The Winchesters are on a hunt… for a new home.
Following today’s news that the Supernatural prequel spinoff has been cancelled at The CW after just one season, executive producer Jensen Ackles tweeted on Thursday afternoon, “Looks like we got work to do. #SaveTheWinchesters #spnfamily”
The message suggests that the show could wind up at another outlet for a potential second season with enough fan support. Our sister site Deadline also reports that Warner Bros. TV, which produces The Winchesters, is shopping the offshoot in the hopes of finding it a new home base. (Ackles’ former Supernatural co-star Jared Padalecki is facing a similar situation with Walker Independence, which he exec-produces, telling TVLine that the prequel spinoff is “aggressively looking” for a place to land following its cancellation.)
Ackles also shared the following video featuring the cast rallying fans to use the hashtag #SaveTheWinchesters:
And we’re off…#SaveTheWinchesters pic.twitter.com/9EAIJpblFd
— Jensen Ackles (@JensenAckles) May 12, 2023
The Winchesters‘ freshman season averaged 790,000 total viewers and a 0.2 demo rating (with Live+7 playback). Out of the 14 dramas that The CW aired this TV season, it ranks No. 7 in audience and is a five-way tie for No. 2 in the demo (trailing only All American).
“As we reimagine the new CW, we had to make some tough programming decisions,” the network said in a statement. “We thank our partners at Warner Bros. and the casts and creative teams of Kung Fu” — the supernatural martial arts drama was also axed — “and The Winchesters for all their hard work, creativity and dedication.”
The Winchesters‘ finale, which aired March 7, featured appearances from Ackles as Dean Winchester, as well as Supernatural vets Jim Beaver (as hunter Bobby Singer) and Alexander Calvert (as Heaven’s new God, Jack). In the episode, Dean explained that when he got to Heaven, he took his beloved Impala for a drive through the multiverse, looking for an Earth where his family had a shot at a happy ending. After catching wind of the Akrida and its potential threat to the Earth where Sam was still living, he gave John the letter from his father Henry Winchester to nudge him in the right direction, and thus, he met Mary and became a hunter.
During a finale interview, showrunner Robbie Thompson told TVLine, “There’s so much more story to tell about where these two kids go. And because now, as Dean says at the end of the episode, they have a chance to write their own story that doesn’t have to be necessarily what happened on our version of Supernatural, we have an opportunity to really go into some interesting places.”
Among the broadcast shows still on the bubble are The CW’s All American: Homecoming, Gotham Knights and Superman & Lois. Check out TVLine’s Renewal Scorecard for the latest intel on those series and many others.
Of course Warner Brothers is trying to find it a new home – they don’t make a profit if they just let it die. But that doesn’t mean it actually has a chance of getting anywhere, bc honestly what is the financial appeal of this show? There isn’t one. It’s an absolute money sink with no profitable return, and in an age of dying network TV, amidst a writers’ strike? No one is going to pay money to pick it up. And money’s all that matters in Hollywood. Good luck to Ackles, but so long, Winchester’s, for good, in my honest assessment of the situation.
Maybe on Max???
You mean the one that barely exists anymore?
This is a question not a statement. Isn’t it a bad sign that even though Warner owns HBO it won’t make the show for Max? I cannot see Netflix or Prime picking it up if they don’t produce it as well. CBS might be tempted as they used to partially own the CW, but without the supernatural catalog I don’t see it. I highly doubt any of the other big 4 want a show that low in the demo, and I don’t see a cable channel picking it up. The only real hope is Max and that doesn’t appear to be happening.
Since Warner Bros owns the rights to Supernatural I doubt they will let the franchise go to any other streaming service without someone paying a substantial amount of money. It’s only hope is Max.
If it did get picked up by a cable network, the things they would be able to do. I remember Jensen saying, in an interview, once that if Supernatural had been made in a network like HBO they would probably have a lot more gore, cursing . . . and nudity.
Happy hunting Ackles.
The series started out well and if you were a Supernatural fan it seemed like a grat idea. Unfortunately, I got bored rather quickly. It just wasn’t interesting, which is a shame because there’s a lot of potential and the 2 leaders were actually very good.
Maybe Syfy will save it? I would love to see a season 2. I’m officially cancelling TheCW.
I am a huge Supernatural fan. I own all 15 seasons on Blu-Ray. But I’m sorry, The Winchesters was just not good in my opinion. I watched the entire season, and I am not at all disappointed that it wasn’t renewed.
DITTO to this whole statement.
Yep
Agree. I watched SPN when it first aired on CW, caught reruns on TNT weekday mornings, and binged watched it several times on Netflix. I could not get into this spinoff (didn’t last past the second commrecial break of the pilot).
What’s that famous “Pet Cemetary” line about dead being dead? Think that is appropriate here.
Hard to believe that Jensen actually tweeted during the season finale of Walker to save his show. It’s exactly what he did when he announced the prequel….during the S2 finale of Walker. Seems a little tone deaf considering the kerfuffle that caused in the fandom.
Tone deaf? I doubt he even knows exactly when Walker is on. He’s not the target demographic at all, and if he does watch, he probably doesn’t do so live. It’s so odd how certain fans are always looking for drama.
I’m sure it was calculated to coincide with the fans of Walker who live tweet during the episode. Some of those fans are also fans of TW. I don’t think Jensen sees it as “drama” as much as taking advantage of a built in audience seeing his tweets.
TV shows are on at the same time for everyone all over the country?
Look at the timestamp for Jensen’s tweet above. At 5:42 the action for Walker was ramping up to the final scene on the East coast. Yes fans all over the country were online tweeting with other fans. Hard to believe it wasn’t calculated.
To be honest considering that the network is now hosting LIV Golf, which is backed by Saudi Arabia who have strict Lethal laws against LGBTQ+ people, I’m surprised that a lot of the showrunners haven’t been jumping ship from the CW to really screw over the Network. The CW now seems to endorse these people so how can a show like the Winchesters, Kung-Fu, Walker: Independence with LGBTQ+ visibility on them be expected to conform with the New Regime of the LIV GOLF Owners?!
There are a lot more important things in the world and in life in general than being so upset over the cancellation of a fictitious television series that people feel the need to campaign to save it. This is truly embarrassing.
There are a lot of series that I have enjoyed over the years that have been cancelled. I just moved on to something else.
Please, just accept this cancelation with humility and move on to other (new) projects. Enough with the whining and hand wringing! Sheesh.
Aint nobody saving this hot dumpster garbage. Should have never been made and now theyre paying the price for their own selfishness.
Look its hard to try and make a spin off with something phenomenal that already happened. We all love supernatural. What you guys didn’t really realize is that the supernatural cast and crew is what brought that show together. Not saying the cast from this show was bad, but no matter what, will always compared to the real thing aka supernatural. You can’t help but feel something is a miss with this show. Is it the good old songs? The Impala? The brotherly love and bickering? The funny duos with random people/demons/monsters? Think back and then think forward. Where are you trying to take this show Jensen? How can you compete? You need something else for this spin off to work and I think your the only one who feels like you already know what was missing.
Oh and to be honest it would of been dope if you did a hunting scene at the Winchester mansion in California!!! You know with the lady who kept remodeling her house and had even some rooms/hallways that lead into nowhere?! Yeah that would of been dope to see.
We watched every single episode of “Supernatural” ever, and really really wanted to like “The Winchesters”. We watched the first eight episodes and then stopped watching. The problem was, the show just wasn’t good. The acting wasn’t great, the stories weren’t great (and too often were inconsistent with Supernatural) and it just didn’t have the charm of the original show. I can’t imagine why another network would want to pick it up.
I rather save Kung Fu
There were, I think, 20 broadcast shows canceled last year (give or take) Of those, only one (Magnum P.I.) was rescued. Yes, a canceled series CAN come back, but it’s very rare. I wish Jensen the best of luck, but I wouldn’t get too hopeful.
Absolutely loved SPN even the weaker seasons, this was doomed since the start when Jared was not involved in it, seemed off from the start. Haven’t watched TW, and I don’t think I ever will.
The Winchesters: This was a very nice show to see & understand how Sam & Dean Winchesters became Ghosts/Monsters hunters.
They need to repaint the van, and get a Great Dane that talks for a companion…
This is nothing but a live action Scooby-Doo, just without the dog…
#savethewinchesters
Okay, The Winchesters starts out a little slower than SPN, but it has potential. I would like to see it, or The Sisters continue the Supernatural universe. There’s so much development of the universe that’s been done and so much that could continue.
Not saving this. This was never a Spin-off of the show period. It was just a remake of story they did over 15 years. The fact it was cancelled goes along the lines of what true fans said about Blood lines, and Wayward Sister’s. If you can’t do it right it won’t last. Supernatural is over, without Jared this was always going to fail. Sorry Jensen but it never appealed to me or many SPN fans I speak to at cons, good luck, it’s not worth saving….. Sorry not sorry it is over.
Maybe if it was a good show, but being honest, this show is really bad. I tried to watch it but I couldn’t pass the bad writing and the lead actress is terrible as Mary (and way too short, somehow that detail really bother me).
We need the supernatural series to exist . It’s an eye opener to what can ixcist in our world and how to prepare our lives .