Why CW Passed on Supergirl and the Continuing Crossover Question
CBS' president seems more open now to crossovers with Arrow and The Flash, as CW explains why they passed on the show.
12 Aug 2015 By Eric Goldman
The question keeps coming up about whether
Supergirl could crossover with
Arrow and
The Flash, despite airing on different networks. Given they share the same production company, Warner Bros., and several of the same producers – including Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg – and given the CW is co-owned by CBS, the belief is they might be more open to a crossover occurring than they might otherwise. Back in January, CBS president Nina Tassler
seemed resistant to the idea, but this week at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour, sounded at least a bit more open to it.
Asked the crossover question, Tassler initially said that there will be promotional material that will link the series this fall, but no actual crossover is currently planned for the shows themselves.
Tassler was then asked if such a crossover is inevitable down the line and replied, “Here’s the deal. I’m a little bit of a superhero geek and I have a lot of respect for what characters inhabit certain universes. And people think, ‘Oh yeah, just pick up one character and let them fly over!’ If you’re in another setting, you really have to be respectful and mindful of what each universe says you can and can’t do. Obviously, we’re working very closely with DC and our producers and Greg Berlanti is sort of the poster child for this field, so I’m just saying right now we’re not doing it. We’re doing it promotionally. But, look, we’ll always stay open [to it]. They’re very, very inventive in terms of what they can and will do in the future.”
CW president Mark Pedowitz spoke to the press at the TCA tour the next day, and the crossover question was also given to him. Said Pedowitz, “I leave that to Greg Berlanti and his team. If they can make it work, that's great. If they cannot, that's fine. But we're open to crossovers. As you know, we are going to do some cross promotion together in terms of pushing all the shows. But that's Greg's call because he understands his shows better than I do in some ways, because he's there.”
Pedowitz was also asked why Supergirl wasn’t on the CW, and if was true Warner Bros. had discussions with the network when the series was first being put together back in the summer of 2014.
Pedowitz remarked, “I can't address CBS's perspective on that, but I can address ours. Last summer, Flash had not been the air yet. We had Arrow. We had Flash. And we were not planning to do another DC character. Supergirl was talked to from Warner Bros. to us. Because we weren't planning to do another DC character at the time, they took it out and they did the right thing. I hope them great success at CBS.”
Pedowitz was asked a follow-up about why they’d have any hesitation to air another DC show and replied, “I am still a broadcaster. There is still a belief that there's more there. Otherwise, I might not have had Jane [the Virgin’ or something."
Of course, in the past year, The Flash became the biggest hit on the CW, leading to yet another series, Legends of Tomorrow, coming next season. And it seems that if Supergirl were offered to Pedowitz today, things might be different. "Again, we had not launched Flash yet," he remarked. "We had no idea. We thought Flash would do well, but we had no idea how it would do and when it would do it. So at this point, you take your time. Sometimes you lose great projects.”
Supergirl: CBS Seems More Open to Arrow / The Flash Crossovers - IGN
