Fans have hadSuperman & Lois’final season set on their calendars since it was announced, but now the very last of the CW’s DC shows is making yet another change in its programming ahead of taking a bow at the end of season 4.
Superman & Loiswas conceived as a more grounded Superman story, a feat that few have attempted since the success ofSmallville, which took a lot of liberties in constructing the story to keep Clark relatively less powerful for the majority of its run. Superman & Lois managed to achieve this milestone with tone and intent alone, allowing for an adult Man of Steel to exist in a grounded story with variable stakes and a family angle that fans were unexpectedly drawn to. With the other shows rounding up, it was thought thatSuperman & Loiscould potentially be a new nucleus for the Arrowverse, the successful DC franchise on The CW that had spawned the show.
Rather than rallying a new wave ofArrowverse shows, Superman and Loishas instead had to play steward to the last embers of the once massive franchise and hasfaced a ton of setbacks and changes for its final season. As the final installment nears release, one more change is going on the list asTVLinerecently reported that the show has made a move to air episodes on a new night for the final season following a change to the programming lineup for The CW, with new episodes now coming at fans on Monday nights instead of Thursdays. Additionally, the season’s premiere has been rescheduled and brought forward, with the double episode debut now set to air on Monday, October 7th at 8 p.m. ET.
The changes can be attributed to the network scrapping plans to debut the spinoff seriesThe Librarians: The Next ChapteralongsideSuperman & Loison Thursdays, instead pivoting to game night content for that time slot and moving the latter to Mondays for cohesion. This is the latest shakeup in the show’s presentation ahead of the final season, withtheSuperman & Loisshowrunners already making big sacrificesto get the season 4 renewal, including cuts to the cast and likely having to rework the story. However, the latest development isn’t a net negative, as filming has already concluded, and the show can really only attract new viewers by moving to a new timeslot.
As it comes to an end, there’s no doubt thatSuperman & Loisis one of the best Superman TV shows ever, and there’s little chance that James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU will take a crack at putting David Corenswet’s new Clark Kent on the small screen in anything similar to a regular capacity. This means, for better or worse, thatSuperman & Loisis set to write the definitive last word on the character for many casual viewers on TV, as the next few live-action projects to feature the character will be in theatrical releases. While these will certainly make their way to streaming on Max, casual viewers of linear TV won’t be seeing the Man of Steel again for a good long while. This means that there’s a lot riding on a solid swan song to the series, and it might even have an effect on certain demographics going out to support other projects featuring the character, including Gunn’sSuperman.
As recently highlighted byArrowversedeveloper andSuperman & LoisEP Greg Berlanti,the DCU has inherited more than just Zack Snyder’s franchiseas it sets about putting DC stories in theaters and at home, and the pendulum swings the other way as well. WhileSuperman and Loismight be at the end of the line, the lessons learned and the many things the show got right shouldn’t be set aside by the new heads of DC Studios. Fans will have to wait until 2025’sSupermanto see just how much of the appeal the new Man of Steel carries on.
Superman & Loispremieres its final season on 7th October 2024 on The CW.
