly, he seeks reconciliation with his former girlfriend, Laurel Lance (Katie Cassidy).
As Oliver reconnects with those closest to him, he secretly creates the persona of Arrow – a vigilante – to right the wrongs of his family, fight the ills of society, and restore Starling City to its former glory.
Laurel’s detective father (Paul Blackthorne) is determined to arrest the vigilante operating in his city, while Moira knows much more about the deadly shipwreck than she has let on.
Beauty and the Beast
(Drama/Romance, Thursdays 9pm)
Detective Catherine Chandler (Kristin Kreuk) is a smart, no-nonsense homicide detective who witnessed the murder of her mother at the hands of two gunmen and would have been killed too, but someone – or something – saved her.
Years have passed and while investigating a murder Catherine discovers a clue that leads her to a handsome doctor named Vincent Keller (Jay Ryan), who was reportedly killed in Afghanistan in 2002 and that it was he who saved her many years before.
Mysterious reasons that have forced him to live outside of traditional society for the past 10 years to guard his secret – when enraged he becomes a terrifying beast, unable to control his super-strength and heightened senses. Catherine agrees to protect his identity in return for any insight he may have into her mother’s murder.
Max Brown, Nina Lisandrello, Nicole Gale Anderson, Austin Basis and Brian White also star.
The Carrie Diaries
(Comedy/Drama, Mid-Season)
It’s 1984, and life isn’t easy for 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw (AnnaSophia Robb). Since their mother passed away, Carrie’s younger sister Dorritt is more rebellious than ever, and their father Tom (Matt Letscher) is overwhelmed with the responsibility of suddenly having to care for two teenage girls on his own.
When Tom offers Carrie the chance to intern at a law firm in Manhattan, she leaps at the chance. Carrie’s eyes are opened wide at the glamour and grit of New York City – and when she meets Larissa (Freema Agyeman), the style editor for Interview magazine, she’s inspired by the club culture and unique individuals that make up Larissa’s world.
Carrie’s friends and family may have a big place in her heart, but she’s fallen in love for the first time with the most important man in her life – Manhattan. Austin Butler, Ellen Wong, Katie Findlay, Stefania Owen, Brendan Dooling, and Chloe Bridges also star.
Cult
(Drama/Thriller, Mid-Season)
Investigative journalist Jeff Sefton (Matt Davis) has learned to laugh off his brother Nate’s relentless string of obsessions, especially his latest rant that a hit TV show intends to harm him.
However, when his brother mysteriously disappears, Jeff takes Nate’s paranoia seriously, and in the process uncovers the dark underworld of the TV show “Cult” and its rabid fans.
The only person who seems willing to help Jeff with his investigation is Skye (Jessica Lucas), a young research assistant for “Cult,” who has also started to grow suspicious of the increasingly dark happenings surrounding the show.
As Jeff and Skye dig deeper into the fan world, they discover that the gruesome plot twists on television are much more than fantasy for some very unfortunate people. Alona Tal and Robert Knepper also star.
Emily Owens, M.D.
(Medical Drama, Tuesdays 9pm)
Emily Owens (Mamie Gummer) graduated from medical school and is now a first-year intern at Denver Memorial Hospital, where she’ll have the chance to work with world-famous cardiologist Dr. Gina Beckett (Necar Zadegan) – and where, not-so-coincidentally, her med-school crush Will Rider (Justin Hartley) is also an intern.
So why does everyone keep warning her that the hospital is just like high school? Emily soon finds out the hard way – her high school nemesis, the gorgeous, popular Cassandra Kopelson (Aja Naomi King), is also just starting out at Denver Memorial, and it seems like they’re rivals all over again – not only as surgical interns, but for Will’s attention.
Fellow intern Tyra Granger warns Emily that the cliques at Denver Memorial are all too familiar: the jocks have become orthopedic surgeons; the mean girls are in plastics; the rebels are in the ER, and Tyra has her own awkward place as the principal’s kid – her father is the chief resident.
At least she has fellow intern Tyra (Kelly McCreary) and nerdy-but-cute resident Micah (Michael Rady), to count on as friends. Emily is growing to realize that although she may be a geek, she may also grow to be a great doctor.
The nightly The CW schedule will be as follows:
MONDAY
8pm: “90210”
9pm: “Gossip Girl”
TUESDAY
8pm: “Hart of Dixie”
9pm: “Emily Owens, M.D.”
WEDNESDAY
8pm: “Arrow”
9pm: “Supernatural”
THURSDAY
8pm: “The Vampire Diaries”
9pm: “Beauty and the Beast”
FRIDAY
8pm: “America’s Next Top Model”
10pm: “Nikita”
CANCELLATIONS
“H8R,” “One Tree Hill,” “Ringer,” “The Secret Circle”
About The Critic
