The CW Fall 2022 Schedule: ‘Supernatural,’ ‘Walker’ Prequels Join Pared Down Slate

A pair of prequels and a handful of acquisitions will help The CW fill out its fall schedule after the network canceled a host of series last week.

The Winchesters, a Supernatural origin story focusing on Sam and Dean’s parents, and the 1800s-set Walker: Independence will join the network in the fall. They’re the only two scripted originals set to debut on the network. Two international acquisitions — Professionals, starring Tom Welling (Smallville) as a security operative and Brendan Fraser as his client — and Canadian legal drama Family Law will also have spots.

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The CW has also picked up unscripted series Magic With the Stars, in which celebs train with professional magicians to perform illusions for a panel of judges that includes Criss Angel.

A number of familiar shows — including Superman & Lois, The Flash, Nancy Drew and what will be the final season of Riverdale — will premiere later in the season. The net’s third new series, DC Comics drama Gotham Knights, is also set for midseason.

“As The CW looks towards the future, we are evolving and adapting to become more than just a network,” said chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz. “We are a brand that drives our passionate and dedicated audiences to engage directly with our programming across all platforms, both linear and digital.”

The CW will enter the 2022-23 season in a transitional phase: Its current parent companies, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global, are looking to sell the network, with local TV giant Nexstar seen as a leading contender. With a potential sale looming, the Mark Pedowitz-led network canceled nearly half of its scripted series last week. It also made fewer pilots than usual — three rather than the five or six typical of recent seasons — though it took all three of them (Gotham Knights, Walker: Independence and Supernatural prequel The Winchesters) to series.

For much of its existence, The CW was a place where its parent companies’ studios (Warner Bros. TV and CBS Studios) would supply relatively inexpensive series, then profit off of international sales of those shows. A $1 billion Netflix streaming deal kept revenues flowing as well, so even shows with minuscule on-air ratings like the now canceled Dynasty and before it, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, ran multiple seasons.

The end of the Netflix deal in 2019 (newer CW series go to either HBO Max or Paramount+) and the drying up of international licensing — which is also a function of the two parent companies keeping their CW shows under their own roofs — means those revenue streams are gone, leaving The CW more to fend for itself. The network has never turned a profit in its 15-plus years of existence.

The lighter scripted load is evident in the fall schedule, which has seven hours of homegrown scripted shows, compared to 10 at the start of the current season.

The CW’s fall schedule is below. New series are in italics.

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