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The credits had barely rolled on Walker‘s series finale when Jared Padalecki‘s unvarnished feelings about the state of The CW became known.
While discussing the show’s cancellation with our sister site Variety, Walker star and executive producer Padalecki — who also fronted the CW staple Supernatural for over a decade — slammed the channel’s current leadership for its focus on “cheap” programming.
Nexstar, which acquired the network in 2022, is “changing the network around, where it’s not really going to be a TV network as much as it’s going to be, ‘Here’s something fun for an hour that you’ll never watch again, but hopefully you watch it. And it’s cheap!'” Padalecki said. “And I hate to say that, but I’m just being honest. I mean, f–k it. They can’t fire me again. I’m just being brutally honest. I think it felt to me like they were looking for really easy, cheap content that they could fill up time with.”
Singling out the upcoming fall game shows Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble as examples of the network’s new strategy, which also includes plenty of foreign imports and co-productions, Padalecki noted, “I feel like The CW that I was a part of last year is not The CW that I was a part of under [former chairman and CEO] Mark Pedowitz for that entire, almost 20-year stretch.”
TVLine has reached out to The CW for comment.
When TVLine spoke to Padalecki ahead of the series finale, he noted that he was “pretty tired” after so many years on TV. “I’m a little disillusioned about the state of the industry that I’ve loved and been employed with for 24 years,” he said. “So I have a lot of thinking to do, and I have a lot of time to be with my wife and our kids, my friends, and think about where this industry is.”
Padalecki added that he doesn’t foresee himself signing up for another long-running network show, which could potentially take him away from his family for years.
“You really have to sacrifice a lot, and I’ve sacrificed everything I have to sacrifice for many, many years, and I think I’m at a point in my life where I want to spend more time with my wife and kids,” he explained.
That said, Padalecki is open to reteaming with Supernatural creator Eric Kripke on his Prime Video series The Boys, which could potentially reunite him with his former Supernatural castmates Jensen Ackles and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
“[Eric] and I have talked about what it could look like. It’s not written yet. He said it wouldn’t really be until 2025. We wouldn’t shoot until probably January-ish,” Padalecki shared, adding that he’s game to “go play in the playground [of] the guy who created Sam Winchester. I’ve had good times in his playground, so I’m happy to do it again.”
He’s absolutely right. This network cancelled the#1 viewed show four yrs running because they’re too cheap for quality programming. The current CW is a destined failure. My hope for Jared is that his next projects are with real networks.
“I think it felt to me like they were looking for really easy, cheap content that they could fill up time with.”
“I feel like The CW that I was a part of last year is not The CW that I was a part of under [former chairman and CEO] Mark Pedowitz for that entire, almost 20-year stretch.”
PREACH Jared! That’s exactly how ALL of us that have watched for many years and these last decades have felt regarding the awful, mediocre-driven “pro-profit” direction that the incompetent, scripted-content butchers Nexstar suits have taken The CW since 2022. WBD made a colossal mistake handing over a fun broadcasting network like this one to the last qualified people to run it’s legacy that is now being vivisected. I’ll never forget how they lied in late 2022 that they were fan of the “family friendly shows” like Kung Fu and Walker since they weren’t such big budgeted productions. And look at what they did despite him and the creatives negotiated with them to reduce the amount of budget, writers, cast etc? Still canceled a beloved showed that actually BROUGHT people back to watch. A network needs an AUDIENCE to sustain itself, we’re the ones that bring in RATINGS. God, what a crapshow Nexstar’s turned The CW into for the sake of their greed and cheapness.
Well said Jared. Thank you for speaking for all us.
The CW was never profitable. Throwing good money after bad doesn’t lead to profits.
CW existed for products to be sold to Netflix, HBO, Max and Paramount+. It was never intended to be profitable on its own
The CW operated at a loss, so they could make money for CBS Studios and Warner Brothers through other revenue streams. It’s why we got so many shows based on properties they owned. They famously said Dynasty turned a profit before episodes even aired. Supernatural and the comics shows sold a lot of merchandise. Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex Girlfriend even served a purpose with their Emmy, Golden Globe, and People’s Choice awards.
The thing is cbs/wb, decided to try to kill netflix, by opening up for own apps, 5yrs ago they ended the streaming deals, plus most foreign revenue dried up at same time, yes nexstar is cheap, they have been outright about it, they have no ownership of walker yes the hour is high rated and on the low end for a network show made in USA, but after ad revenue it’s not cheap enough for cw to make money off just airing it and getting to stream last 5 episodes made in season. CBS wanted the low budget to be higher, but they weren’t willing to give up ownership, nexstar can get 3 or 4 Canadian shows that get slightly less ratings, but co-ownership, so it’s a better deal for CW, also while Mark was smart and found alt sour es of revenue to keep cw alive an extra decade or 2 more than it should have. Pre netflix/hulu he canceled a ton of stuff, going from a female drama net to comic book network, the cw is becoming so.ething new it may not work hopefully they can turn it into someone
PREACH Jared! That’s exactly how ALL of us that have watched for many years and these last decades have felt regarding the awful, mediocre-driven “pro-profit” direction that the incompetent, scripted-content butchers Nexstar suits have taken The CW since 2022. WBD made a colossal mistake handing over a fun broadcasting network like this one to the last qualified people to run it’s legacy that is now being vivisected. I’ll never forget how they lied in late 2022 that they were fan of the “family friendly shows” like Kung Fu and Walker since they weren’t such big budgeted productions. And look at what they did despite him and the creatives negotiated with them to reduce the amount of budget, writers, cast etc? Still canceled a beloved showed that actually BROUGHT people back to watch. A network needs an AUDIENCE to sustain itself, we’re the ones that bring in RATINGS. God, what a crapshow Nexstar’s turned The CW into for the sake of their greed and cheapness.
Well said Jared. Thank you for speaking for all us.
Where were you when the CW would also cancel the likes of Life Unexpected and The Tomorrow People?
I loved the tomorrow people show. It was cancelled after sesaon 1.
It wasn’t good for the WB (or CBS) though. When the CW launched it made sense to give up the streaming rights to the network as it gave them shows they could sell to home media and internationally (around that time HBO were saying that international was their only growing revenue stream and it was closed to generating more income than direct subs) but streaming killed home media sales and it took a few more years but it also killed international once streaming services had the same impact on home media and paid tv there. They just weren’t covering their costs as easily anymore from these secondary rights, the CW wasn’t contributing more in the initial commissioning fee as their viewership was falling like everyone hence so was the ad revenue and by the time they got the streaming rights back (5 years after the CW aired the series finale) even the biggest show rights were peanuts. By the end of the netflix deal they were throwing money at the network and the network was still making a loss and the studios weren’t making the level of return elsewhere to make it make sense
CW has chosen to be a trash channel. So many good shows are ended or ending soon. The whole channel will probably be cancelled at some point in the not so distant future.
Unfortunately, I think it is only a matter of time before it happens to the other four. If the CW was making money, it would have never been sold. Network TV is dying the way radio did. I don’t like it either, but the writing is on the wall. Honestly, every show I watch now is on streaming and I think that will be the future.
True but won’t happen till another decade. Fox might be the closest to it.
I think sooner. I think, in a short amount of time, network TV will just switch to free reruns of streaming content, like Paramount did with Yellowstone. Series premiere on streaming. After a few months they are licensed to FAST. Then, they show yp on network TV.
If WB had not been so greedy in jumping to the mix of streaming wars (only to later have HBO Max star to also cancel it’s own titles thanks to the sell to Discovery) and actually renewed it’s contract with Netflix that was a win-win for both in the revenue the CW shows got for airing in the streamer none of this would’ve happened. Corporate failure of business is what happened.
This is precisely true. The CW/Netflix deal was a win/win for both. The fact the CW chose to end it was one of the worse moves in TV history. Its not surprising that the one CW show that has survived (All American) is the last remaining show from that deal.
The networks can be Netflix or Blockbuster. They can adapt and evolve as the world changes or they can stick to their guns and die off.
These networks should be forming exclusive streaming agreements with a streaming service so that they can function as a funnel for quality thematic streaming content. Creatives for the show would benefit from an entity that can negotiate in bulk to provide longer security for a show (as in, if the show hits X numbers they get an automatic pickup for 2 years with specific budget levels), while the streaming service can outsource quality control to ‘networks’ with specialization. The value proposition of the network becomes the ability to attack talent to create shows and specialization in making high quality content.
The CW is a hollow empty shell of what it once was. It was never good, but now it is completely and utterly DEAD
“Never good” c’mon what kind of utterly petty comment was that.
He’s right though. I loved and watched so many of cw shows but if you compared special effect vs other networks (awesome shows like “supernatural” where powers were shown through snapping your hand, angel that we never saw flying) they had smaller budgets. Back then they gave us Buffy, Angel, Smallville, Supernatural, The Arrow, The Flash and so so so many other. Now I don’t even check the news about CW anymore
This is a tragedy
Nexstar isn’t creating any of that content. It makes no sense for them to continue to bring on series when they get nothing from the back end through syndication. People can call them cheap all they want. They are in the business of making money, not losing money.
Padalecki is coming off as whiny and entitled. He ought to consider himself lucky that he had the run he has had at THE CW. Unfortunately, there are two many posters who are far too emotional and can’t look at the situation through a purely economic point of view. Emotions don’t matter, staying in business and making a profit does.
Saying the truth doesn’t make someone “whiny” and “entitled”. His description was accurate. I know there’s a culture of “everybody shut up and just do what corporations want” and what matters is business and profits and not people and how they feel, but until corporations own people fully, someone still can say that the company they worked for sucks. He owns them nothing. Whatever money and fame he got was in exchange for doing a great job for the network. The CW was the sucessor to the WB. Gilmore Girls. Supernatural. Walker. If anything, they own him, not the otherway around.
Just because it was “the truth,” it doesn’t mean he wasn’t whiny and entitled in his wording. He’s just mad his expensive, mid show got the boot — highest ratings or not, and the other shows stayed on because the network didn’t throw as much money at their budgets. And it sounds like an insult to the other shows too. Jared came off like a bitter sore loser to me.
Well, I guess you know about those…
No, I don’t, Robert. Nice try, fam.
A wow Nextstar plant. Thank god you know what everyone wants.
The CW cancelled good shows while only keeping bad shows on the air
I fear for The Librarians and Joan, it’s going to be so cheaply made, it’s not looking good.
The Librarians has always been “cheaply made” because it’s produced by an independent production company.
Joan isn’t a series, so no big deal if it doesn’t get watched. It can’t be cancelled or renewed. Just removed.
They just bought the rights to air Joan, which I think is fairly cheap for then if they want it. The CW didn’t produce it.
cry me a river. once again shows his true colors, cs got miffed the channel send his bad wtr reboot packing & started trashtalking it. didn’t see him complain when spn became bad everything(scripts,direction,stunts etc)cs still had a job,only now remembered that something was wrong. also bet is full of it abt retiring cs had said the same thing before spn ended abruptly,only cs wanted to play lead on wanker. also mind blowing how with such bad attitude(temper tantrums/verbal & physical assaults) keeps getting hired,when other actors were fired for less.
Please write english better, grandma
The correct English would be to say, “Grandma, please utilize your education to communicate your words more efficiently.”
Nail meet head. Thank you for saying it!
He’s not wrong! The only thing that could save CW is if they bring The Idol back for season 2, was one of the last great family shows we could all watch after dinner!
Sadly, even if you like a show and you think lots of other people are watching it, maybe they aren’t. Maybe it was too expensive to continue producing. Maybe the return on investment wasn’t great. I did not watch Walker, but there have been many shows that I have watched on network TV or a streaming service that have been canceled for a variety of reasons. I think the CW’s new direction is not for me, but the owners need to make themselves money and maybe cheap programming is the way. Who knows?
Walker never got my attention…too much fluff.
He’s not at all wrong, but in a teeny bit of fairness to the CW, that’s EVERY broadcast network at this point. They’re all not really “broad”casting any more, the audience gets smaller every year and so do the budgets. So “cheap” is the name of the game now.
ABC’s all-reality slate during the strikes was probably shades of things to come – way fewer original content dramas and comedies and way more reality TV shows, game shows or content purchased from other countries. It’s the economic reality of the networks now.
Maybe if American network tv incorporated viewer numbers from a global audience and not just America then viewership would gain and maybe get more money from the studios to do more projects cause I know some American shows get played internationally but apparently there is an unspoken reason why that don’t happen that I have no idea what it is.
CW canceled superheroes shows and put on cheap reality shows that I don’t watch.
They got scripted shows coming in though, but it doesn’t have superheroes in it. Are you gonna watch that instead?
Jim, the superhero era had petered out anyway even before the sale to Nexstar. The network started the circling the drain 3 years ago. When they picked up up 2+ year old Canadian sitcoms, it was time to dissolve the disaster and revert affiliates back to independents so they can decide their primetime lineup and rid itself of an awkward branding.
I’m still amazed/confused that they bought the network and said “we’re going to change it to target an older audience, oh wait research shows they’re already watching… Still doing it anyway”
Yeah-that’s always bothered me too and I’ve been amazed that that hasn’t gotten more coverage. My guess would be that Nexstar executives egos are threatened by having anything to do with the old management on the air, came up with an excuse to justify it and didn’t bother to figure out if the excuse actually made any sense….
As a long time viewer of The CW, I agree. The shows aren’t what we used to get.
However, the ratings weren’t there and were declining. I’m surprised the network is still opened at all.
The CW is still “opened” because CBS and WB operated it at a loss its entire history under their ownership and made their money back only on streaming licensing deals with Netflix and the ilk. You should be surprised, but not very.
True. It was a syndication farm for both companies creating TV shows that wouldn’t survive a season or two on big networks.
This man speaks the truth. The heyday of the CW is over. Good for him that he is able to choose projects meaningful to him and that dovetail with his family life. He is handsome and talented enough to choose prestige projects in the future.
He’s right. Pure & simple. The CW won’t exist anymore at the rate it’s going.
Yes!
As has been said many times before The CW, as owned by CBS and Warner Bros, never made money and was used to show programming that could generate profits through overseas sales and streaming through Netflix,
CBS and Warner Bros decided to end the Netflix deal and do their own streaming services which are still unprofitable. They chose to sell their majority ownership of The CW to Nexstar. Nexstar bought The CW to make money. Nexstar believes they will make profits with sports programing and game shows. They have determined how much they can pay for scripted series and unfortunately the producers have determined they can not profitably make their shows based on what Nexstar is able to pay so existing shows like Walker were canceled. I can’t blame Nexstar for wanting to generate profits and I wish them luck. I will watch Superman and Lois when it airs in the fall . There are no other programs on The CW that I have heard about that I am interested in watching. If and when there is something I want to see, I will watch. That is the same for any network.
Very well stated. I appreciate your common sense, non-emotional comment.
I am sure Nexstar will also continue to have some of their NewsNation hosts airing news specials on The CW. IIRC, Ashley Banfield was airing some content on The CW, and she also has the10:00pm EST slot on NewsNation.
All this attention doesn’t sound like he’s taking a break, just that he’s willing to set fire to his connections because he doesn’t need them or something. Sure, the CW aren’t likely to hire him again, but he does not have the kind of reputation where people won’t see this and go ‘yeah so we won’t hire him either’.
I didn’t really watch this series (Walker), but, I don’t disagree with his assessment of the mess that seems to define the CW. today. I get moving away from the super hero genre, to a point. That wasn’t the only programming the CW had, though. I also get wanting their own seal/stamp on programming, but, their wholesale cancelation of most of their schedule doesn’t seem to be winning a lot of new viewers. I think those making programming decisions need to wake up while they can still retain viewers.
Unfortunately, CW never made much money. The viewership was always tiny, and now is almost non existent. It made financial sense when it was self sustaining because of funnels to other distribution (Inc international) but that stopped making sense. So it was bought by a random company who is trying to make it “work” in the dying days of broadcast. Jared knows all that, he’s a producer not “just” an actor. So his tantrum was just that. Where’s the money supposed to come from Jared?
I never watched CW, and don’t like superhero type shows. But reading this netlet doesn’t seem like it has a promising future. Either by murder or suicide, there isn’t room for 5 networks. Looking at ratings I’m surprised it lasted this long. That said, I’ve seen the rabid dedication of prior shows on CW and am sad they lost so many that they valued.
Go Jared! Walker was one of the few shows I’ve watched on the CW as the content has gone to crap. He just spoke for all of us who have been noting the downturn.