The CW Renew/Cancel 2021-22 Wrap-Up: Final Thoughts on Legacies, Charmed, Dynasty & More Amid a Mass Exodus of Programming

 

The end has arrived for this season, and all of The CW's renewals and cancellations have been announced. That means it's time for me to take a look back at the season that was, discussing my hits and misses and thoughts on the future of a network entering an era of change.

Show

Final Prediction Before Fate Announced

All American

Certain Renewal

Superman & Lois

Certain Renewal

The Flash

Certain Renewal

Walker

Certain Renewal

Riverdale

Certain Renewal

Kung Fu

Likely Renewal

Nancy Drew

Likely Renewal

All American: Homecoming

Leans Renewal

Naomi

Leans Renewal

Batwoman

Leans Renewal

Legacies

Leans Renewal

Dynasty

Leans Cancellation

Charmed

Leans Cancellation

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

Leans Cancellation

4400

Likely Cancellation

4400 (predicted as Likely Cancellation): If any show on the CW has even been DOA, it's this one. There were very few signs of life here even before the CW sale was announced, so it came as absolutely no surprise when it was canceled in May. It's a hit for me, and a rare one-and-done CW series.

All American: Homecoming (predicted as Leans Renewal): I had some late worries about this show, as I began to feel that The CW would cancel a large portion of its remaining shows, and wondered why this one was not previously renewed. In my last update, I downgraded it to leans renewal, fearing a surprise cancellation spurred by the sale. However, the show ended up renewed, as expected, and will take a place on the network's fall schedule next season. It's a hit for me despite the doubts.

Charmed (predicted as Leans Cancellation): I was shaky on Charmed from the start, going back and forth on whether it would make it to another season. Thankfully, in the eleventh hour, I went with my gut and downgraded the show to a cancellation prediction. The show was, ultimately, part of a mass cancellation by The CW. My suspicion that the show was a mere afterthought for the CW was proven correct, and I got another hit.

Dynasty (predicted as Leans Cancellation): This was a show where my thoughts on its fate didn't truly change until well after the news of a potential sale broke, and after it was left out of The CW's initial batch of renewals. Even then, I still found it hard to imagine that they could let go of a show that had a hearty Netflix deal, which numerous already-renewed series did not have. The low ratings and the CW's seeming intent to clean house what what put me over the edge in predicting, just barely, that the show would be canceled. It was a hit in the nick of time. 

Naomi (predicted as Leans Renewal): One of two freshman CW shows to be given the axe this season, Naomi was a show that I expected to eke out a renewal. While the ratings clearly warranted that cancellation, I didn't think they would get rid of so many DC shows in a single season. Their order of Gotham Knights, a new DC series, made the decline in DC programming a bit less noticeable, and was probably a better pickup for them then a second season of Naomi would have been. This one was a miss for me.

Legacies (predicted as Leans Renewal): The show that gave me the most trouble with predicting this year was Legacies. It started out the season looking reasonably safe, and then, like the shows above, looked less safe after being left out of the mass renewal. Even then, I thought it would still eke out a renewal in the end. It was only in the days ahead of the pre-Upfronts news week that I began to feel like the show could be canceled. Though there was some evidence to back up my suspicions, I never felt like there was enough to justify downgrading it, and I convinced myself I was being paranoid. The show, obviously, was canceled about two day later. I kicked myself for it, but a miss is a miss.

Conclusion:

It was a season of great change at The CW, with nearly half of their in-season scripted programs being canceled (as well as summer offerings Roswell and In the Dark). I was able to predict four of these cancellations, but three took me by mild surprise. It's going to be harder than ever to predict for The CW in the future, with massive questions looming about whether the network will even continue to exist down the line. With ratings for all of The CW's shows looking so similar, we're truly in a new era in renew/cancel predictions, one in which we may have to rely solely on outside factors to estimate whether a show will be renewed or not. In an unpredictable season made all the more unpredictable by the impending CW sale, I'm pretty content with a 12-3 prediction record for the lowest-rated network, which went from one of TV's most renewal-crazy networks to one of the most bloodthirsty ones in the matter of a single season. Lord knows what lies ahead next season. I'll be back next year to try to make sense of it.


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