CW Streaming Outlets To Feature Extended Episodes Of ‘Superman & Lois’; Plans Pause For ‘Supergirl’ Premiere
by Erik Amaya
Soon, there will be more Superman & Lois on The CW app and website.
Deadline reports the network will run extended episodes of the new program starting with next week’s episode. Each will feature “additional footage or scenes,” suggesting it will utilize cuts prepared before timing for ad breaks. Of course, ads are still an important part of The CW’s non-linear service. As one of the few streamers not to offer a paid tier, viewers of programs like Superman & Lois on the app will be quite familiar with Fiji spring water, Sprint mobile phone service, and Huggies diapers.
Or are those just the adds we get in heavy rotation?
As with Batwoman, the program will be available in its entirety until a month before Season 2 begins; a major change from app and website’s old system, in which only the previous month’s episodes were available.
That change is good, though, as it will keep the series available to people when it goes on a hiatus after its fifth episode in a few weeks. The reason: a COVID-19 production shutdown last year. Luckily, Supergirl will take over Superman & Lois‘s slot from March 30th through May 18th, at which point Superman & Lois will return and Kara’s (Melissa Benoist) final season moves to another date.
To a certain extent, it’s nice to have that sort of flexibility with programing and the ability to run longer episodes on a streaming component. We wonder if Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, The Flash or Black Lightning will be able to offer the same option or if it is a format unique to Superman & Lois. As it happens, the program’s 90-minute premiere was a late change to the schedule after the network and producers song a longer-than-planned cut of the premiere episode. Are further episode of the program proving to be longer than can air as well?
New episodes of Superman & Lois air Tuesdays on The CW.