Here’s a really good grab of the trailer for Smallville‘s 10th and final season, as shown on Sunday at Comic-Con 2010. Looks like a lot of familiar faces are returning for the last hurrah, and you’ll also catch a glimpse of some things you thought you’d never see on Smallville: the red & blue suit, and a character referring to Clark as “Superman.” This is truly the end…
Smallville’s next season is its last
There’s a broad spectrum of news about Smallville today that fans will be both excited and sad to hear.
The CW has just announced that Smallville‘s 10th season — debuting this Fall — will be its last. As a longtime fan, I have mixed feelings about this. Smallville has certainly managed to live longer than anyone thought it could, while maintaining its compulsively watchable quality through all nine seasons thus far. That said, it’s starting to feel kind of ridiculous that ol’ Clark hasn’t become Superman yet. I mean, in the current season, he spends more time in Metropolis than in Smallville itself, working at the Daily Planet alongside Lois Lane, while he moonlights as a costumed hero. Sound familiar? And yet he’s still not wearing the red-and-blue or going by his destined super-name. On the other hand, knowing when their end date is should allow the producers to tie up the series in a satisfying way and bring Clark full circle.
In related news, actress Allison Mack has announced that she won’t be returning as a full time cast member for the final season. Mack’s popular character Chloe Sullivan will be back for an undisclosed number of episodes in the final season, to give the character a proper sendoff, but she won’t be in the opening credits as a regular, leaving series star Tom Welling as the only remaining original cast member still on the show.
Year-end ratings put CBS on top
For the seventh time in the last eight years, CBS has emerged as the overall ratings winner for network television.
Nielsen’s annual ratings report indicates that CBS was boosted to the top of the heap thanks to the record-breaking broadcast of the Super Bowl showdown between the Colts and the Saints. This year’s Super Bowl was the most-watched television broadcast in history, bringing in more than 106 million viewers for the network. CBS also scored the highest-rated scripted program of the year, in NCIS. CBS also boasts the three most popular new programs of the year: NCIS: Los Angeles, The Good Wife, and Undercover Boss.
In second place is Fox, who averaged about two million fewer viewers each night than CBS. But Fox scored a major victory of its own: a 3.6 rating in the key 18-49 demographic, which placed Fox on top in this all-important age range that advertisers seek the most. American Idol remains Fox’s juggernaut, earning the “number one show on television” status for the seventh year in a row.
ABC came in third place for the season, boosted heavily by Dancing With the Stars. NBC landed fourth in the broadcast network ratings, though if not for the Winter Olympics, its overall ratings for the season would have been down from last year.
The CW, unsurprisingly, came in fifth place.
The CW’s Fall schedule
The CW has ordered just two new series for its Fall 2010 lineup, while canceling freshman series Melrose Place. The schedule looks like this.
Monday has 90210 at 8:pm, followed by Gossip Girl at 9:pm.
On Tuesdays, One Tree Hill is paired with Life Unexpected — two shows that weren’t expected by most industry insiders to be renewed for another season.
Wednesday brings America’s Next Top Model at 8:pm, and new show Hellcats at 9:pm, about a cheerleading squad at a college in the South.
Thursdays have The Vampire Diaries, followed by the new action-packed series Nikita, starring Maggie Q as an assassin who goes rogue.
On Fridays, Smallville‘s final season is paired with Supernatural.
The CW remains the only broadcast network with no half-hour comedies on its schedule.