Four people. I might also join you guys. The good thing about this move, is that Europeans like me get to watch it on Saturdays.

From Ausiello's twitter:



Oh, let it go Dawn!

Oh jeez. Dawn lost cool points with me. SPN was supposed to go for five. After Lucifer, what can you do?

I agree. As much as I love SPN, I don't want to see it stretched out past its proper lifespan. Look what that did to SV.

And I think Dawn's just being polite about SV. What is she going to say? "God, I can't wait till that miserable show is dead... its death can't come fast enough for me"? Of course she's going to say it might make it to ten. But moving it to Friday pretty much makes it clear that she doesn't think it's going to happen, IMHO.

In related news, shortly later authorities later found Ms. Ostroff passed out in the ladies room next to an extremely well used crack pipe.

Well-played, Apostate.

Yes, it would be in bad taste, Elly, to go "This show can't die fast enough for me!"

Oh, Dawn.

And for those that are interested, I'm trying to find out if SV will be changing nights up here in Canada as well.

Agreed. IIRC this time last year it was Dawn who was the first to mention a possible S10. It wasn't until the ratings came out that it appeared that Dawn was upset with it and on the verge of ending it until KK came back and so did the ratings for a bit.

IMHO, Dawn is saying that because should there be a chance SV does well on Fridays it'll be good for the network. Putting SV on that day IMHO is a win-win for Dawn. Should the ratings suck, SV is done and she'll be happy to let it go. If their ratings climb in the new timeslot, it brings new life to the Friday time-slot.

I think SV will be in the mid to high 2 million viewer range next year, with the new timeslot, just a feeling.

Which would technically put it in there with OTH for viewers and above 90210.

However, if they aren't making more revenue than RERUNS/"encores" that's a bad bad sign.

Or just not address the issue at all. S9 hasn't even started--why does anyone have to even think about S10? I feel like it's just another carrot waving move, dangling S10 in hopes that the hardcore fanbase will get excited and make sure that S9 has good ratings to secure it.

I now have a sick, sick feeling that the Friday move may actually be a good thing for the show's longevity. If the vampire show does well and SPN hangs on for Thursdays (another bad idea to go past 5, but what do I know?), SV could very well grab good enough ratings for Fridays to give the CW a real boost. And that'd make it valuable enough to renew. Again, and again, and again. And then they can spin it off, because the show's premise is really ripe for that (at least in theory...in practice, I predict disaster).

SV is the media version of Bob Wiley in What About Bob ("You think he's gone?! HE'S NEVER GONE!"). Except at least Bob was entertaining. Bring on the Death Therapy.

It's an interesting move and I agree with the posters that commented this as almost a win-win for Dawn

Absolutly, Massena1, I think the move would have a bit of an effect; but I would almost guess that more ratings damage will be because the long-term fans have had enough; enough shit thrown at them, enough story *foresaking* for bullshit iconic shoehorning/shipping bullshit bone throwing, enough stalling, enough character assassinations, enough of the lack of pay off...YMMV

Also agree that there could be a chance for S10 *vomits*. The budget is already an issue, depending on ratings etc, it could *BE* the issue.
PTB should take responsibity and announce S9 is the last and make it good - too bad Ms. Neener Neener makes me not want to watch and 'course, I seem to view the show and what's good differently than PS, so.....

-Upfronts are about sales = all assets overblown, all weaknesses denied. It's the time for "everything is great."
-DO has never liked the WB leftovers. She gets no credit for them. The sooner they're gone, the happier she'll be. DO acts like they make her look dependent upon the development deals of other executives which they sorta do.
-DO wants to develop her own hits for which she can claim credit. SPN has become more useful to her bc it could help Vampire Diary become the big hit that DO needs to launch and hasn't yet.
-Another strike against SV10 is that DO needs slots to try out her new shows to find that elusive big hit she needs. It's too soon to know what is going to happen, but if MP does okay then it should get a sophomore season to see if it will grow with 90210 into a steady W18-34 magnet. If VD does okay, it will stay for the same reason. Even if that political show fails, and the midseason replacement likewise fails, the CW will need a few more slots to launch new series for the 2010-2011 season. Therefore, they'll be looking at cutting OTH, SPN or SV to make way for those newly developed shows and OTH pulls in much better 18-34 ratings than SV.

Friday night. That is awesome. It's Death Row.



Nah. If I don't see the end for whatever reason, I'm just going to fanwank that the series ended with Dean Cain waking up next to Teri Hatcher and telling her he just had the worst nightmare.

Wow, too bad SV can't afford guest stars. Steal Newhart's ending; it's better than what SV would come up with.

That would be an awesome ending.

I just realized that Ghost Whisperer is on Friday nights. That's another strike against it.

Heh good one.


Still I hate doubt; my personal idea of hell is a big library with all the books ever written with the last page missing...Bad, horrible or Smallvillian I want to know how it ends...I need to know!

That's too perfect. Can his parents, wondering if everything is OK, come knocking on the door all cute and rumpled with bed head and bunchy robes? Right now I really miss that Johnathan and Martha. For one, that Martha would grab Clark by the ear and give him a talking to until he stopped acting like an idiot. Then she would order Chinese food.

All better now.

No.

I still don't understand how anyone is talking about Supernatural like it has a future? Hasn't Kripke cleary said that it's a five season show, and that's it?

So this should be the final season, yes?

I guess it makes more sense to pair The Vampire Diaries with Supernatural, thematically, than it does with Smallville, even though Smallville brings in higher ratings.

You know what I fear? That they can kick Kripke and continue the show with other runners. If CW owns it they can get away with destroying it like they did with SV, and they are not above that I assure you, YMMV.

The production company would own Supernatural (I'm pretty sure that's Warner Bros. Television Inc.). So the CW wouldn't get a say if they decided to close up shop, they're just the customer.

However, there's nothing to stop the production company getting rid of Kripke if it wants to do a season 6 without him. They'd need the stars of the show though (I presume. Who knows, maybe they'd try something really crazy, but I doubt it!) and I have no idea what sort of contracts Ackles and Padalecki are signed onto.

I think Newharting it might just save us all.

I think this timeslot will result in the show having ratings in the 2.5 range. Mwah-hah-hah! This is as good as finding out your ex hooked up with a VD-invested hooker. You're almost sad, but he should have known what he was getting into.

I was so happy when I heard about the move to Fridays. It's horrible to say this, but the show deserves the death slot. I just wish Dawn had gone ahead and canceled it so that we could have maybe gotten a good finish to S8.

I don't pay attention to ratings, but until I heard this news I didn't even know CW had Friday-night programming. For the life of me, I couldn't think of what they aired those nights. Too bad for Everybody Hates Chris, I heard it was a good show.

Ackles and Padalecki confirmed multiple times in the last couple weeks that they're signed through a sixth season. And I don't see why Kripke wouldn't continue. His so-called 5 year plan would have been disrupted by the writer's strike last season anyway, but I've never gotten the impression that plan was actually set in stone anyway.

Eh, it'll do better than that. If Chris and the Game could get nearly 2 million on Fridays with nobody knowing those shows even EXIST, I think Smallville has the built-in audience to stick around 3 million or more. (I'm assuming you meant 2.5 in millions? A 2.5 rating would actually be a very good household number for Fridays.)

I find that unlikely. Premieres and finales are always among the highest-rated episodes. If the season finale can barely pull three million, and is roundly jeered among critics and the viewing audience, I think it is highly unlikely that most episodes next season will maintain that number, especially when it's being moved to a new (bad) night. I figure it'll start around three million for the premiere and drop.

I agree completely. The 2.5 million sounds about right for an average during Season 9. I'd be shocked if SV averaged 3.0 or more next year.

Yes, but I'm scared that they decide to just cut production bugdet even more and suddenly we have all the show placed inside of the Watchtower: People will bathe there, give parties, sleep, eat and if there is going down to it have sex on it, and of course the fights will be with shadow puppets....


Do we know if there is a compromise like a show can't be done with less than 2 millions or something?

And why were the ratings low? Poor Writing and it just gets worse. Apparently there is reports that Caroline Dries has left SV and has joined the writing staff of Melrose Place.

Scrappy, - I think recent ratings indicate that "built-in audience" is declining fast. After 8 years, & no payoff - it seems more & more Chloe fans have had enough. Nois focus gave Smallville new record low ratings. There's no place to go but down, with the ICONIC direction the show seems to be taking, IMO.

Souders and Peterson in charge, Slavkin and Swimmer gone, Caroline Dries gone, and we're still stuck with Bryan Q. Miller?

Caroline Dries was the only one who could save the Nois-centric ICONIC! episode premises from themselves. Ugh.

Sparling joining the staff full-time would be a big help, but the way things are going, I won't hold my breath.

With the friday slot of death I would be very surprised if they would pull more than 2.0 million viewers.

So Smallville got the Deathslot, huh? About time.

I don't think their viewing figures can go anywhere but down, really. After a crappy season finale for all the shipper groups and casual viewers, most people are pretty much done. No-one wants to watch this trainwreck anymore. Add in the fact that Thursday night viewers become Friday night clubbers, and Smallville really is headed for the scrapheap.

Good riddance.

Dries wrote some terrible episodes including Stiletto, Subterranean, Sleeper, and Toxic. I say good riddance. It's just too bad Souders and Peterson aren't much better.

I say they'll lose about a million. They'll average in the mid 2's. They might have a semi decent premiere if the trailer looks good and seems to fix the crap they fucked up.






Agreed. I don't think there is any writer on the show that really matters one way or the other. Those days are long gone.

Caroline Dries also did most (if not all?) the Action meta but since Failsday it's not like build up means anything for this show.

I think there is a slight chance Smallville will get the "this must be the last season" bump that moving it to Fridays seems to shout. The irony being that if those that tune in to watch the final seaon do so, then the ratings might actually stay high enough for a Friday night season 10 renewal.

I'm hoping that after thinking the same thing this year that most of those people will stay away until they are sure it will be canceled and perhaps just watch the 2nd half of the show.

Or better yet, just go rent Lois and Clark.

I can't even guess ratings without the trailer. I don't think anyone is interested in seeing more darkness after a whole season of it, especially when they didn't even pay it off by allowing people to really cry over Davis' tragedy (Grrrr!) so if they go ahead with their threat that S9 is going to be Clark's darkest hour, then I think more viewers will be driven away.

I think a big thing to look out for is how the S8 DVD sales go the first two weeks they're released. If the DVD sales are weak, then I don't think WB will chance picking up big production costs for SV in hopes of making it up on S10 DVD sales. The thing is that execs right now are living quarter to quarter. Even if long-term, it'd be better business for WB to pay the production costs to have more SV episodes to sell/DVDs to sell, the execs who would have to approve such a deal have to worry about their own bottom line reports while they're waiting to see the return on investment. If they have faith in a big return due to DVD sales, then maybe they'll do it, but if the DVD sales weaken, then it becomes a bigger risk to cover those production costs the CW won't. The lower the expected DVD profit margin, the less enticing to them to invest that money.

Right. Souders and Peterson introduced the Isis meta in Wrath. Then they sent out Lana as a hero and had Chloe make Dooms invulnerable and screw up Clark's chance to send him to the PZ.

Action was an OK episode but it's not going to make any of my top 10 lists and I don't expect anything to come of its meta.

I've read through the last 8 or so pages here and there's some good points and not much to add except to agree with the people who believe a 10th season would cause major stall tactics in Season 9. For some odd reason, all the promises of Supes on this show has yet to really materialize. Even with this major hole in the show, after 8 years, I do believe that SV ratings won't take as much of a dip as some might predict. There are loyal fans who have stuck with the show, myself included, despite the farce that is Lois Lane, the Dooms split personality, the "oh, this isn't really Jimmy" et al. We all continue to watch, but Friday will be a challenge.

Not only is Ghost Whisperer on at that time slot, but Medium has moved from NBC to CBS directly following GW. And now I read that Ugly Betty has moved to Friday as well. The competition will be stiff. As far as all the promises of aligning mythos to SV, and all the talk of DC characters from the producers, I have to wait to see if once again they do renege on this, or if they are just confused and believe any watered down version of a DC character is mythos. Hell, Tom Welling won't even fly like a normal Supes would, with his arms outstretched in front of him, but rather, as Bizarro, or Kal-el, he keeps his arms at his side. This might not be that big of a deal, but coupled with the fact that Tom seems to have some sort of aversion to capes and tights, (Peterson, I believe, in his last interview said it was a Tom thing with the suit) and that this Supes is either afraid to fly or says he doesn't know how and continues to just leap, one has to wonder.

The ratings were worse this year than last year and last year was lower than the previous year, so it seems to be dwindling on its own, but it does also maintain the 3 mill range and maybe the CW is happy with that. It will be interesting to see what the ratings do. I for one, will not tune in to moronic Lois Lane or any Clois happenings, and will skip these epi's in favor of recaps and reviews to keep up. It will be a hard decision for me as Ghost Whisperer and Medium and Ugly Betty are 3 of my favorite shows. And if the promise of moronic Lois/Clois is on the horizon, makes it easier. I'm truly hoping that ED/Lois is gone and lost in space for at least the first 5 or 6 epi's. That would be sweet.

I'd be shocked if SV went to S10, the mere fact that CW is moving it out of it's Thursday night timeslot in favor of trying out a new show tells me that the network is looking to line up fresh blood for the 2010/2011 season.

It's like back in the day when they used to put Roswell on hiatus and then fill the time slot with with some other action/sci-fi show to see if they could find a new hit. You always knew that if the other show took off, the likelihood of Roswell getting another season was down the drain.

Plus Friday night is horrible for Sci-Fi shows given that the core audience usually has better things going on.

On the bright side, the fact that their moving SV to Friday night while keeping SPN on Thursday seems to indicate that SPN might have a couple more years (assuming they can get Kripke, Jared and Jensen to sign on).

I'm probably in the minority, but I really do not want SPN to go on to a sixth season. I love the show dearly and wouldn't mind seeing Jensen/Jared on my TV every Thursday night for the rest of my life, but I love the idea of the show having an ending set in place. Although I admit that unlike PS3 with SV, Kripke and Co. know how to write funny filler episodes that end up being more entertaining and light-hearted and therefore a welcomed change to the darker episodes. Plus instead of stalling, Kripke pays off his season long arcs and makes it the beginning of the next season's arc, something I totally love. I think I just talked myself into wanting a seasin six for SPN, hee.

I am actually quite excited about the move to Friday night for two reasons: 1) I do not have to sit through Smallville while waiting for SPN (Which is what I always end up doing whenever I get the chance to watch SPN and SV spoils my SPN watching experience most of the time) and 2) Because any temptation I might to watch SV next season will be out the window due to the Friday timeslot. So Go Dawn!!!

Not really, I don't want it too. SPN is a quality show and I'd rather see it end according to the master's plan than see it being dragged for years just for the ratings' sake.
I hope CW will remember that they didn't want a show with all that horrible following from the male audience (ewww!) in the first place and let Kripke and Co. end it as they wanted to.

There is something I didn't think about before. With the economy the way it is, do you think SV viewers may tune in after all because going out is expensive?

Hey, there's an idea for a Whimsy thread. New marketing slogans for Season 9.

Watch Smallville: The economy's in the toilet, and so is the show!
Watch Smallville: We know your broke ass has nothing better to do on Friday night!
Watch Smallville: You think your life sucks? Meet Chloe Sullivan!

Especially since how do you get a Bigger Bad than Lucifer? Even Buffy struggled to get a decent Big Bad after a God.

I'd rather SPN go out in style, and with the ratings intact, rather than limp along after blowing the payload on Zod, like SV did. Or worse, not do it justice, ala Doomie (that's no Doomsday, also pun intended).

As far as the economy is concerned, it's been going downhill for a while now, and the overall number of people watching television has not increased (if I'm not mistaken). I don't see a likelihood of that trend reversing. On the other hand, the depression was the big boon for the Hollywood musicals, so it could happen. What I'd find more likely is a shift in the demographic to happier shows. Not convinced that this was a good time to turn dark. Turns all of us escapists completely off.

That is true. People rent movies as well. Friday's for us is movie night.

The CW Friday nights!: WE put Smallville on Friday nights so YOU don't have to watch!

Matt from TVGuide apparently had chatted with Dawn wrt Smallville's move:



Pretty much the win-win scenario for her that I said earlier. For a S10 Smallville will have to out perform EHC and TG in ratings.

IOW, Dawn basically told TIIC that if they can keep ratings at their current level/ above 2 mil, they'll get their season 10. If they don't, then wrap up.

The core crack addled fans, like me I'll end up watching 4-5 episodes for Chlark, who have to watch the train wreck apart from Nois fans and TW fans, it all adds up to over 2M and a tenth season.

Jesus H. Christ.
So let me get this straight: Smallville season 10 will happen, providing that Smallville season 9 loses only 33% of its current audience? If 1 million people turn their backs on this show, it'll still be accounted a success?

US TV is crazy...