CBS President Explains How "Supergirl" Landed at The CW

CBR

By Julia Bianco

Published Aug 10, 2016

CBS President Glenn Geller says even if the show hadn't been moved to The CW, it's possible it still would have been renewed for a second season.

Many took the announcement that "Supergirl" would be moving to The CW for its second season as a sign that the high-flying show wouldn't have made it to a new set of episodes if it stayed on its original network, but CBS, has now denied those reports.

"There's nothing to say that, if we hadn't made the right deal with CW, we wouldn't have put it back on Monday nights," CBS Entertainment President Glenn Geller told reporters at the Television Critics Association (TCA) on Wednesday.

"I wouldn't say 'Supergirl' didn't work for us -- it actually worked very well," he continued. "It averaged over 10 million viewers per episode. At the end of this day, we looked at the situation and said, 'How can we both win from this?' We co-own The CW, so this was an opportunity for both CBS and Warner Bros. to really benefit from the success of the show; they produce it and we co-own the network."

"Supergirl," which stars Melissa Benoist, Calista Flockhart, David Harewood and Chyler Leigh, averaged 10.03 million viewers in its first season, a figure that would be amazing on The CW but is less impressive on CBS.

The move to The CW allows "Supergirl" to cross over with fellow Greg Berlanti-produced DC Comics-inspired shows "Arrow," "The Flash" and "Legends of Tomorrow."