Superman & Lois Finale: CW Boss Teases ‘Cliffhanger’ Ending Amid Ominous Renewal Chatter
As the future of Superman & Lois hangs in the balance, The CW‘s top entertainment exec is teasing that the series’ upcoming Season 3 finale will likely leave fans wanting more. [pmc_inline_gallery]
“The ending this season is amazing,” network president Brad Schwartz gushed to TVLine Thursday at The CW’s fall schedule presser in New York. “You’ve got some Lex Luthor in there…. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but the end of the season is great — and it’s got a bit of a cliffhanger.”
Schwartz’ finale tease came just moments after he weighed in on the show’s very uncertain fate, acknowledging to reporters that while Superman & Lois remains creatively “very strong,” it’s “expensive [and] doesn’t make money for us.”
What’s more, Schwartz noted, “We don’t have the rights to the prior seasons. You need to have a library [for people to find a show]… and the prior seasons are [on HBO Max].”
A decision on whether Superman & Lois will live to see a fourth season (as well as the fate of fellow bubble shows Gotham Knights and All American: Homecoming) will be made “sooner [rather] than later,” Schwartz promised. (Keep tabs on TVLine’s Renewal Scorecard for all the latest intel on pickups/cancellations.)
Superman & Lois’ season (or series?) finale is set to air Tuesday, June 27.
His words point to them not renewing it so the cliffhanger is not a good thing unless Max renews it
There is some rumors circulating that if the CW cancels Superman & Lois that Max could potentially pick up season 4.
I don’t know if MAX is going to save this show. But it is most definitely getting cancelled. Expensive and CW has no rights to previous seasons. But MAX might not float the money for it since they cancelled all of DC shows on their service as well. Consider this season finale the series finale. Shame too.
That’s not what James Gunn and Peter Safran said: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/superman-and-lois-one-or-two-more-seasons-james-gunn-peter-safran-1235506971/
They aren’t in charge of the CW or WB
They aren’t in charge of The CW, of course. They will have no say on if The CW cancels it or not. But while they dont have final say at WB or MAX, their status at the bosses of DC will give them a LOT of influence on what WB does after The CW cancels it. Maybe not all the influence, or the final say. But a lot.
That being said, despite the quote above, expect them to use their influence to can the project like all these other cool projects that have been canned. They want everything as unified in their DC world as possible.
They are not in charge of CW but Gunn is in charge of all WB DC projects.
When Gunn said one or two more seasons left the current season had not started so technically we got one of the two seasons he was talking about
HBO/Max aren’t getting rid of all their DC shows – they’re getting rid of the previous generation (Titans and Doom Patrol) but keeping the newer/in development stuff. There’s literally half a dozen upcoming DC shows on HBO, including things like Peacemaker season 2, The Penguin, Green Lanterns, a whole slew of animated stuff and a slow introduction to the more supernatural side that could very well still be building to Justice League Dark (though JLD itself was cancelled in feb)
That doesn’t make sense as They also cancelled Stargirl
Superman and Lois IS Previous generation stuff and not new. They are going to concentrate on The Penguin, Arkham Asylum tv series and Maybe Peacemaker and the DCU Films
Plus they’re going to try to get content to get in newer subscribers not people who already have Max and there’s not enough Superman and Lois fans to keep the CW fafoat when it was on air to put it on Max.
Plus there’s no collectibles from the TV show either to help make its money you got to think of it this way a lot of this corporations that do films and TV shows they try to make extra money by selling Collectibles like action figures based on those characters.
You can say you that it’s not true but remember Batman Returns with Michelle Pfeiffer they couldn’t make action figures based on the film because it was kind of scary for children which is why in Batman Forever and in Batman and Robin they had a lighten the tone to sell action figures and vehicles. Not unlike the MCU and Spider-Man films
So don’t get your hopes too high I doubt Max is going to take an old show and make new content when there’s no money to be made.
I seam to recall that when S&L originally debuted on CW there was Talk up until the first Episode Broadcast that the WB people were debating about whether to Hold and Use it as an anchor show on the Streamer (with the merge & Purge I’ve lost track of what it was even branded as back then)
If the right exec still has his office they might still have the faith in it… and seeing as they have made multiple plot and casting Decisions (beyond Walsh as Gen. Lane) that distance it from CW’s Arrowverse proper it’s not as strong tied to that legacy as one might have assumed…
** plans can always change but if they were just going to ‘cut bait’ why bother with a season 3 at all seeing as they had to recast Jon; AND they announced their casting of Cudlitz to replace Cryer as Lex quite early in the season… they could have easily spun some PR halting production until the other actor gets better, then woops, we canceled it
Setting up a cliffhanger ending amidst all the turmoil at the network was a stupid gamble, same as what happened with Legends of Tomorrow. Apparently, showrunners never learn.
They still think that viewers will return more consistently if they put cliffhangers on their finales. They may even think it will help their odds for renewal. Networks really don’t care if they cancel a show that ended with a cliffhanger, they have proven as much. These days I much prefer shows that close off their seasons with answers and solutions. If there is another season I’m even more tempted to tune in because of it.
The Thing is as much as people want to put a spin on it Superman and Lois from the very first episode to the second lost 500,000 viewers it is barely sustaining viewership, it’s bleeding viewers with each new season and every new episode only 550,000 viewers are tuning in to Superman Lois in season 3.
So think about it if they’re going to do a new Superman movie with a new cast of actors I don’t think they want a TV version of Superman and a movie version of Superman and expect to sell a bunch of tickets in theaters when people are getting Superman for free on TV.
Let’s not forget that’s what happened with the MCU with the oversaturation of TV shows and movies they’re hardly making billions of dollars in the box office. Less content is better not double up on everything
Imagine two live Batman films and 3 live action Jokers May be a horrible idea and backfire on the studios
I’m hoping we get one and preferably two more seasons of Superman & Lois at Max (airing first half of 2024 & first half of 2025, with the next movie July 2025), possible with a bigger budget… and that Gotham Knights, which has surprised me how much I like it, is able to continue on The CW.
I will watch because I started it, but this is no way to treat fans.
James Gunn will save it…
With his own money? That’s very generous of him.
Iyrsh some fans don’t understand how this works sadly
Like he saved DOOM PATROL?
The ONLY pre-Gunn projects that Gunn has shown any interest in are BLUE BEETLE and THE FLASH.
Agreed
James Gunn pretty much said he wasn’t going to end it- as in if The CW wanted to buy another season then WB would allow it to continue. That’s not the same thing as him promising Max would pick it up and pay for it.
You do understand that James Gunn doesn’t own CW or Max right? they hired him just to head the film division not the entire thing of TV shows from the CW.
I truly don’t understand where people are thinking like James Gunn is all of a sudden a a miracle worker Stargirl was a very good show that got canceled they’re not going to save a dying series to put on Max read between the lines it cost a lot of money they’re not going to spend so much money on a TV show and then spend so much money on a movie based on the same Superhero
It’s highly unlikely
I highly doubt James Gunn is God
Don’t set yourself up for disappointment
No, absolutely not. Do not make the same mistake legends of tomorrow did
Dang, not another cancellation on a cliffhanger! I truly hope S&L is not cancelled, but all signs point to yes. I really don’t appreciate a showrunner that leaves their loyal fans in this position.
The loyal fans only amounts to 550,000 viewers per week. That’s not a lot
I have been imagining since I heard Lex was coming in on the heels of this whole Intergang story that the show is likely to actually seemingly complete its own storyline but that it will have almost like a post credit scene where it more or less introduces Darkseid. Sort of like a gauntlet, like, hey you like how we have been handling this, we can do Darkseid better so its like a palate cleanser. But I also fear that is what makes it more expensive sounding.
The CW has one of the best shows on television here. But the network seems to be content with mediocrity in addition to making programming decisions that alienate nearly their entire viewer base.
Best show on television? Superman & Lois, with its CW tier CGI and daytime soap level writing staff? I think not.
It definetly is on of the best shows on tv especially when you consider it’s genre , this show definetely has better than CW tier CGI
far better than the Flash or Supergirl
daytime soap opera level writing
the shows writing whilst it stumbled in season 2 is typically far better that daytime soap writing
Superman has always had soap opera tendencies as a series
– Lois not knowing she is dating her crush before she finds out Clark is Superman
-Lex and Clark having a clone baby Conner
-Clark having a long lost cousin Kara
-Lois always geting herseld in danger e.t.c…
superhero comics were the original soap operas
You’re being disingenuous because the first episode of Supergirl on CBS had better CGI than the lacking color Superman and Lois.
I’m sorry but I’ve watched clips on YouTube and you can tell that it’s bad CGI now Superman and Lois. They keep it very dark looking in purpose to camouflage the cheap CGI
I agree beuth you. I tried watching the first episode of Superman and Lois and the Jordan character (Not Even a Comics character minc you) was kind of annoying and Lois was a bit grating if you ask me. I stopped watching after the first episode. So did 500k other viewers
The first episode had 1.7 mili viewers and the second episode had 1.2. million viewers. In season 3 550k viewers in the last episode
It means that whoever started watching it from day one couldn’t keep interest enough to keep tuning in. And people can talk about about the long hiatuses “ruining” that but it didn’t hurt The Flash and he had more episodes thxn Superman and Lois
We also need to keep in mind that it costs way more money to do a Superman and Lois episode than it does The Flash
If the CW does cancel the show, I hope Max does pick it up. I hope Gunn and Safron don’t interfere.
Tyler Hoechlin is my favorite iteration of Superman since Christopher Reeve. Yes including Cavill.
Same. He’s such a great fit, both as Supes and Clark
But the people that make the show said they filmed two finales…is that not true?
The Cw used to be one of the best cable networks on the air. They had great shows and were not afraid to let a lower rated series run until it caught on (Supernatural took a few years before it basically became their biggest moneymaker) However due to poor investments or embezzlement on some ones part, they are now broke and have basically cancelled their entire lineup. If they don’t do something soon this will turn into a reality/infomercial channel, if it doesn’t go away entirely.
What happened is they ended the netflix deal that was making them a ton of money in order to put the shows on HBO MAX and Paramount Plus… the network itself never made money.
What I don’t get is why then that putting the shows on HBO Max and Paramount Plus thing seems to have fallen apart with nobody making any effort to save it (or even, heaven forbid, negotiating a new deal with Netflix….).
I’d still like to know what the deal is with that…..
I’ll admit I don’t care if this gets renewed. But one of the things I’m looking at and from what I can understand from the picture is that everyone is super worried about Lois’ cancer….but why? This is Superman. He has the ability to zero in on every cancer cell and zap it. Have they mentioned that in the show? Cuz it looks like false drama.
I don’t know if they specifically mentioned him being able to use his own powers, but I believe Lois and Clark have mentioned on the show that they feel it’d be unfair if she gets the benefit of technology unavailable to everyone else who’s living with cancer. Plus there being other potential unforeseen side effects that could leave her worse off.
Why give the fans what they want? Just keep adding shows and not renew the good ones. Stop keeping us in limbo.
after this season no body want from CW more
they taking the good from any superhero or show they touch
If Superman and Lois is cancelled, then that’s the end of the CW for me. It used to be a place for my steady watching of Smallville, Buffy, Veronica Mars, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, Gilmore Girls, Stargirl, etc.
I’m torn on this one. The acting (especially TH and ET) has been top notch, but the story is depressing as heck. By the time they got to the harassment of Pia, I just couldn’t take any more. If they ended the season with Pia ringing the bell, I would have been better than satisfied. When they continued with a hit piece about the Manheims, I was out.
Me and my son love watching superman and Lois. We hope CW will please do a season 4. Thanks you
At least close out Superman and Lois and don’t leave those of us that love the show hanging forever. I hope the CW changes it’s decision and the show returns next year but if it’s not going to please finish it without a cliffhanger.
Just leave the series alone! I would love to meet these people who decide the fate of shows that are worth being in TV. Now…a suggestion would be take off all the stupid reality shows!
We need a 5th season or more of S&L. it’s my favorite show and deserves better!