How Demand for CW Series Stacks Up, Both Canceled and Renewed Shows | Charts
The CW canceled more than 10 shows after this season, and renewed less than a handful of titles. It’s easy to see the distinction between the two groups when one examines the average demand for the shows: The gap between them is significant, according to Parrot Analytics‘ data, which takes into account consumer research, streaming, downloads and social media, among other consumer engagement.
With a CW sale looming as parent companies Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery plan to divest from the joint venture and focus on bringing their best series in-house to their respective streaming services domestically and globally, The CW has made notable cuts in its programming.
While renewed series hovered between 15 times and 20 times the average demand of all series in the United States during the first three months of 2022, the canceled shows hovered closer to 10 times the average demand. The renewed series (“The Flash,” “Riverdale,” “All American,” and “Superman and Lois” to name a few) bolstered exceptional demand, while the canceled series had merely decent demand.
If The CW has to operate more like a network, cutting out shows that aren’t generating strong consumption either live or through CW Seed (the network’s free-to-use streaming platform), focusing on shows with exceptional demand is necessary rather than continuing to spend money on shows with so-so demand.
Let’s break this down even more. Of the canceled CW shows, some showed stronger demand in the last quarter, branching into outstanding territory. These included “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” “Legacies,” and “Batwoman.” Demand for those shows surpassed 18 times the average demand of all other series in the U.S. during the first three months of this year, with “Legacies” and “Legends of Tomorrow” edging closer to 24 times the average demand, putting it in the exceptional category.
Superhero series based around DC powerhouses are still good business. Mark Pedowitz, CW’s chairman and CEO, said during the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers last Thursday that he’s committed to superheroes. These are also the type of shows that Warner Bros. Discovery would like to have on HBO Max. As demand for DC shows continues to stay relatively high, there’s continued room to grow those audiences, build franchises with actual longevity, and generate strong exclusives for HBO Max as the platform expands internationally.
Over the last several years, The CW has found power in its relationships with over-the-top (OTT) services both domestically and internationally. Netflix was a key partnership. Shows from The CW found an audience with younger Netflix subscribers looking for a new show to call their favorite but not tied to the more rigorous scheduling of linear television, and The CW did see an increase in viewership for second or third-season premieres for shows after they were available on Netflix.
When looking at the demand shares of CW shows on streaming platforms, that evidence is even more clear. The CW makes up 6% of demand for all shows on Netflix. On HBO Max, it makes up 4.1%. This is followed by Paramount+ with 0.6% and Peacock with 0.5%. The strongest OTT relationship for The CW was Netflix, which makes sense considering the exclusive relationship, but there’s an audience for CW programming on HBO Max and Paramount+. That’s key as the services continue to try and grow, keep younger subscribers engaged and spending instead of losing them to churn (when a person subscribes for specific content and then cancels once they’ve viewed it), and launch in international territories where The CW has a strong audience — in part, thanks to Netflix.
There’s no question that The CW found longevity with younger fans on streaming services, offering a plethora of shows each and every year for people to dig into. The CW’s stature isn’t going away, either. A number of shows are still extremely in demand, and those series will travel well on new platforms like HBO Max and Paramount+. But in a tightening bear market, where costs are trying to be kept low and Wall Street is looking for promise of investments that work, it’ll be nearly impossible for The CW to operate like it has over the last decade. Leaning into series with the strongest demand and building out from there is just one way toward meeting all those goals while keeping the brand healthy and alive.
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