Superman & Lois’s Fate Has Been Decided
After just one episode of Superman & Lois, The CW has already made a decision about the future of their latest superhero series.
This article is more than 2 years old
The CW has long been the network for superhero shows, but with Arrow over and Supergirl and Black Lightning ending after their next seasons, it looked as though The CW might be coming to a superhero drought. But with the new series Superman & Lois, The CW seems to have found their next major superhero hit, as the network renewed the show for a second season after only one episode.
Superman & Lois had its debut on February 23, and less than a week later, The CW had already renewed the new series. The debut of Superman & Lois was The CW’s best night of primetime in over two years, and received the largest day-one streaming audience for a new series in the history of the network. The show received 1.7 million viewers for the 90-minute premiere, which doesn’t take into account DVR viewers or streaming views.
But even without Arrow, Supergirl, and Black Lightning, and the new Superman & Lois series, The CW is still arguably the leading network for superhero shows. The network also has Legends of Tomorrow, which will debut its sixth season later this year, Batwoman, which has been renewed for a third season, and Stargirl, which will also receive a second season.
The CW’s Superman & Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tullock as the title pair, who move back to Smallville with their sons Jonathan (Jordan Elsass) and Jordan (Alex Garfin). The series also features Dylan Walsh as Lois’s father Samuel Lane, and Emmanuelle Chriqui plays Lana Lang Cushing.
But The CW knows that Superman has almost always been a consistent success on television. The character first debuted on television in Adventures of Superman from 1952 to 1958. The character wasn’t on television for thirty years, until the debut of Superboy in 1988. However, it wasn’t until Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in 1993 where the relationship between Clark Kent and Lois Lane became a major focus of Superman’s television portrayals.
Prior to Superman & Lois, the two characters appeared on The WB’s Smallville, which ran for 10 seasons. While The WB eventually merged with UPN to create The CW, it seems like The CW is hoping that Superman & Lois will attract audiences who have a nostalgia for that Tom Welling-starring series.
The CW has been setting up the return of Superman in his own show for quite some time now. Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman first appeared on the second season of Supergirl, which was also the show’s first season on The CW. The character became a part of the network’s “Arrowverse,” and Superman appeared in several crossovers events like Elsewords and Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Superman & Lois is the 13th show that The CW has renewed for its 2021-2022 season, and with the combined success of this new series and their Walker, Texas Ranger reboot, Walker, the network has several new and exciting hits on their hands. This renewal is one of the fastest renewals the network has even given a freshman show, so it’s clear that The CW has big hopes for Superman & Lois.
