Nexstar acquiring of controlling interest in The CW has resulted in a cancellation bloodbath on the channel for more than a year now. Most recently, the Supernatural spinoff The Winchesters was scrapped after its sole season, and it’s since failed to find a new network home. Until today, three shows remained on the bubble at The CW: Superman & Lois, All American: Homecoming and Gotham Knights. Well, good news for fans of that first show: it’s returning for Season 4. The CW has also announced what will be happening with the latter two.
All American: Homecoming will return for a third season, returning alongside Superman & Lois and the already-renewed All American and Walker on the scripted programming front. Gotham Knights, on the other hand, will end after its first season, with the final episodes airing on June 20 and 27. However, per THR, both Superman & Lois and All American: Homecoming’s new seasons will be shorter, with the former receiving just 10 episodes (Season 3 ran for 13) and the latter receiving 13 episodes (down two from Season 2).
These smaller episode orders are one of the ways Nexstar is looking to reduce costs at The CW in order to make the channel profitable. Immediately prior to this news being announced, Deadline reported that with Superman & Lois and All American: Homecoming likely to return, Warner Bros. Television proposed a reduced licensing fee for which it could make the shows. While it’s not the ‘less than $1 million’ amount The CW was targeting, it’s still enough of a “a significant reduction that could make the series feasible for the network while still making financial sense for the studio.” It was also mentioned that both shows would also face its number of main cast members being cut down.
In Superman & Lois’ case, while it was the second-most watched show on The CW in the 2022-2023 TV season, it’s also among the more expensive offerings on the channel, and it currently boasts 12 series regulars. So even with Season 4 moving ahead, assuming Deadline’s information is accurate, it sounds like we can expect a decent amount of the supporting actors to either not return or be reduced to recurring players/guest stars. Fellow DC series Gotham Knights, on the other hand, was less expensive to make, but had a smaller audience, so evidently the latter factor had more weight with deciding its fate.
There are just two episodes left to go in Superman & Lois Season 3, but they’re looking to be pretty eventful. Following the death of Daya Vaidya’s Peia Mannheim and the incarceration of Chad L. Coleman’s Bruno Mannheim, the stage has been set for Michael Cudlitz’s bearded Lex Luthor to finally enter the picture. Earlier this season, viewers learned that Peia and Bruno framed him for the murder of Boss Moxie, so now that’s he being freed from prison after 17 years, you can be sure that Luthor is going to go scorched Earth. That will include targeting Superman and Lois Lane, two other individuals he blames for his misfortune.
The penultimate episode of Superman & Lois Season 3 airs next Tuesday, June 20, at 8 pm ET. Once concrete details on Season 4 start trickling in, we’ll let you know, but you can keep track of what else is currently on the air, or will be arriving soon, with our 2023 TV schedule.
