Before diving into this very long article I feel that I should lay my cards on the table. I enjoy watching Supergirl. I enjoy watching most television shows based on comic books. I also have a doctorate in cultural studies; so I’ve spent years studying popular media and the entertainment industry. I’ve also made a living writing about the videogame industry for years and I’ve consulted on several entertainment industry projects.  So when I talk about the entertainment industry, I know what I’m talking about.

Bad Journalism – Wait, Wasn’t Supergirl Already Renewed?

Les Moonves, CBS’s CEO, was at an event and said, “We have five new shows this year. Of those five, I believe all five of them will be renewed.” Moonves was clearly speaking in a vaguely positive way to make it look like all of his company’s products were doing well, without saying anything specific that could be later used against him.

Sadly, instead of realizing his claim had little substance, websites began reporting that these shows had been renewed.  Deadline’s article on this stated “Les Moonves: CBS Plans to Renew Five of this Season’s Freshman Series.” Comic Book Resources wanted to get into the click bait game and posted an article titled “CBS’s ‘Supergirl’ Renewed for Season 2.” Newsarama got in on the game with an article titled “CBS’s Supergirl Renewed for Second Season.”

With no nuance present these and many other articles made this show’s renewal seem all but certain. While it is important to be optimistic in life, I’ve been increasingly troubled by how little research is done by entertainment news websites. I say this because if any of them had studied Supergirl’s ratings, they would have expressed some bit of shock that the show got renewed considering how its ratings have suffered.

Now articles are being written that the show might actually be cancelled. This information stems from a recent press release from CBS that confirmed the renewal of eleven shows – none of them being Supergirl. While we all make mistakes, I do hope that fellow entertainment journalists reading this piece are reminded that it is important to not write in absolutes.

Supergirl’s Background – From Panels to TV

First appearing in 1959, Supergirl has always had an interesting place in the DC Universe. Though there have been many characters to be called Supergirl the most popular is Superman’s cousin, Kara Zor-El. Created as a counterpart of Superman that would appeal to young female readers, Supergirl is a character largely limited by the purpose of her creation. As Bradford Wright states in Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture, “the Supergirl character, in particular, seemed to be a concerted effort to appeal to young girls; her stories were whimsical adventures that also feature Streaky the Supercat and Comet the Superhorse. But the men who created DC comic books were clearly uncomfortable writing stories with female stars, as evidenced by Wonder Woman, a series that languished creatively and commercially in a series of incoherent and silly stories.”

Part of Supergirl’s flaw from the beginning was that she was locked into being in the shadow of Superman. While DC did take chances on developing sidekick characters into freestanding heroes – such as Dick Grayson growing from Robin into Nightwing – Kara Zor-El has typically been depicted as a lesser version of Superman for decades.  Her character became so irrelevant that after DC killed her off in 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, Marv Wolfman, the writer of that story got fan letters saying that “Supergirl’s death in Crisis was the best Supergirl story they ever read.”  Overall, Supergirl is a character who modern creators have struggled to write in a modern context – especially in light of the increased number of women in the comics industry as creators and consumers who don’t related to sensibilities of the 1950s and 1960s.

Despite these problems, Supergirl has always been a popular intellectual property for DC Comics.  And with the number of movies and TV shows based on comic books increasing it was only a matter of time before someone made a live-action show around her this character.  So no one was surprised when it was announced that there would be a Supergirl TV show for the 2015-2016 season.  There were initial concerns that the show would be on CBS instead of on The CW since CBS tends to have procedural shows aimed at older viewers while The CW already has successful superhero series.

However, concerns about the quality of the show did come up again when CBS released a ‘First Look’:

Supergirl was supposed to be a scripted drama, yet, the first look depicted a series more in line with Saturday Night Live’s parody of what  a Black Widow movie would look like:

Oddly, the Black Widow clip from SNL was released just ten days before Supergirl’s First Look.  It was an unfortunate bit of timing for Supergirl because it meant that it would have to immediately overcome outdated beliefs that female superheroes couldn’t sustain a movie or television franchise.

Debuting on October 26, 2015, the first episode was watched by about 13 million viewers and was one of CBS’s highly scripted dramas of the 2015-2016 season.  The show was also met by fairly positive reviews.  In short, it seemed early on that Supergirl would become a success and get renewed for a second season.

Since its pilot episode, however, Supergirl’s ratings have dropped with almost every episode.  Additionally, growing criticism has continued to haunt the show.  And now the decline in viewership is so severe it is time to discuss whether or not CBS should cancel Supergirl.  Given my analysis of its ratings and flaws, I think CBS would be right to cancel this show.

Ratings: A Show’s Yellow Sun or its Kryptonite

Supergirl debuted on CBS with record ratings of about 13 million viewers, and was one of the best premieres of the 2015-2016 season.  As Rick Kissell wrote for Variety, Supergirl tied “with NBC’s “Blindspot” as the fall’s top premiere score in the key young-adult demo while leading all new shows outright in total viewers.”  However, these numbers did not last long.  As the chart (figure 1) below shows, Supergirl’s ratings have dropped for all but four episodes.[1] (Click on any chart to view the full-size version.)

For those who care, here are the raw numbers courtesy of TV Series Finale:

Episode	Total Viewers (by millions)	18-49 demographic[2] (by millions)
1	12.955	3.15
2	8.865	2.19
3	8.066	1.71
4	7.769	1.80
5	7.187	1.52
6	8.019	1.64
7	7.665	1.53
8	7.275	1.52
9	8.746	1.87
10	8.767	1.85
11	7.902	1.76
12	6.682	1.51
13	7.919	1.78
14	7.248	1.54
15	6.69	1.39
16	6.530	1.31
17	5.995	1.3

As the numbers show, Supergirl has been hemorrhaging viewers.  From its first episode till it’s seventeenth the show’s total audience as dropped by 53.729% – which is more than half.  Worse yet, when you examine its 18-49 demographic numbers, this segment of its audience has decreased by over 58.7%.

There have been episodes in which viewership increased, but this increase seems to be due to other factors.  For instance, episode 13 (February 8^th’s – “For the Girl Who Has Everything”) did see its audience numbers increase by over a million viewers from the previous episode.  However I think this was to be expected.  Supergirl airs Monday’s on CBS and the day before the 13^th episode, CBS aired Super Bowl 50 – an event that had over 111 million viewers.  So it is highly likely that a few million Super Bowl fans stuck around to check out CBS the following day.

Overall, Supergirl’s ratings decline is more than enough for CBS to justify canceling it and replacing it with a show that can sustain a larger audience.  If CBS does decide to renew Supergirl for a second season and the ratings do decline, the show’s renewal would be a massive financial drain on a network that is investing a ton of money into a new subscription network.

But Supergirl has higher ratings than Flash or Arrow – Understanding Network Ratings and Advertising Dollars

“Great, this argument again,”[3] I state sarcastically.

Right now many people are bringing up the fact that Flash and Arrow – two shows that are also based on DC Comics characters – have much lower ratings than Supergirl, but they aren’t in danger of being canceled.  And this is true.  As figure 2 shows, Supergirl at its lowest still has a much larger total audience than Arrow or Flash did during their first seasons.

This should seem like enough evidence for keeping Supergirl around for another season, but something interesting happens when you examine the key demographic numbers instead of total viewership.

What is so interesting about Figure 3 is that while it shows that Supergirl started off well, so many viewers in the 18 to 49 age range have stopped watching the show that it is almost equal to The Flash’s numbers.

This is a problem for Supergirl.  It is a huge problem.  CBS is a much larger network than The CW – the network which Arrow and The Flash air on – and other companies pay a lot of money to have their advertisements on CBS.

“How much does advertising cost on CBS and The CW,” a smart, sexy, reader would ask.  Well, Ad Age published an article breaking this down.  The article shows that for the 2015-2016 season a 30 second ad on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory and NCIS cost $348,000 and $151,738 respectively.  Additionally, a 30 second ad on Supergirl costs $147,933.  In contrast, a 30 second ad on The CW’s The Flash and Arrow cost $70,687 and $48,056 respectively.  In short, a show on The CW is worth far less than what a show on CBS is worth.  And if Supergirl can only attract the number of key demographic viewers that is equal to a show on a network with lower standards for ratings, CBS will have little reason to invest in the show.

However, the biggest problem that comes from comparing Supergirl to Arrow and The Flash is that these shows are on two very different networks.  The CW is a network built on smaller ratings, and CBS has a business model dependent on high ratings.  It’s comparing apples to oranges.

Don’t Compare Supergirl to The CW – Compare it to shows on CBS

Supergirl is a CBS show.  So it will be CBS that determines whether the show is renewed or not.  As such, it is important to look at the ratings of some of the other shows that CBS currently has on air for the 2015-2016 season.  (You can find these ratings here.)  If you’re too lazy to click the link yourself don’t worry, I’ve created a helpful graph (figure 4) for you.

In regards to total viewership numbers Supergirl was 12^th in the rankings of most watched scripted show on CBS.  In addition to including those top 12 shows,[4] I also included the ratings for the first season of Limitless and the first (and only) season of Angel from Hell.

A primary goal of every show is to make it to 100 episodes.  Once a show hits this number it can be sold for syndication and pretty much everyone involved in the production of a show will receive residual checks.  However, in order for a show to get to a hundred episodes it needs to have high ratings to justify being renewed season after season.  Supergirl’s ratings do not justify renewal.

CBS is currently home to The Good Wife.  This show is entering its seventh and final season.  Despite its ratings slide over seven years, The Good Wife still has higher ratings than Supergirl.  The Good Wife premiered to an audience of 13.71 million viewers.  And over the years it lost viewers as most shows do.  It has lost so many viewers that its most recent episode, February 21^st, 2016’s “Targets” only had an audience of 7.91 million.  In contrast, Supergirl premiered to an audience of 12.95 million and is down to 6.69 in fourteen episodes.  In other words, Supergirl has lost in just fourteen episodes the number of viewers it took The Good Wife seven seasons to lose.

Compounding this problem for Supergirl is the cost of ad space on her show.  As previously mentioned, a 30 second spot on NCIS is worth $151,738 and the same commercial time during Supergirl is worth $147,933.  So while commercial time during NCIS and Supergirl are close in value, their audience sizes are completely different.  For example, NCIS’s 15^th episode for the 2015-2016 year was watched by 17.335 million viewers, Supergirl’s 15^th episode 6.69 million people.  This means that if someone were to pay to advertise on Supergirl, that product would be exposed to less than half the number of people watching NCIS.  An examining of the 18 to 49 demographics reveals a similar problem.  For the fifteenth episode of Supergirl and NCIS, Supergirl was watched by 1.39 million people between 18 and 49 while NCIS was watched by 2.32 million.  When discussing the 18 to 49 demographic, this is a huge difference in viewership.

This leaves CBS with two options: sell advertising on Supergirl for half of what they can get from a different program or cancel the show and replace with something that has a better return on investment.

Now that I brought up the 18 to 49 demo, let’s take a moment to examine the key demographic viewership numbers of CBS’s top shows. (Figure 5).

Upon looking at this chart for the first time I noticed two things.  One, The Big Bang Theory’s is a juggernaut.  In regards to the key demographic viewership numbers, no show comes close to The Big Bang Theory.

Two, Supergirl’s key demo ratings have also dropped substantially.  The last episode of Angel from Hell before it was canceled had 1.36 million key demo viewers; Supergirl’s sixteenth episode only had 1.3 million.  In contrast, Life in Pieces is another new show on CBS and while it did drop in ratings after its first episode, the numbers have gotten better over the season.  As of episode three, Life in Pieces has consistently had higher key demo ratings than Supergirl.  Supergirl’s key demo ratings have fallen so far that they are line with those of NCIS: LA (season 7) and Blue Bloods (season 6) – this is not a good thing for a freshman show.  The fact that Supergirl’s key demo numbers are also in line with shows that have been slowly losing viewers for years is a sign that Supergirl’s ratings will only get worse.

CBS has already canceled Angel from Hell for low ratings.  It seems like Limitless will also be on the chopping block for its ratings decline.  And based on ratings only, it seems that Supergirl will not be a viable investment for the network and CBS will have a justification for its cancellation.

Star Trek is Coming

Sometimes networks keep low rated shows around if they have nothing to replace it with.  As this Today article titled ‘The shows that won’t die are back’ states, “A lot of sitcoms might keep staggering along, zombie-like, because the network has nothing with which to replace them.”  Supergirl won’t be able to benefit from this because CBS does have a genre show in development, Star Trek.

Being developed for CBS All-Access and the 2017-2018 season, the new Star Trek series is being helmed by critically acclaimed and fan favorite Bryan Fuller. CBS wants All Access to be their version of HBO Go. As a paid streaming service, CBS All Access is CBS’s response to people cutting the cord on traditional cable packages.

Given how expensive a special effects heavy show like Star Trek can be, canceling Supergirl would allow CBS to invest more money into Star Trek’s production and advertisement. After all, if CBS wants CBS All Access to be its version of HBO Go, then it needs to spend the money to make Star Trek its Game of Thrones.

What about moving to The CW or a Streaming Service?

So you’ve accepted that Supergirl’s ratings justify CBS giving up on it, but you are hoping that the show might get moved to The CW or another network.

Well, let me squash that dream for you.

Supergirl costs a lot more money to make than Arrow or The Flash. The CW is known for having tight budgets so if Supergirl did shift from CBS to The CW, the show would have to make drastic changes to its budget. So either everyone takes a huge pay cut, several characters are axed from the show, the series has more stories that wouldn’t rely on special effects, or a combination of the three. Personally, I don’t see any of these things happening. (However, I could easily see Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl being transferred over to The Flash, and I expand on this later.)

Additionally, networks rarely want to take on a show that has failed elsewhere. It does happen but network executives are reluctant to take on another network’s mistake.

This would also make it difficult for Supergirl to move to streaming services. Netflix already has a developmental deal with Marvel Comics, so it will most likely be contractually blocked from making a deal with a comic book property from one of Marvel’s competitors. More importantly, Marvel and Disney do not like to share with competitors. Beyond that, streaming services like producing original content. And there is no reason for them to produce more Supergirl episodes for the show’s dwindling audience when a streaming service can just as easily develop a new show without the baggage of low ratings.

Flawed Narrative Foundations – Poorly Delivered Feminism and Flawed Concepts

One of the reasons why I think Supergirl’s ratings are declining is because the overall narrative has been flawed from the beginning. I think the acting is good, Melissa Benoist is fantastic in her role, and much of the dialogue is well delivered and feels true to the characters. However, there is nothing about the show that makes it must see television. And I think this has to do with the show’s feminism and producers not knowing what they wanted the show to be.

Before diving into a discussion of feminism, I want to share that in addition to considering myself a feminist, I have also spent years studying the representation of women in media. (Remember, the whole doctorate thing.) With that said, Supergirl was billed as a feminist show for today’s audiences. The Washington Post wrote a piece titled “Supergirl’s creators lean into their show’s feminism” and Vulture wrote a great article titled “Supergirl is a smart, feminist series (and that’s why some people won’t watch it).”

Even Melissa Benoist described Supergirl as being a feminist when she was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The Vulture piece, written by Matt Zoller Seitz, points out that some people aren’t going to give this show a chance because of its feminism. A statement that is sadly true. Grace Randolph – who has written for DC Comics, Marvel, and has authored the fantastic comic book series Supurbia – reviews every episode of Supergirl on her YouTube channel, Beyond the Trailer. One of the critiques that she has of Supergirl is that the feminism is frequently too heavy-handed.

However, I think the show is struggling to adapt the feminism of the 2010s to a concept from the 1950s/1960s. In Supergirl’s first episode, Cat Grant (played by Calista Fllockhart) decides to name Superman’s cousin Supergirl. Kara Danvers aka Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl confronts Cat Grant about this and says, “If we call her “Supergirl”, something less than what she is, doesn’t that make us guilty of, of being anti-feminist? Didn’t you say she’s the hero?”

Cat Grant defends her decision to call her Supergirl instead of Superwoman by stating: “And what do you think is so bad about ‘Girl?’ Huh? I’m a girl. And your boss, and powerful, and rich, and hot and smart. So if you perceive ‘Supergirl’ as anything less than excellent, isn’t the real problem you?” This line is the producers’ attempt to justify the Supergirl title. And it is a failure, in my opinion, because the correct answer to Cat Grant’s question is no, because Cat Grant is wrong.

Giving a woman in her mid-twenties a title that has ‘girl’ in it is offensive and demeaning to that woman. There are women in the Marines. If someone called them Marine-girls everyone would know that was disrespectful. If a woman in the Army was called solider-girl, everyone would know that was disrespectful. If a female police officer was called a police-girl, everyone would know that was disrespectful. The creators of this show want us to see Supergirl as equal to Superman, but they fail to do that from the beginning with an unsuccessful attempt to justify the name.

Cat Grant’s argument for calling Kara Supergirl is further undercut in episode 16, “Falling.” In the beginning of this episode Cat Grant appears on CBS’s show The Talk[5] and she is asked “What does it feel like to be the most powerful woman in National City?” To which Cat answers by stating, “that is a total misnomer because no one is calling me ‘the most powerful woman.’ I believe they are calling me the most powerful person.” Though the line is supposed to be received as a sign that Cat Grant is more powerful than the demeaning qualify of “for a woman”[6] and doesn’t want her accomplishments limited to the category of her gender, her response is in direct contradiction to her justifications for calling Kara Supergirl.

Though Cat’s desire to just be seen as a powerful person instead of just a powerful woman is a discrepancy that can be written off as Cat’s ego demanding respect, that argument doesn’t work. Cat isn’t an unjustified narcissist – she has an ego that she’s earned over the course of her career. More importantly, she’s not a hypocrite. As such, this discrepancy seems to be the result of the writers not being consistent with how they want to define Cat’s feminist stances.

I know that the producers had to think of a way to justify calling Kara Supergirl because ‘Supergirl’ is an established brand, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Cat Grant quote came off as tone deaf. Moreover, the pilot episode and subsequent installments have never addressed any issue relevant to 21^st century feminist. Supergirl isn’t a show that will ever tackle pay inequality, sex trafficking, street harassment, or a myriad of other issues that have been addressed on other CBS shows. And that’s because at its core, Supergirl is a feminist show in style but not in substance.

Hell, take away Kara’s powers and she’s just another quirky assistant who dresses like a librarian and is trying to find love in a big city. And while there is nothing wrong with a show centering on a character like that, it isn’t a show worthy of the progressive feminist praise that has been layered onto Supergirl.

The Superman Problem

Reflecting on Supergirl it becomes more apparent that a growing flaw with the show is Superman himself. Superman briefly appears in the pilot episode and quickly appears in the third episode “Fight or Flight” to save Kara from a fight with a super villain. Additionally, Superman is brought up in dialogue in most of the episodes.

This is a problem for two reasons. One, it means that viewers are never really concerned about Kara’s safety. If Supergirl encounters a problem too big to solve, she can just call on Superman to help. Two, it unnecessarily complicates the show’s narratives.

For instance, there are now evil Kryptonians on Earth who are plotting…something. Why hasn’t someone let Superman know about this? Max Lord figures out how to turn humans into Kryptonian clones. Shouldn’t someone tell Superman about this?

I don’t know how these problems would be expressed via emojis but these seem like problems Superman needs to be made aware of. And because these problems are never explicitly addressed, they just eat away at the internal logic of the show.

Superman would obviously cast a large shadow over Supergirl in any medium, but Supergirl’s handling of this character highlights that the show doesn’t have a clear identity of its own. If this is the story of Supergirl learning how to become a superhero then she needs to have Superman and other heroes of his caliber help guide her. If the show is about Kara coming into her own identity, then references to Superman, his allies (James Olsen), and his feats (saving an airplane) should have never been written in.

There is an audience for a show based on a strong female comic book character, it just seems that Supergirl doesn’t know how to be that show. And I think these problems are causing the series to lose viewers.

What I would have done? A Refugee and a New Age of Heroes with no Superman

While developing this article I sought out feedback from colleagues and peers. One question that I frequently got was what I would have done differently. So here are the changes I would have made.

First, I would have explicitly depicted Kara as a refugee. By this I mean that she did come to Earth because her planet was wiped out by a natural disaster and she is one of the only two Kryptonians left. While Supergirl depicts Kara as a somewhat well adjusted adult who has friends and lives a fairly emotionally healthy life, I would have had Kara’s isolation from her people limit her emotional attachment to Earth.  Superman was raised on Earth and doesn’t have nearly the emotional connection to Krypton that Kara would have. As such, I would have Kara largely detached from humanity with the only people she’s emotionally invested in being Superman and her adopted family. (The relationship she has with her foster sister is one of the best parts of Supergirl.)

Second, I would have had Superman removed from Earth by the end of the first act in the first episode. In this story, Superman would have trained Kara on the weekends so that she knew how to control her powers. And while he never pushed her to become a hero, he wanted to prepare her in case the world ever needed another being with Kryptonian superpowers. This would mean that she was fully trained for metahuman combat as well. Uninterested in becoming a hero as she becomes a young adult, Kara goes to college with little desire to put on a cape.

Then a crisis in deep space would begin. It would be a battle for all reality. To save the universe, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and their superhero peers would all leave Earth to fight in this conflict. Knowing that the whole of creation is at stake, Lex Luthor also convinces all of Earth’s supervillains to leave the Earth with him and fight alongside the heroes. Lex wants to rule the world, but knows that the world might not exist if the war is lost. With the solar system cloaked to protect it from alien invaders and no major supervillains around, the world actually enjoys several years of relative peace…until new villains rise.

Third, Alex Danvers (Kara’s foster sister) would be the one that pushes Kara (now 20 or 21 years old) to become a hero. As an agent in the Department of Extra-Normal Operations, Alex would be aware of rising metahuman activity – both good and evil. Realizing that this new generation of metahumans needs a leader, Alex would encourage Kara to put on the S. I imagine that although Kara would be reluctant at first she would eventually accept the responsibility after she learns of Fort Rozz and its connection to her.

Fourth, the final scene of the pilot will be a flash forward to several years into the future. With a newscaster’s voice over explaining that an alien attack on Earth was stopped, but now the world is wondering if Superwoman is dead.

This setup and ending provides much of what I feel Supergirl needs as a series. It gives the series a story arc for season one (Fort Rozz) and the entire series (the Crisis coming to Earth). It also solves the problem with calling her Supergirl. She first accepts the name because she’s not attached to the idea of becoming a hero, but the ending flash forward communicates that at some point she grows to see the importance of her legacy and becomes Superwoman. It also gives her a clear arc for emotional growth. Instead of her having to develop her confidence as if she was in a teen-movie, she will grow to see that humanity is worth fighting and dying for.

Saving Melissa Benoist’s Supergirl

As I mentioned above, Melissa Benoist’s portrayal of Supergirl has been perfect. So if the show were to end it would be a shame if her version of the character ended as well. As such, I think that the character should be carried over to the Arrowverse.

With the upcoming episode of Supergirl, “World’s Finest,” to feature a guest appearance by the Flash, viewers know that characters can move from one parallel reality to the next. Supergirl has also introduced viewers to the idea of aliens being trapped in the Phantom Zone.

So here’s how I think Supergirl should be brought to the Arrowverse. A villain decides to create a device that will bring all the aliens and creatures trapped in the Phantom Zone to Earth. In the process of stopping this villain, the device becomes unstable and will blow up. Supergirl grabs the device and flies far enough above the city so that when it detonates no one is injured. Unfortunately, Supergirl disappears and is presumed dead.

Similar to The Flash’s explosion at Star Labs, this explosion exposes dozens of people to exotic matter that causes them to become metahumans. Realizing that metahumans are appearing across the world, Alex (Supergirl’s adopted sister) and the DEO decide to find these superpowered beings and train them in the use of their powers. The show will feature a montage of Alex finding people who have used their new powers in heroic ways. Asking why they acted like heroes they all (boys and girls, and men and women from all races) respond with the same statement, “because I want to be just like Supergirl.” Cutting back to Supergirl as the bomb goes off. We see her scream in pain and then begin to fall back to Earth. Kara crashes near a sign that says “Welcome to Central City, Home of The Flash.” Kara, grateful that Star Labs took her in, could take on the last name of Starr for her new identity, and become Karen Starr – the civilian identity for Power Woman (not Power Girl) of Earth 1.

This ending allows Supergirl to have built a legacy during her short career as a hero, and provides a means for creators to have a fresh start with her.

Concluding Thoughts

Re-watching Supergirl for this article I couldn’t help but notice better stories just lingering beneath the surface – begging to be brought forth with slight changes. Given that we are now in another golden age of television because of the high quality writing on TV, a show having only the potential to be great but not delivering on it just isn’t good enough. When reading reviews of and talking to my friends about Supergirl, I am always surprised by the number of people who state that they wish the show would have gone in some other direction.

And I think that’s the primary problem with Supergirl. With no real identity, with no real center, it is a show that does little to get people to believe that a woman can fly.

In addition to commenting below, feel free to argue with me on twitter @nicholasyanes.

UPDATE: What About the Ratings Bump from the Supergirl/Flash Crossover?

This article has been in development for a while and scheduled to go up after the Supergirl/Flash crossover aired a few days ago. Instead of having to rewrite portions of the article, I wanted to address the ratings increase here.

First, the ratings did increase. It was viewed by a total of 7.240 million people, and 1.70 million were in the key demo. The last episode only had a total of 5.995 million people with 1.29 million in the key demo. Sadly, this doesn’t say much for Supergirl’s future.

CBS invested a lot in hyping this crossover and fans of The Flash are incredibly loyal. So it makes sense that the ratings would jump for this event but the only way to determine if this event is a success or not will be to look at the ratings for the next two episodes. If Supergirl can hold on to this audience, CBS will have reason to renew. After all, similar to how a great ending can save a bad movie, good ratings at the end of a season can save a show with disappointing numbers.

The ratings increase does reveal something troubling about the show. Supergirl is a well funded show on the most watched network in the United States. If the show can only get a ratings bump by having a male character from another network appear, it communicates that Supergirl can’t thrive with the cast it currently has.

Notes

[1] To examine the ratings for Supergirl, I’ve decided to turn to TVSeriesFinale.com’s entry for Supergirl.  This website does a fantastic job of cataloguing a show’s ratings – both in total and in the 18-49 demographic.  I am not going to focus on DVR and Streaming numbers because advertisers – the entities that largely determine if a network buys/renews a show or not – are primarily concerned with live viewership numbers.

[2] “What is the 18-49 demographic, and why does it matter?” you ask. Well, great question. The 18-49 age range is the key demographic for a show because it includes – in theory – people with more disposable income than other members of the audience. Given that advertisers want people to buy their products, it is important for ad supported shows to be watched by people with disposable income.

[3] So what I mean by “this argument” is that whenever there is a discussion about a non-CW comic book TV show’s ratings, someone will always bring up the argument that it is okay if a show has low ratings because CW’s comic book shows have equal or lesser ratings.  This argument is flawed because it shows that the person making it doesn’t understand how separate networks rely on different levels of ratings to make a profit.

[4] These top 12 scripted shows on CBS for the 2015-2016 season being NCIS (season 13),Big Bang Theory (season 9), NCIS: New Orleans (season 2), Blue Bloods (season 6),Madam Secretary (season 2), Scorpion (season 2), Hawaii Five-0 (season 6), Life in Pieces (season 1), Criminal Minds (season 11), NCIS: Los Angeles (season 7), The Good Wife (season 7 and already announced as its last season), and Supergirl (season 1).

[5] The Talk is CBS’s version of ABC’s The View.

[6] By this, I am referring to sexist statements that undercut a woman’s accomplishments by stating a woman’s success but then diminishing them by finishing the line with “for a woman.”