Once again, the CW has given early renewal to its current slate of scripted series. The network has handed pickups for the 2020-2021 season to all 13 of its current scripted series that are not ending this season, including both of the fall freshmen, Batwoman and Nancy Drew.
The CW has ordered second seasons of Batwoman and Nancy Drew, along with All American (Season 3), Black Lightning (Season 4), Charmed (Season 3), DC’S Legends of Tomorrow (Season 6), Dynasty (Season 4), The Flash (Season 7), In the Dark (Season 3), Legacies (Season 3), Riverdale (Season 5), Roswell, New Mexico (Season 3), and Supergirl (Season 6).
Additionally, Riverdale spinoff series, Katy Keene, which is set to premiere Feb. 6, has received an order for 13 additional scripts.
The renewals for In the Dark, Roswell and Legends of Tomorrow come before their current seasons have premiered, though the series are in production and the CW brass have seen episodes.
For All American, today’s news is in stark contrast to last January when it was the only current CW series not to land on the list of the network’s early renewals. The drama was eventually picked up in April, in part thanks to strong early streaming results on Netflix.
While early renewals have been the CW MO under President Mark Pedowitz for the last few years, there is an additional incentive this time as TV studios are getting into a writers strike preparation mode ahead of the upcoming contract negotiations with the WGA. Early pickups for next season would allow for shows to get finished scripts in the pipeline ahead of time and the impact from a possible writers work stoppage would be limited.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Deadline