Complete Coverage: 2017 TCA Winter Press Tour
Pasadena, Calif. -- Moments after it was announced that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was coming back for season three, Mark Pedowitz, president of The CW, said some shows deserve their place on the air even if the Nielsens don’t support them.
“It has nothing to do with numbers. It has everything to do with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Jane the Virgin, the DC (Comics) franchise helping alter the perception of what The CW has become,” said Pedowitz. “Great critical work, a critically acclaimed, nominated show like Crazy -- it deserves to be picked up."
Pedowitz said this with the Golden Globes looming later in the day. The leads in Jane and Crazy Ex have been surprise Globes winners in recent years.
“A critically acclaimed, great program -- sometimes you just leave it on the air and hope it finds an audience,” Pedowitz added.
Crazy Ex and Jane were among the seven shows The CW announced are returning next season. Not in the announcement are No Tomorrow and Frequency, both rookie dramas struggling in the ratings. Pedowitz noted that a distribution deal with Netflix may elevate both to the renewal stage. “There is no no yet,” he said of the shows’ future.
Supernatural was one of the renewals, eyeing its 13th season. Pedowitz joked that he wanted a bar mitzvah for the long running drama. It will continue “as long as I’m in this chair, it’s performing and they want to do it,” he says.
CW also announced that Constantine, an NBC drama that ran in 2014-2015, is returning in animated form on CW Seed. Greg Berlanti is attached to that project.
Other reboots in the works are Charmed, Dynasty and Lost Boys.
The CW also talked up new drama Riverdale, a dark take based on the Archie Comics. Pedowitz described it as “The OC meets Twin Peaks.” He was intrigued by the initial pitch, he says, because of its “great creative auspices, a great take, a great pilot script.”
Berlanti is behind that one too.
Pedowitz received a warm ovation from the TCA crowd, which rarely applauds, for conducting an executive session when his peers at other networks declined.
