The CW’s DC Era Ends With ‘Superman & Lois’ Finale: Numbers Behind the Enduring Franchise

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As a devoted fan who has witnessed the rise and fall of The CW’s DC era, I can’t help but feel a bit melancholic as I bid farewell to Superman & Lois. The four-season run of this iconic series not only marked the end of an era on The CW, but it also symbolized the shifting sands of the television landscape as we knew it.

[This story contains spoilers for the series finale of Superman & Lois.]

On Monday evening, the final episode of “Superman & Lois” aired on The CW. This wasn’t just the conclusion of the series after four seasons, but it also signified the closure of a broader approach to programming at the network.

The television series “Superman & Lois” was the final show featuring DC Comics characters to air on the network, marking an end to a connection that linked it to The CW’s Arrowverse (although it wasn’t directly part of the primary storyline of this franchise). This link played a significant role in shaping the network during the 2010s and was one of TV history’s most successful multi-show franchises.

In summary, the finale of “Superman & Lois” fast-forwards several decades to depict the conclusion of Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) and Lois Lane’s (Elizabeth Tulloch) stories, effectively ending the show’s potential continuation elsewhere. This is due to recent changes in leadership at both The CW and DC parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, who have distinctly different strategies compared to their approaches during the peak of the Arrowverse in the mid-to-late 2010s.

The CW, as extensively detailed by THR, primarily steers clear of its homegrown scripted content. The only remaining scripted series from the network’s days before Nexstar is All American, which like most of The CW’s DC shows, originates from Greg Berlanti’s Warner Bros. TV-affiliated company. Nowadays, a large portion of the CW’s schedule consists of unscripted and sports programming. Any scripted shows that the network does air are co-productions or series based outside the US, with production budgets significantly smaller than even those from the past.

As a dedicated fan, I’m thrilled to share that DC, now known as DC Studios, is expanding its television endeavors to the WBD family, specifically HBO and Max. These projects will boast larger budgets, fewer episodes, and distinct tones compared to the CW franchise. For instance, “The Penguin” unfolds like a gripping mob story, while the upcoming “Lanterns” is rumored to carry a “True Detective”-esque atmosphere. On the other hand, “Peacemaker,” though it predates the DC Studios reorganization, remains a unique, TV-MA (and beyond) production that fits perfectly into the main narrative.

Marvel’s decision to confine its TV shows exclusively on Disney+ makes it highly unlikely that we’ll witness another large-scale comic book series on traditional broadcast networks in the foreseeable future. The CW’s DC era has significantly marked the network, and here are some key statistics associated with their shows.

10: Starting from October 2012 with Arrow, a total of ten television series based on DC characters have been broadcast on The CW. All these shows originated from Warner Bros. TV and DC Entertainment at that time, and nine – Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman, Stargirl, Superman & Lois, and Gotham Knights – were overseen by Berlanti through his production company, Berlanti Productions. In 2022, Naomi joined the list as a co-creation of Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship, produced by DuVernay’s ARRAY Filmworks in collaboration with DC and WB.

The total number of seasons for all ten series, including The Flash (nine) and Arrow (eight), were those with the longest durations.

817, 797: In total, episodes from all 10 series, including those on The CW, were counted. Notably, the first season of Supergirl, which consisted of 20 episodes, aired on CBS. With this count of 817 episodes, only three multi-show franchises since 1990 surpass it – Law & Order(1,363 as of the time of publication), JAG/NCIS(1,249) and CSI(838). NBC’s Chicago franchise needs to produce 131 more episodes – equivalent to nearly seven full seasons’ worth of shows – to overtake the DC total.

The count of episodes spanning across the six main Arrowverse shows – Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, and Batwoman. Hoechlin and Tulloch made appearances in various episodes within these series, portraying Clark Kent/Superman and Lois Lane respectively during crossover events. However, Superman & Lois is set in a distinct corner of the DC multiverse.

6: Multi-series crossover events, the biggest of which was based on DC’s seminal “Crisis on Infinite Earths” comic series and spanned five shows. The ambitious event, which aired in December 2019 and January 2020, resulted in season-high viewership for Arrow, The Flash, Legends and Supergirl and the second-largest audience for Batwoman, behind only its series premiere. Several other crossovers were confined to a single show, including two in the latter seasons of The Flash when characters from ended series reappeared to help Barry Allen (Grant Gustin).

For twelve years and fifty-three days, The CW had a DC series in its lineup, starting with the premiere of Arrow on October 10, 2012, up until the conclusion of Superman & Lois on December 2.

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2024-12-04 02:54