With another day of the NFL Wild Card weekend on the docket, along with the Golden Globes on this jam-packed Sunday, The CW fought to make waves during its network session at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif.

The morning began with a slew of early renewals, with the network picking up seven of its current series for the 2017-2018 season—the superhero quartet Arrow (for season 6), DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (season 3), The Flash (season 4), and Supergirl (season 3), critical darlings Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (season 3) and Jane the Virgin (season 4), and of course, the never-ending Supernatural (season 13). It’s another testament to The CW’s stable roster, something many traditional networks cannot boast.

“Over the past several seasons, The CW has built a schedule of proven performers, from our lineup of DC superheroes, to critically acclaimed comedies, to sci-fi dramas,” said Mark Pedowitz, president, The CW. “Early pickups of these seven series now allow our producers to plan ahead for next season, and gives us a solid base to build on for next season, with original scripted series to roll out all year long.”

“2017-18 is already taking shape,” added Paul Hewitt, EVP, communications, though episode orders for the series have not yet been made.

Next year’s digital programming became even clearer as The CW expanded its CW Seed programming with Constantine, a new animated series from Team Berlanti, David S. Goyer and Matt Ryan, the star of the NBC series returning to reprise his role as John Constantine. Like Vixen and Ray, the digital series will have five to six 10 minute episodes, airing during the 2017-2018 series.

At this point, according to Pedowitz, there are no plans to bring Matt Ryan back into the live-action side of things (he appeared for a season 4 episode of Arrow), but never say never.

The CW’s hot streak of renewals and pick-ups did stop this fall, with the lack of success of No Tomorrow and Frequency. But Pedowitz was reluctant to call it quits on either show.

“Both shows were well done and very well-executed, and whether it’s the fall presidential election, the World Series, or This is Us [competing] with No Tomorrow, the linear numbers are not where we wanted them to be. We’re seeing some digital numbers and with the Netflix deal, we’ll be able to see if there’s a binge moment. We’ll see what happens,” he said.

On the polar opposite side of the spectrum, Pedowitz is jokingly planning a bar mitzvah to celebrate Supernatural‘s 13th season.

“As long as it’s performing and the boys want to do it and I’m sitting in this chair, this show has a long life,” he added, a familiar refrain from The CW president.

Not all of their shows are lasting forever: Vampire Diaries is ending its run this season. When asked if Nina Dobrev would be returning to the show, Pedowitz was cagey: “The best way I can answer that is, Kevin Williamson [and company] promised us a fantastic series finale.”

The future of the Vampire Diaries spinoff, The Originals, with its fourth season slated for the spring, remains up in the air.

“I’m hoping that The Originals can continue, I’m a big Julie Plec fan, but a lot of it depends upon performance,” said Pedowitz.

While performance is important for every network, with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the network has eschewed traditional business strategy, staying loyal with the critically acclaimed but very low-rated series.

“It has nothing to do with numbers. It has everything to do with [the fact that] Crazy Ex, Jane and the DC franchises have helped alter the perception of The CW,” said Pedowitz. “If you have a great critically acclaimed, nominated show, it deserves to be picked up. Sometimes you just leave it on the air and hopefully it finds an audience. I’m hoping that happens, but if it doesn’t, I will have no regrets of continuing the series.”

Both Rachel Bloom, last year’s Golden Globe winner for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and Gina Rodriguez, who won in 2015 for Jane the Virgin were nominated again on Sunday night, although both lost to Tracee Ellis Ross of ABC’s Black-ish. Still, this perception of critical and industry acclaim is clearly huge for the network and Pedowitz personally.

“[Awards recognition] helped reenergize the network. It has a big bearing on the marketplace and in today’s fragmented [landscape], it gives you a calling card. The CW is here to stay, and that’s really important,” said Pedowitz. “If you deliver quality shows and they’re well received, you end up having people wanting to watch the shows. If people want to watch the shows, you have more viewers, linear, delayed or digital. That does have an economic improvement to your situation. We are a really strong digital network, from CWTV as well as our app. Now that we control the ad sales of in-season streaming, we have doubled the amount of viewing”

Pedowitz pinpoints the network’s transformation into becoming a serialized network to 2012 after Emily Owens, M.D. didn’t work.

“We recognized the viewer that comes to us is looking for a high concept or genre with serialized elements. Once we embraced that, who we are, and what works best for us, we’ve seen those shows have the best shot at working. So far, we’ve been right with this,” said Pedowitz.

Pedowitz hopes they continue to be right with their forthcoming reboot shows like Dynasty, Charmed and The Lost Boys, in which he provided minimal updates.

For Dynasty, while its early in the development process, Pedowitz was able to confirm that the plan is to reboot the two families from the original series, with new characters involved.

“Charmed is a self-contained, self-sustaining show. In terms of whether the characters or actresses will come into the series, we’ll see what happens as the series goes on. That’s to be determined. At this time, it is a very standalone separate show.”

Pedowitz addressed the power of nostalgia and why it’s working in the marketplace.

“I think people like to see things that they love, to see how they are reimagined. They’re also going to be harsh critics, going to turn away from it pretty quickly and pretty brutally,” he said.

Regardless of the nostalgic shift in programming, Pedowitz believes the network lives up to its new slogan: “Dare to Defy.”

“We try to look at things that defy certain conventions of how we do certain things. We are different from any place around. [Some of you are] shocked that we’re still standing and thriving. That’s a defiance. I believe that is our motto,” he said.

The CW’s next wave of defiance kicks off with Riverdale on January 26.

[Cube image courtesy of CW TV and post image courtesy of IGN]

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