There is a ton of rumor and speculation running wild today about Supergirl and if there will be a second season. We've spent the day reading every post, fact-checking every article, and dismissing every rumor. It's impossible right now to know if we've gotten to the bottom of the matter (unless you are in the conference room at CBS) but perhaps we can clean things up a bit today. Here are the facts as they stand now:
- Supergirl needs to be on any network's schedule by the Upfront Presentations next week in order to be on the fall 2016 schedule.
- Warner Brothers, who owns DC Comics, licenses the show to CBS at $3 million dollars an episode.
- CBS would like to see that fee, taxes, and production costs for the show to be lowered so they can get a higher return on investment.
- California offers tax credits to shows that film in the state. Unfortunately to get this credit there is a lottery. The lottery is drawn at random and Supergirl didn't get it.
- That leaves some options for Warner Brothers and CBS:
- The show could move to Vancouver, Canada. This is a hot-spot for TV shows as Canada offers great discounts for TV programs and the DC Berlanti-verse is up there. Some estimations put this at a 40% decrease in the show's costs. Ultimately there will be more money for the show to use!
- Warner Brothers could lower their licensing fee for Supergirl. This would allow CBS to pay less per episode and give more room in the budget for returns.
- CBS could order less than a full season. Like the pilot season, the initial order was for only 13 episodes and then bumped to a full 20 later on. Less episodes mean smaller overall costs.
- The show could move to the CW. CBS and Warner Brothers own the CW together. CBS head, Les Moonves, heads up programing on CW as well as CBS. He could push the show to the CW.
That's all the facts that we know for sure. Aside from the facts, we believe that an announcement is coming soon. Our reasoning for this is that the Upfront Presentations are for new shows not returning shows and the fact that Life in Pieces (another CBS Freshman show) was renewed today. Those that are in the know and those that have good track records at predicting these things all say Supergirl will return. What we don't know is in what form, network, or how many episodes. Ultimately there is a lot to look forward to and be positive about. Stay here with us and your fellow fans in the live chat and we'll all get through this together, El May Arah.
EDIT: Its hard not to focus on this very important topic (which we spent the day on today), but some side good news did come out also. Melissa Benoist was added to AskMen.com's 99 crush worthy celebrities at #41. Also, Melissa Benoist has won a Saturn Award for Best Breakout Performance this year in her role as Supergirl! Congrats Melissa!
It wasn't the day we wanted but it wasn't a bad day either. Share your thoughts with us on the Supergirl situation below and in the forum. Also, help keep Supergirl.tv going by visiting our support page!
