Supergirl has met the one foe no television hero can ultimately defeat – declining ratings.
The CW has announced that superhero series starring Melissa Benoist as Superman’s cousin Supergirl will be wrapping up its run at the end of its upcoming sixth season.
According to reports, the decision came about due to a number of factors including production schedule delays due to coronavirus-related issues and declining ratings, leading producers to decide to end the show’s run while it was still performing relatively well.
Production on Supergirl‘s sixth, and now finally, season is expected to begin next week in Vancouver, pending a deal that would require local unions to comply with the Screen Actors Guild’s coronavirus safety measures.
This final season will run 20 episodes, longer than most other scripted dramas are expected to deliver due to pandemic-related production slowdowns. The season will premier at some point early in the new year.
Supergirl premiered on CBS in the fall of 2015. Initially it was stated that the show would remain separate from the growing interconnected DC Comics superhero shows overseen by producer Greg Berlanti on the CW network, but before it finished it first season run, there was already a crossover featuring Grant Gustin’s Flash traveling to Supergirl’s National City for a team-up with the Maid of Might. CBS decided to drop the series after that first season, but CW scooped it up for their own lineup. Although her show took place on an alternate dimension Earth from the rest of Arrowverse series, Supergirl herself still managed to find her way into the franchise’s annual team-up crossover events. It was during this past season’s event, Crisis On Infinite Earths, that Supergirl’s National City became integrated with the rest of the series.
Supergirl‘s cancellation marks the second Arrowverse series to close down following Arrow‘s final bow which concluded its eight year run earlier this year.
