Do Not Resuscitate: The Vampire Diaries

 

Welcome to another installment of Do Not Resuscitate. Since I've been absent much of 2023, I have not written another article until Christmas break. Today, I will talk about The Vampire Diaries, which was produced by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec and was picked up in the middle of Twilight Mania and saw a spinoff in its heyday. Set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls, Virginia, it follows the life of Elena Gilbert as she falls in love with Stefan Salvatore and then his brother Damon. 

The Original Hit Machine - The Vampire Diaries (2009-2017)

The Vampire Diaries premiered on September 10, 2009, with its pilot episode attracting the largest audience of any series premiere on the CW with 4.9 million viewers and a 2.0 in the key A18-49 demographic before being surpassed by Arrow. The first season averaged 3.6 million viewers. It was a staple on Thursday nights, never getting below a 1.0 until Halloween 2013 when it dropped to a 0.9 in the demo. 

Since then, The Vampire Diaries hit a sub-1.0 regularly as the show progressed. After season six, Nina Dobrev departed the cast, and this show took an even bigger hit at the beginning of season seven.  Eventually, the show moved to Fridays, where it hit a series low of 0.3 in the key demo. 

Reasons Why This Show Needs to Stay Canceled

• The Vampire Diaries came at a heyday for Twilight mania when it peaked. Now that Twilight is no longer popular, do we need this show back for a reboot? 
• Julie Plec mentioned that the logistics caused the show to end the way it did. 
• The cast has moved on from the show itself. 

Anyways, all eight seasons of The CW’s The Vampire Diaries are available to stream on Max in the United States. 

Jess’s Take: The CW is Full of Woe, Can it Come Back?

Jessica here, back with another Jess's Take. 

Back in my podcast TV update, I went into detail of the CW canceling everything in sight. Here's a recap. 

The CW had canceled many shows from their lineup, including those with Netflix deals. Here are the following shows leaving the CW airwaves: 4400, Batwoman, Black Lightning, Charmed, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Dynasty, In the Dark, Legacies, Naomi, The Republic of Sarah, and Roswell: New Mexico, with Riverdale and Supergirl getting renewed for final seasons. One thing I am speculating with the whole slate getting canceled was nothing to do with ratings (although ratings on these shows were pretty much low the entire season, and 0.0 in the key 18-49 demographic on a regular occurrence doesn’t help matters), it has everything to do with the sale of the CW by network partners Paramount (when it was ViacomCBS) and Warner Bros. Discovery (before Discovery acquired WarnerMedia).

Let's start with January when Mark Pedowitz sent an internal memo to corporate headquarters about the sale. On January 5, word got out that Nexstar Media Group was negotiating with the two broadcast partners for a majority stake in the network. According to Variety, this was first reported in the Wall Street Journal. “Nexstar, based in Irving, Texas, is the nation’s largest owner of TV stations and the core affiliate group for the CW in major markets such as New York and Los Angeles.” – Variety. If you have not heard of the NewsNation channel, a recent news network, this is owned by Nexstar. The channel itself used to be known as WGN America.

In late June, Nexstar purchased the CW and now controls 75% of the CW, while Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount control the other 25%. This led to many cancelations on the network.

Fast forward to now, we have ratings from the now-Nexstar majority owned CW. And it's not exactly looking in the best shape. 

The highest rated CW show, All American is pulling in renewable numbers at a 0.13 with less than 500,000 viewers, but it has a successful Netflix deal on its side and a spinoff. Walker follows the spinoff closely behind with a 0.09, but skews older with 748,000 viewers. And that's in A18-49. The rest of the CW is closely behind in 0.0 territory. 

Realistically, I don't know if I can see the CW survive much longer in its current state, but with broadcast ratings down across the board, there has to be another way, and I'm not sure about the plans Nexstar has yet. 

And this concludes another installment of Jess's Take. Stay tuned for more installments. 

The CW Announces Fall 2021 Premiere Dates

The CW has become the first network to announce premiere dates for their fall 2021 schedule, announcing their premiere dates less than a month after they announced their schedule. The premiere dates are as follows:

The CW to Expand to Saturdays

Just four years after expanding programming to Sunday night, The CW is expanding again. Beginning October 2, 2021, the network will air regular programming on Saturdays. This marks the first time in The CW's history that they will be airing on Saturday nights. While ratings on Saturday are typically extremely low, The CW regularly hits 0.1s on weekdays, and the network is further embracing the fact that their future lies much more in getting their shows on streaming platforms than in getting big profits from their first runs. It is expected that, at least to start out, CW will air acquired programs and unscripted series on Saturdays.

CW Renew/Cancel: Pandora Might Not Have Long to Live

 

Welcome to the first installment of CW Renew/Cancel for the 2020-21 television season. This week, I am torn. Ratings on the CW sans Supernatural have been so low, you have to catch a flying knife to decide which show stays and which one goes. Here are this week's predictions. 

Show	Prediction
Whose Line is it Anyway?	Certain Renewal
Swamp Thing	Certain Renewal
Coroner	Likely Renewal
Masters of Illusion	Likely Renewal
The Outpost	Likely Renewal
World’s Funniest Animals	Likely Renewal
Devils	Leans Renewal
Tell Me a Story	Leans Renewal
Pandora	Leans Cancelation
Supernatural	Final Season
Penn & Teller: Fool Us	Renewed

Outside of Supernatural, the two shows that will be renewed are Whose Line is it Anyway? and Swamp Thing. The two shows solidified themselves as the number 2 and 3 shows on the network. Both shows will be back on the summer lineup in no time.

Coroner, Masters of Illusion, The Outpost, and World's Funniest Animals are likely renewals. Two of the shows air on Friday nights, which tolerate 20-30% lower ratings for renewal. Don't be surprised if both Friday shows are back next summer. Coroner and The Outpost, however, are less certain. I had to go with total viewers in this case. These shows do better in that regard. 

Out of all the shows, the one who might not have long to live is Pandora. Pandora solidifies itself as the lowest-rated CW show on the entire lineup. When you average less than 400,000 viewers per week - 357,000 to be exact - and two Friday shows average more viewers, do you realize how embarrassing it is? Keep in mind, this could still get renewed, but only in summer and not anywhere else. However, in the COVID era, just being on the air is not enough for Pandora to survive. That's why I have it leaning towards cancelation for now. I should figure out expenses for each show at this point. 

What do you think about this week's predictions? Let me know in the comments below!