The CW Beefs Up Scripted Slate With Swamp Thing, Coroner & More
Paul Dailly
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The CW is adding some more shows to its scripted slate ahead of Thursday's fall schedule reveal.
DC Universe's one-and-done Swamp Thing, Serinda Swan's Coroner, and UK comedy, Dead Pixels.
The trio of pickups comes just hours after the news dropped that the network was adding Paul Wesley-led Tell Me a Story to its lineup.
With Tell Me a Story, the series was also canceled today, so it's not yet clear what made the network pull the trigger on a pickup.
It's possible that the fee to air the show dropped considerably with the cancellation.
Swamp Thing was a high profile series last year. It garnered critical acclaim but was canceled just one day after its DC Universe premiere.
Swamp Thing follows Dr. Abby Arcane (Gotham‘s Crystal Reed) as she investigates what seems to be a deadly swamp-born virus in a small town in Louisiana.
The cast also includes Virginia Madsen, Andy Bean, Henderson Wade, Derek Mears, Maria Sten, Jeryl Prescott, Jennifer Beals, and Will Patton.
All 10 episodes aired on DC Universe, but airing on The CW will give the series some exposure.
Still, it is a bit bizarre to air episodes of a canceled series.
There is no chance of the series being revived. It was said to be too expensive for DC Universe at the time of its cancellation.
Coroner is a Canadian series starring Serinda Swan as a recently widowed Toronto coroner named Jenny Cooper.
In this story based on the novels by M. R. Hall and developed for television by Morwyn Brebner, Cooper investigates suspicious deaths.
While the US is very late to this party, the series debuted on CBC in January 2019 attracting 1 million viewers per episode throughout the first season.
There have feen two eight-episode seasons of Coroner, the latest airing from January 7 through February 24, 2020.
Interestingly, the series, which has aired everywhere from the UK to Germany to Australia was deemed the largest launch for Universal TV according to Cineflix.
Networks are scrambling to keep the lights on, with FOX already picking up L.A.'s Finest from Spectrum.
Acquisitions could be the shape of things to come as the broadcast networks struggle for original content in these tough times.
The CW has already renewed the bulk of its shows, with The 100 set to conclude in the coming months and Supernatural's end delayed indefinitely.
Katy Keene is the only CW original yet to score a renewal.
As a Riverdale spinoff, it is in good standing, but that's not to say the series has been a hit.
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Paul Dailly was an Associate Editor for TV Fanatic.Follow him on X.
