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The CW will move six of its seven returning series to new time periods this fall and debut new programming on three nights in a schedule that reflects "a transformative year for The CW," president Mark Pedowitz told the network's upfront audience last week.
90210 and Hart of Dixie will switch nights, with the former shifting to Monday at 8 p.m. to lead into the abbreviated final season of Gossip Girl. Hart of Dixie will instead lead off Tuesday to launch another medical- themed drama, Emily Owens, M.D., starring Mamie Gummer as a surgical intern who discovers that working in a hospital feels a lot like high school.
Supernatural will get upgraded from Friday to Wednesday, where it will follow the new Arrow, starring Stephen Amell as the popular DC Comics character. The pairing will create a "powerful, action-packed night that will appeal to both men and women," Pedowitz said.
As a result, The CW's long-running reality series America's Next Top Model moves to Friday, anchoring the night at 8 p.m., leading into Nikita, which moves back an hour to Supernatural's old slot. ANTM, which saw its ratings fall off considerably this season, will involve the viewer in the competition for the first time in its next cycle, allowing fans to vote online for their favorite contestants based on photo shoots taken during production in an effort to boost viewership.
The only series staying put is the net's top-rated Vampire Diaries, which continues Thursday at 8 p.m. and will launch Beauty and the Beast, starring Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) as a homicide detective and Jay Ryan as a doctor with a dark side.
Pedowitz told reporters that he opted to shift nearly all of the series on the schedule because "it signified change, and change here is very important." Since taking over the reins of the network one year ago, Pedowitz has made it a priority to solidify the net's fledgling sucesses, develop additional programming and put more original hours on the air.
In midseason, Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries will take over Gossip Girl's slot when that series ends its run. New drama Cult, about a journalist looking for his brother who went missing after becoming obsessed with a hit TV show about a menacing cult leader, is also on the bench for early 2013.
The CW will launch its fall season in early October, strategically holding back its premieres in order to run episode orders with fewer interruptions. The decision was partly in! uenced by the cancellation this season of Ringer, when viewers of the highly serialized Sarah Michelle Gellar drama did not return after a long winter break, Pedowitz said. The CW's summer programming (a first for the network this year) will run through September in order to lead into and promote the new season.
The network also announced the launch of CWD, a new studio that will create original content exclusively for digital platforms. The short-form content will focus on four areas-animation, game shows, comedy and digital personalities-and will run in front of the net's long-form programs on CWTV.com.
E-mail comments to amorabito@nbmedia.com and follow her on Twitter: @andreamorabito
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