CW Renews Six Shows for 2008-2009, What About the Rest?

Joining in with the announcements of fellow networks like NBC, ABC and CBS, the CW has gotten around to giving some early renewals to six of its series. Where does that leave the rest?

The lucky shows that will be coming back for the 2008 – 2009 season are America’s Next Top Model (renewed for two cycles), Everybody Hates Chris, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, and Supernatural.

Smallville will also be back next season. With the exception of Tom Welling, most of the show’s stars’ contracts expire this season. Everyone has now signed on for season eight with the exception of Michael Rosenbaum and Kristen Kreuk. Both of them are in talks to return for a few episodes.

Okay, on to the less fortunate TV series…

Aliens in America — The cast and crew were able to film 18 episodes before the writers strike and the show wasn’t put back into production. Though critics love it, few viewers watch the sitcom. It’s ratings are really bad so essentially it would take a miracle for this one to return.

CW Now — The entertainment newsmagazine has already been cancelled and its last episode aired on February 24th.

Friday Night Smackdown — This wrestling series was cancelled though it represents great ratings for the viewer-starved network. Very smartly MyNetworkTV (in many markets, this is the old UPN station) has scooped it up and will start running Smackdown in the fall.

The Game — The sitcom is back in production to produce nine more episodes for this season. That’s a good sign. Considering the network’s treatment of Girlfriends, it seems unlikely that they’d also cancel The Game but, stranger things have happened. The sitcom’s ratings are far from impressive.

Girlfriends — As previously mentioned, the eight-year-old sitcom has been cancelled. There’s been no new word about a retrospective show to cap the series.

Life is Wild — All of the filmed episodes have aired and it won’t be coming back for more.

Online Nation — The first series of the season to be cancelled. It left the airwaves back on October 14, 2007.

Reaper — The series went back into production for five more episodes for this season. Though there was a lot of hype around this one initially, it’s cooled way down and the ratings have significantly dropped. The network is likely waiting to see how the additional episodes perform before making their final decision.

The struggling CW network will announce its fall schedule in May so we should know the fate of Aliens in America, The Game and Reaper by then. Stay tuned!