The CW is not gaining any fans in DC’s Stargirl fans. Instead, the series has just debuted its Season 3 premiere and has received limited promotion. Over the weekend, Shawn McBee, the host of the Stargirl Aftershow podcast, attended the fan convention DragonCon with Yvette Monreal (Yolanda/Wildcat), Trae Romano (Mike), Alkoya Brunson (Jakeem) and Anjelika Washington (Beth/Doctor Midnite) where they were questioned by DOZENS of fans about when the new Season was starting. Also, the fans are not happy about the lack of promotion either.
Shawn added the following tweet:
Shawn’s frustration is warranted as it feels like The CW is hoping Stargirl‘s ratings fall enough that they can cancel it. In recent months, many shows have been cut from The CW’s programming to want to ‘trim away the dead weight’ and preserve money so that the network could be sold.
Promotion is vital for every piece of media out there, and while ratings are not always crucial, it feels like a dirty game is being played by the lack thereof for Stargirl. Syfy played a similar game with Krypton a few years back. The first Season was a smashing success. Then the ratings plummeted to the point the series was cancelled two days after the Season two finale. We believe Syfy wanted to cancel the series, so they put it in a timeslot where no one would be watching and did limited promotion for it. But, of course, this is OUR OPINION.
However, we need to point out something that we found last week. Despite being on top of the charts for that night, the premiere episode is not the lowest-rated episode in the series.
Riverdale’s Ratings
As you can see from the screenshot above, Season 2 episodes 8 and 9 were the lowest of the series thus far. The episodes then jumped up in the episodes after that. We’ve also seen shows with far lower views that have been renewed. One example is Riverdale.
The figures in the screenshot above are from some of Riverdale‘s penultimate Season. The final Season is airing next year. As you can see, the series has suffered in its ratings; however, given its popularity elsewhere, it has been renewed each year. From what we’ve read, Riverdale is increasingly popular in Australia, where it airs on Netflix.
The stats above are from Riverdale Season 5, which are far better than they were for Season 6. Moreover, the whole reason why the show got a final season is due to how people what the show outside of the live viewers.
Stargirl Views
From what we’ve heard, Stargirl gets high views on HBO Max. AirricksReloaded and Pagey have both said that the series (they believe) is safe from cancellation. There are a few reasons for this; these are just our thoughts.
The first reason is because of streaming numbers. While the DVR numbers are not always available, The CW app counts for a large portion of the episode views. Then there is HBO Max, Foxtel Now, Binge Amazon Prime, and wherever else the show streams.
Our second reason has to do with Visual Effects. Unlike The Flash and Superman & Lois, Stargirl doesn’t have a high amount of VFX shots. Also, it was referenced that the Doctor Midnite goggles now light up on their own and are not VFX shots outside of when we see what Beth sees on the screen or what it projects.
Point three is that the buyout was going on before the premiere was given a release date. Therefore, it could not be included in the culling of shows as they had not aired. The same happened with Tom Swift. It was only axed after receiving horrible ratings during its only Season. We believe it would’ve been given the flick if it had been.
Finally, point four is that The CW has no way of predicting how well Gotham Knights will do when it airs in 2023. Fans have already decided to boycott the show after the cancellation of Batwoman. With The Flash ending, Superman & Lois will be the only DC show on the network if Stargirl and Gotham Knights are cut. We addressed this in a previous article.
Conclusion
In conclusion, The CW needs to promote Stargirl more. Posting videos to The CW YouTube channel and hoping people are watching isn’t a promotion. It’s doing the bare minimum and hoping fans keep on top of the release dates themselves. They need to consider that not all people have access to a streaming service or the internet. How is the show supposed to succeed without promotion?
