The CW has ordered full seasons of Batwoman and Nancy Drew after strong performances from the first three episodes of the freshman series. Batwoman, in particular, has become one of the network’s most-watched shows — a big win considering that this is only the second year that the network has even had Sunday night programming. Each of the two have scored a “back nine,” raising their total number of episodes this year from 13 to 22. It also likely serves as a good sign for Katy Keene, The CW‘s next big girl-power-driven series, which will debut in January as a spinoff of Riverdale.
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TVLine reported the pickup, noting that Batwoman is the most-watched show on The CW so far this season, and trails only perennial ratings leader The Flash in the 18-35 demographic. Nancy Drew draws a bit less, but is still doing significantly better than All American was in the same time slot last year (and that series got a second season). Nancy Drew also has a better live+7 audience increase than Batwoman, bringing their numbers closer over time.
If Batwoman is drawing from the same playbook established by its Arrowverse compatriots like Arrow and The Flash to appeal to audiences, Nancy Drew is taking some pointers from Riverdale. Stylish, sexy, and fueled by a season-long murder mystery, Nancy Drew feels like the first season of Riverdale — and, like that show, has a source material that very few would call “sexy,” given its intended juvenile appeal.
In Batwoman, Kate Kane never planned to be Gotham’s new vigilante. Three years after Batman mysteriously disappeared, Gotham is a city in despair. Without the Caped Crusader, the Gotham City Police Department was overrun and outgunned by criminal gangs. Enter Jacob Kane and his military-grade Crows Private Security, which now protects the city with omnipresent firepower and militia. Years before, Jacob’s first wife and daughter were killed in the crossfire of Gotham crime. He sent his only surviving daughter, Kate Kane, away from Gotham for her safety. After a dishonorable discharge from military school and years of brutal survival training, Kate returns home when the Alice in Wonderland gang targets her father and his security firm, by kidnapping his best Crow officer Sophie Moore. Although remarried to wealthy socialite Catherine Hamilton-Kane, who bankrolls the Crows, Jacob is still struggling with the family he lost, while keeping Kate –– the daughter he still has –– at a distance. But Kate is a woman who’s done asking for permission. In order to help her family and her city, she’ll have to become the one thing her father loathes –– a dark knight vigilante. With the help of her compassionate stepsister, Mary, and the crafty Luke Fox, the son of Wayne Enterprises’ tech guru Lucius Fox, Kate Kane continues the legacy of her missing cousin, Bruce Wayne, as Batwoman. Still holding a flame for her ex-girlfriend, Sophie, Kate uses everything in her power to combat the dark machinations of the psychotic Alice, who’s always somewhere slipping between sane and insane. Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate soars through the shadowed streets of Gotham as Batwoman. But don’t call her a hero yet. In a city desperate for a savior, she must first overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope.
Nancy Drew (Kennedy McMann) is a brilliant teenage detective whose sense of self had come from solving mysteries in her hometown of Horseshoe Bay, Maine – until her mother’s untimely death derails Nancy’s college plans. Devastated by her mother’s passing, Nancy swears off crime-solving while crossing off the days until she can re-apply to college. But when a socialite is murdered, Nancy finds herself a prime suspect in the crime, along with a group of other teens present at the scene: Nancy’s nemesis from high school, George Fan (Leah Lewis); a rich girl with a mysterious past, Bess Marvin (Maddison Jaizani); Nancy’s secret boyfriend, Ned “Nick” Nickerson (Tunji Kasim); and amiable burnout Ace (Alex Saxon).
The five of them must team up to clear their own names – encountering emotional entanglements and even more mysteries along the way. Nancy’s reawakening brings her into conflict with her widowed father, Carson Drew (Scott Wolf), who is dating Detective Karen Hart (Alvina August). And, when a supernatural presence begins to haunt Nancy’s investigation, she discovers that the current crime has an astonishing connection to the long unsolved murder of a local girl. Whether the ghost is here to help, or hinder Nancy remains to be seen, but one thing’s for sure: Nancy’s going to have to unravel the clues from both the living and the dead to solve the crimes.
Batwoman airs on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW, where Nancy Drew takes up residence on Wednesdays at 9.
