How The CW’s Schedule Change Affected ‘Legends of Tomorrow’

Now that The CW‘s superhero shows are returning from their winter break, fans can expect some scheduling changes due to the mid-season debut of Black Lightning.

Specifically, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl will be sharing the same slot on Mondays, taking turns with the Girl of Steel first in line. Legends executive producer Marc Guggenheim spoke with ComicBook.com about the shift, shedding some light on how it affected the production.

“They gave us that news, you know, towards the end of last year and we’re like, okay,” Guggenheim said. “We assumed that Black Lightning would necessitate some kind of scheduling change. So it wasn’t terribly surprising to us … It may even show proof of concept for your own programming or shorter orders or more shows with short orders. I don’t know. It’s an interesting experiment that they’re undertaking.”

While the change might lead to the network approving more short-order series, there’s a risk with time changes. But Guggenheim has confidence that Legends‘ audience will continue to tune in.

“I think, you know, the other thing that the CW feels, I think, correctly is all the shows now, they’ve sort of proven that the audience follows the shows,” Guggenheim said. “Arrow’s ratings are insanely stable despite both a night change and a time change. Legends has bounced around. This I think will be our third move across the schedule and our ratings remain very consistent.

“All the shows have very loyal audiences and you know how to find the shows, so I think the sense is over at the CW is that they can make these moves and it doesn’t carry with it the risks that other shows on other networks typically have to bite their nails, you know, white-knuckle themselves through as they make these scheduling changes.”

Asked if the schedule shift changes how they planned for Legends‘ third season, the producer said no “because we didn’t know far enough in advance.”

“The thing that I think, one of the biggest misnomers about television production in general is how far ahead we are working, compared to air dates,” Guggenheim said. “We are working months in advance and we are working on story arcs that were worked out even further ahead. So there’s no way to make an adjustment based upon that. At the same time though, at least this move is coinciding with our normal mid-season break between episodes 9 and 10 like, which we traditionally do. We at least always write towards that.”

So don’t expect a huge change to the Legends of Tomorrow, except waiting a little bit longer for new episodes than you’re used to.