Supernatural Wiki

Season Eight???

Seven seasons is huge achievement for any show – and even more so for a horror show on small network. 

As we anxiously await news of whether Supernatural will return for an eighth season, I thought it would be interesting to look back at 7 seasons of renewals for The Little Show That Could.

Series renewals are traditionally announced at the end of Network Upfronts in mid-May, following the end of the most prime time show seasons.  Many factors are at play in the longevity of any TV series – ratings, critical response, programming decisions, contract and budget issues, personalities, the phases of the moon and luck. As fans we rarely know details behind the decisions made – all we know is that waiting for a renewal is an anxious time!

SEASON ONE
On Tuesday 13 September 2005, Supernatural’s pilot episode aired on The WB at 9pm after The Gilmore Girls. It attracted the time period’s highest adult 18-49 rating for the WB in two years, improving over the One Tree Hill premiere in 2004 by 19%. Less than a month later, on October 6th, the show received a full 22 episode pick-up for its first season.

David Janollari, the WB  President of Entertainment said:

Supernatural has delivered in a huge way for us, with genuinely scary episodes every week, and it just keeps getting better.  Eric Kripke, McG and Bob Singer have done a terrific job executing their vision and we expect the show to be a long-term player at The WB.

Following comments like this, you might assume that there was little doubt that Supernatural would get a second season.  However in early 2006 it was announced that The WB and UPN would merge to form a new network – the CW. While it was clear the new network would be taking on shows from both networks, it was unclear how Supernatural would fit into the new network’s brand.

The result was that on May 4, 2006 when the Season One finale aired, fans were left reeling when the episode ended with the Impala t-boned by a truck and fate of both the Winchesters and the show was unclear.

We had an agonising two weeks wait until the announcement at the Upfronts for the CW on May 18th that Supernatural would return for a second season, airing Thursday night after Smallville.

SEASON TWO
Supernatural premiered on the new CW on September 28th.   

In January 2007, at the Winter TCA press tour   Matt Roush from TV Guide spoke to Eric Kripke about the possibility of a third season for Supernatural. He reported to readers:

Your guess is as good as Kripke’s. When I spoke with him, he put the show’s chances at “solidly, solidly 50-50,” then offered his “honest attitude,” which, frankly, was the last thing I expected from anyone at press tour. “I wish we had a million to a half-million more viewers,” he admitted. “I think those X-Files fans are out there. We’re just struggling to get the word out that there’s an X-Files-quality show on the CW…  We’re sort of the odd duck on the network, so we’re trying to let people know that there’s a hard, sci-fi-genre show that just happens to be on the CW.

The article galvanised Supernatural fandom into action. Through the Livejournal community Promote SPN,  fans coordinated to raise the profile of the show, commenting on media blogs and sending postcards to TV reviewers and the network.  

We still had to wait, but Supernatural was renewed for a third season on May 22nd, five days after the season 2 finale aired.

SEASON THREE
On November 5, 2007, writers for film and TV Shows, including “Supernatural”, began a strike after the breakdown of negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the AMPTP - the association representing more than 350 production companies and studios.

During the strike no new episodes could be written. As the strike continued into 2008 it became unclear as to whether shows would return to complete their season. While fandom was anxious about Supernatural, we came together to support the writers’ cause including organising petitions and fundraisers. When the strike was resolved in mid February, Supernatural ended up with a shortened season of 16 episodes, rather than the scheduled 22.

Driven by the truncated season and the lack of new scripted shows to pilot, the CW made its earliest announcement on renewals ever and Supernatural was confirmed for a fourth season on March 3 2008.

SEASON FOUR
An even earlier renewal sees Supernatural is renewal for a fifth season announced on February 25, 2009.

SEASON FIVE
In  January 2010,  CW boss Dawn Ostroff, never considered by fandom as a strong supporter of the show, said that Kripke had been “hitting it out of the park” creatively in Season 5 and  pointed to Supernatural’s ratings success as proof the show has a lot of life left in it.

The ratings are up…We have more young women coming to the show than ever before. There aren’t a lot of shows that you can say are doing better in their fifth year.

There was much speculation in fandom about the show’s future, as Kripke had previously stated that he envisioned a five year story arc for the show.  He also added that he also had doubted the show would ever make it to 5 seasons!

Later that month, on January 30th Supernatural celebrated filming its 100th episode. Soon after, on February 18th. Following months of speculation and rumours, it was confirmed that Supernatural will return for a sixth season on the CW. Excitement at the news saw Supernatural trend on Twitter.

Soon after the season finale it was announced that Eric Kripke was standing down as showrunner, with Sera Gamble taking his place alongside Bob Singer.

Season Seven
Supernatural’s renewal for Season 7 was confirmed Season 6 had finished airing, on April 26, 2011. Along with most other CW dramas, Season 7 has 23 episodes, rather than the normal 22.
 
Season Eight?
Signs are good for an eighth season. Both Jared and Jensen are contracted through season eight if the CW picks it up. Jared said recently:

We certainly are excited about the show and we think it has a lot of potential and we think it’s getting better and better to keep telling the story that we signed on to tell. If it ends this year, so be it. If it goes another year, great! And if we have stories to tell, even after this year or next, then we will certainly go back to the drawing board and see how we go about it then. We will do it as long as they will write it.

New CW President Mark Pedowitz said in January 2012: "I’m very happy with how Supernatural has done this year, in terms of ratings and production."   

Ratings for Supernatural this season have been consistent, often exceeding its lead-in Nikita, and it continues to be good performer for the CW. With One Tree Hill finishing, it is the longest running drama on the network.

The ratings alone don’t tell the whole story of a viewership which has at its core a passionate fandom which helps garner the show a higher profile through events such as its win of two People’s Choice awards. In addition the series is now in syndication on TNT, and has strong global sales.

 The CW has some serious programming decisions to make, with four new shows in pilot they need to decide which of its current roster of shows will be cancelled to make way for them.

Sera Gamble said in January this year: "We’re planning for the worst and hoping for the best.”  That’s pretty much been the story for the show’s seven years.

Here’s hoping for the talented and committed writers, crew and cast that we do get another year at of this show, so we can continue to love and be entertained by our show which continues to be gory and meta,  imaginative and intelligent every week.

An announcement on the renewal could occur anytime from now til the Upfronts in May. Check our Season 8 page for updates.