“Superman & Lois” and “The Librarians: The Next Chapter” are set to lead the CW’s 2024-25 fall season. The network’s new schedule was unveiled during television’s upfronts week in New York even though the CW and Nexstar opted not to have an official presentation this year.
The fourth and final installment of “Superman & Lois” will debut Thursdays from 8-9 p.m. ET before new series “The Librarians: The Next Chapter,” which hails from executive producer Dean Devlin, premieres at 9 p.m. ET.
New limited series “Joan,” starring Sophie Turner as notorious jewel thief Joan Hannington, will debut Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET following new episodes of “Sullivan’s Crossing” Season 2 at 8 p.m. ET.
Originally, “Joan” was scheduled for a Sunday night premiere. But given the success of the CW’s Sunday night movies, the broadcaster decided to move the upcoming drama to Wednesdays along with “Sullivan’s Crossing” to make a “female-fronted drama” programming block.
“We added an extra hour to prime that we were programming nationally. So all of a sudden we had three hours on a Sunday night. That means you could fit full movies in with commercials without having to cut them,” Brad Schwartz, president of entertainment for the CW Network, told TheWrap. “It’s been working really well, so we don’t want to mess with Sundays.”
Procedural comedic drama “Good Cop/Bad Cop,” which stars Leighton Meester, Luke Cook (“Katy Keene”) and Clancy Brown (“Dexter: New Blood”), will debut midseason alongside mystery thriller “Sherlock & Daughter,” which stars David Thewlis (“Harry Potter”), Blu Hunt (“The Originals”) and Dougray Scott (“Batwoman”).
The fates of “All American,” “All American: Homecoming,” “Walker,” “Wild Cards” and “Sight Unseen” are unclear as the series remain on the bubble. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the future of these series are in jeopardy.
“We’ve really moved to a year round strategy of developing of launching programming,” Schwartz said. “We could have rushed a bunch of stuff just to hit this upfront week deadline. But honestly, ‘All American’ is on the air right now. We don’t have to make a decision on it right now.”
The network executive noted that there is a “ton of stuff that can very easily be renewed.” Those discussions are ongoing and decisions will be made at a later date that makes more sense for the network. “I don’t think we have to operate on a broadcast schedule just because of the way it always was. We have a ton of scripts in development. We have a bunch of unscripted in development and a bunch of renewal decisions. You’ll be hearing some of them soon.”
On Mondays, new game shows “Trivial Pursuit” and “Scrabble,” hosted by LeVar Burton and Raven-Symoné, respectively, will premiere back-to-back at 8 p.m. ET. Tuesday’s primetime schedule will then see “WWE NXT” air 8-10 p.m. ET.
Getting into the game show game was important to the network as the CW continues to establish itself as a major broadcast player. “One of the things that was really, really important when we started reimagining the CW was trying to reach new audiences and try to bring new viewers,” Schwartz said. “LIV Golf brought people to CW that have never watched the CW, and NASCAR will do the same. Game shows are, again, something that can bring families together.”
Schwartz noted that game shows could help the network reach “more heartland, more middle of the country.” The network also intentionally chose “Trivial Pursuit” and “Scrabble” due to the brand recognition of these two board games.
“It’s the kind of thing that if it works, you can make a lot of them,” Schwartz said, noting that element is especially appealing to a station business like Nexstar. “This can be a ‘Jeopardy.’ This can be something that builds a library of 100, 120, 140 episodes. Now you have something that could strip on local stations and really have long-tail value for Nexstar.”
This fall will also mark more live sports than the network has ever had. In 2025, the broadcaster plans to have 500 hours of live sports. In addition to “WWE NXT,” Pac-12 football, LIV Golf and ACC football and basketball, the network will air the NASCAR Xfinity series for the first time.
Schwartz noted that the network will be putting a “substantial” amount of its fourth quarter media budget behind NASCAR, a budget that also includes pushes for the new season of “Sullivan’s Crossing” and the final season of “Superman & Lois.”
“It’s a big swing for us. It’s a seven year deal. Those races this year are doing over a million viewers a race, and when they come to one place on one platform, a broadcast platform, we think those numbers will grow,” Schwartz said. “They have a very passionate following as wrestling does too. So we know that the fans will follow it to where it goes.”
NASCAR continues the CW’s push into sports. “What we found with LIV Golf and some of our other sports things is that our ratings have been going up. LIV Golf is up 33%, year over year,” Schwartz said. “We expect all of our things to grow as more people get used to watching sports on us.”
The network has one final sports play that will be retuning in the fall of 2024: “Inside the NFL.” Last year marked the first time the long-running sports commentary show debuted on a broadcast network. The CW even partnered with Netflix over the show for a time, allowing the streamer to air five episodes of the series during the league’s playoffs. Though Schwartz isn’t sure how these five episodes performed, the network would be happy to partner with a streamer again. It’s a prospect that’s more relevant than ever after Netflix’s announcement on Wednesday that it will be airing two NFL games on Christmas Day.
“It might make sense for them to be in business with ‘Inside the NFL’ again. We have a weekly, Emmy-winning 40-year-old, huge weekly football show produced by NFL films. So we’ll see if they’re interested in continuing with that,” Schwartz said. But if they’re not interested, Peacock, Paramount+ and Amazon are also all in the NFL business. “That show has an opportunity to be in lots of different places.”
For The CW’s full lineup for the 2024-25 fall season, see below:
Monday
- 8-9 p.m. – “Trivial Pursuit” (new series)
- 9-10 p.m. – “Scrabble” (new series)
Tuesday
- 8-10 p.m. – “WWE NXT” (network debut)
Wednesday
- 8-9 p.m. – “Sullivan’s Crossing” Season 2
- 9-10 p.m. – “Joan” (new series)
Thursday
- 8-9 p.m. – “Superman & Lois” Season 4
- 9-10 p.m. – “The Librarians: The Next Chapter” (new series)
Friday
- 8-8:30 p.m. – “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” Season 13
- 8:30-9 p.m. – “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (original episode)
- 9-10 p.m. – “Inside the NFL” Season 2
Saturday
- CW Sports Saturday
Sunday
- 7-10 p.m. The CW Sunday Movie Night
