SUPERGIRL Renewal Could Mean Move to The CW, Budget Cuts

Wondering why Supergirl hasn't received a Season 2 announcement yet?

According to The Wrap, CBS is deep in negotiation talks with Warner Bros. Television about the future of the series Supergirl, based on the DC Comics character starring Melissa Benoist.  

The article claims the network would like the show to come back, but the problem is "the roughly $3 million per-episode price tag CBS pays to broadcast Supergirl — one of the highest license fees ever for a freshman show — isn’t quite justified by the ratings."

The show's pilot episode debuted last October to 12.96 million viewers, but the season finale "Better Angels" only received 6.11 million, over half the original audience.

In addition, the article states CBS will announce its fall schedule in just two weeks at the upfront presentations in New York, which means the clock is ticking to get a deal done.  One option appears to be that CBS President and CEO Les Moonves could move Supergirl over to The CW, a joint venture between CBS and Warner Bros. where Moonves and his team are responsible for programming the network.  The CW already features a number of DC Comics adaptations, including The Flash, Arrow, iZombie, and Legends of Tomorrow.

The downside of such a move for fans of the show, of course, is the probability of big budget cuts that could affect supporting characters, special effects, and storylines.  The article also points out that budget-conscious CW shows don’t tend to collect huge license fees for the studios.

So we'll see what happens in two weeks, but the show's survival will take probably take a lot more than just a #SaveSupergirl hashtag campaign on Twitter...