You would think that the CW would know by now not to cross Supernatural fans, but it seems like they never learn their lesson. When the network announced their midseason schedule back in January, they had completely bumped Supernatural repeats off the schedule and replaced them with episodes of Reaper. It was assumed that we would not be seeing the Winchester brothers again until the new, post-strike episodes started airing.
It would be an understatement to say that Supernatural fans were peeved by this news. Dozens of people commented on our site to rant against the CW, upset over the lack of respect shown to Eric Kripke’s creation. So, is it any coincidence that the network has now added Supernatural repeats to the schedule once again, beginning April 3?
I do feel somewhat bad for the CW as far as Reaper is concerned. I enjoy the series and think it deserves to find an audience, but it refuses to break out as a giant hit. The network aired a new episode of Reaper in Supernatural‘s Thursday at 9pm time slot for the first time last week, and the results weren’t pretty. Reaper was up 160,000 viewers compared to its last fresh episode, but down over 400,000 viewers compared to Supernatural‘s usual audience. It also had a brand new episode of Smallville as a lead in, which wasn’t the case for Supernatural‘s last new installment. Things aren’t looking good for the demon hunting duo of Sam (Bret Harrison) and Sock (Tyler Labine).
New episodes of Reaper will continue to air Thursdays at 9pm through March 27, then Supernatural will return on April 3 with a showing of a season 3 episode. It will have a chance to air three repeats before new episodes begin airing on April 24.
Whether or not it was the outcry of the fans that led the CW to make this decision is unknown. However, it never hurts to make your voice heard, and I’d like to think that the Supernatural fans helped to make this happen.
– Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
