I heard that The CW's new owners, Nexstar, have been criticized for their conservative political views. And I can't help noticing that they renewed the DC show that has no queer characters (I don't count Sarah getting kissed off-camera by a girl once and not following through on it) and cancelled the one that has three. The CW used to be such a welcoming place both for sci-fi/comics fans and for LGBTQ viewers and creators. I guess that's gone now.
Christopher, regardless of representation (as a gay man I love to see it), but let's be very clear here. The driving force of the pickup they got from the CW wasn't shows fitting the agenda of the owners (they certainly wouldn't have picked up both All American shows if that was the case). They picked the four strongest shows in the ratings. And unlike the former CW which basically ran the CW at a loss every single year it was out (just to make money in things like cable reruns (Supernatural), overseas sales (things like Dynasty), and for most of the rest (Streaming which for the most part was Netflix, until the last two or three years). Nextstar doesn't have that option, at least currently. So if they are going to grab any previous shows from the CW (and they had to get at least one) then they are going to go with the shows that did the best in revenue that they will be collecting. And thats broadcast and DVR commercial ratings, and the four they picked up are the four strongest performing shows in those metrics.
And they have picked up shows that have already been produced (some already aired) from outside of the US markets and a few of them do have LGBTQ representation at some level. So they haven't made a decision to bar that type of material from their channel. They are just only going to use it if the price is right. And most productions outside of the US are dramatically cheaper then even the standard fair from the CW (and thats with most of that show in Canada to help keep the budgets around 2 million an episode. Nextstar is trying to create a market for shows with a million dollar price tag an episode and lower.
Let's talk about the Chosen. They are paying a license agreement to air three seasons of the show. The show that was already made. They are not paying much money for this. The three years worth will easily be cheaper than a single season of for example Gotham Knights.
Hell, to show how money is such a factor, it was wildly expected for them to green light a Waltons show. They passed because even if it's the type of show they are actually looking for it was too expensive.
Look at the first two shows they have licensed, they have already aired two weeks. One is outperforming the last few episodes of Gotham Knights, the other is doing a little worse. And both are substantially cheaper, as they are shows that were already made. They aren't covering those costs.
Now I think it's still very likely that Nextstar will fail. Most of the shows they are licensing means that they don't get streaming or any outside of US broadcast revenue. That revenue stream for US broadcast has been rapidly dying. But who knows maybe they will grab an audience. I do doubt it though.
Now you might wonder why would the CW offer such a significant drop in license fee for Superman & Lois versus something like Gotham Knights (a show that cost less roughly half of what Superman & Lois does). My personal guess would be since Gotham Knights is new its ability to generate revenue off network isn't a really known factor, while a show that has been around a couple years already they have a much stronger since of how much the show earns off network.
