10 Last Minute Changes That Hurt CW Shows (And 10 That Saved Them)

The CW is one of the most popular networks for young adults. The channel has been responsible for some of the most beloved shows on television, from superhero dramas to musical comedies. Most of the shows have a major following and very passionate fans.

Along with that success, there have certainly been a few failures. Even the most successful shows have their disappointing moments. Not every decision a show makes is the right one.

The CW tends to be a little over dramatic and outrages at times. The shows are known for throwing in crazy twists to surprise viewers.

Sometimes the soapiness works to their benefit, and other times it falls flat. The network certainly isn’t afraid of taking risks.

Those twists can lead the writers to make some last minute decisions. Fans have high expectations, and the showrunners  are always trying to think of new ways to shock their viewers.

Those ideas never really stop. The creativity can either be really good or really bad. Fans always have very strong reactions to their favorite shows, and aren’t afraid to let shows know when they’ve messed up.

Here are the 10 Last Minute Changes That Hurt CW Shows (And 10 That Saved Them).

20 Hurt: Hawkman and Hawkgirl Leaving - Legends of Tomorrow

Legends of Tomorrow took a while to get it’s footing, but it’s become a major part of the Arrowverse. Hawkgirl and Hawkman were both major characters on season one, with Hawkgirl being more of the focus.

They didn’t stay on the show for long, leaving before season two. It may have seemed like their departure was planned in advance, but it was revealed in an interview with Deadline that their leaving was a last minute decision.

They wanted to keep the characters, but had trouble figuring out where to go with their story.

Executive producer Marc Gruggenheim stated, “The bow was tied so tightly and neatly with their story in the finale, that everything we thought of felt very forced.” They just decided it was best to keep them gone from the show.

19 Saved: Making Felicity A Main Character - Arrow

The character Felicity Smoak is such a large part of Arrow, it’s hard to imagine the show without her. While a lot of fans are torn about her presence on the show, she’s been a big part of Team Arrow from the beginning.

Felicity fans may find it hard to believe that Emily Bett Rickards actually only auditioned to be in one episode of the show.

According to an interview with Collider, she was supposed to have two scenes in episode three but they asked her to come back.

When she first appeared, fans had a pretty positive reaction to her character and were glad to get more of her.

She and Oliver’s relationship has certainly added a new dynamic to the show.

18 Hurt: Canceling Wayward Sisters - Supernatural

Fans of Supernatural have been asking for a spinoff of the show for years now.

After one failed attempt at one called Bloodlines, stars Kim Rhodes and Briana Buckmaster helped propose the idea for a spinoff called Wayward Sisters.

The proposal received overwhelmingly positive feedback from fans and a ended up with a backdoor pilot.

While fans were overjoyed at the female-centric Supernatural episode, the network ultimately voted to pass on the spinoff. The sudden cease of the project seemed abrupt and upset a lot of fans, who are still calling for it’s revival.

Co-writer Andrew Dabb said they spent almost two years on the proposed spinoff, but in the end they just couldn’t make the story work creatively.

17 Saved:  Casting Brandon Routh As Ray Palmer Instead of Ted Kord - Arrow

Brandon Routh has been a part of the Arrowverse for so long, it’s hard to imagine him playing anyone other than Ray Palmer.

Ray Palmer started out on Arrow, but now he’s a main character on Legends of Tomorrow.

The original plan, however, was for Routh to play Ted Kord, also known as the Blue Beetle.

Kord was pitched, but but it seems that DC told the show they had other plants for the character.

Because of these complications, it was quickly decided that Routh would be playing Palmer instead. He is said to have certain aspects of Kord mixed into his characterization.

Fans are grateful for the decision and have come to love the Legends character.

16 Hurt: Lincoln's Demise - The 100

The 100 fans were shocked when one of the major characters lost his life in season three. Lincoln was a fan-favorite character, and no one expected him to leave the show so soon.

It ends up, the character was never supposed to leave that quickly. The actor, Ricky Whittle, had a major disagreement with the creator, Jason Rothenberg. 

According to Whittle, he was “bullied” off of the show.

He even said entire storylines were cut because of the conflict. It was Whittle’s decision to leave the show, even though he knew his character’s story wasn’t finished.

His working conditions were that unbearable. Losing the character angered a lot of fans and ultimately hurt the show.

15 Saved: Making Hank Henshaw Martian Manhunter - Supergirl

Martian Manhunter has become a major part of Supergirl since the show first began. While it feels like fans always knew Hank Henshaw was Martian Manhunter, there was a time when it was alluded he may actually be evil.

While they ended up making Henshaw Martian Manhunter, the original plan really was to have him be a villain.

Executive producer Andrew Kriesberg said the decision came from a totally casual conversation.

Reportedly, someone said “David has such a great voice, it’s too bad we cast him in this because if they ever do a Martian Manhunter movie, he’d be great for it,” and after that, they simply made him Martian Manhunter.

14 Hurt: Getting Rid Of The Suicide Squad - Arrow

Arrow fans were really excited when they started to see the show’s version of the Suicide Squad coming together.

Deadshot, Bronze Tiger, and Amanda Waller all appeared at various points, and even Harley Quinn had a small appearance. The showrunners even considered showing Arkham Asylum.

Unfortunately, the Suicide Squad movie was announced around the same time and all plans of having the villainous team appear on the CW were scrapped.

After all of the anticipation, fans were really let down. Even the show’s own stars were disappointed, it didn’t happen at the last minute.

If the movie hadn’t been slated for the same time period, who knows what could have happened on Arrow? Fans will never know.

13 Saved: Casting Madelaine Petsch as Cheryl Instead of Betty - Riverdale

Riverdale has quickly become one of the CW’s most popular shows. Fans have come to adore the cast and the characters. However, the cast wasn’t always exactly as it is now.

While Madelaine Petsch is obviously a perfect Cheryl Blossom, she was really close to playing Betty Cooper.

She had originally auditioned for the CW’s Legends of Tomorrow, then she was told to come in to audition for Betty on Riverdale. Instead, the producers opted to cast her as Cheryl.

The last minute casting of her as Cheryl instead of Betty was a smart decision.

She plays the manipulative red-head perfectly, and Lili Reinhart is a brilliant Betty. Fans love both in their respective roles.

12 Hurt: Putting Elena In A Coma - Vampire Diaries

Not many shows continue on without their main lead, but Vampire Diaries decided to be different. In the end of season six, Elena falls into a coma, leaving season seven to go on without her.

Nina Debrov left the show to play more adult roles, which wasn’t the plan the showrunners originally wanted. This left both fans and the writers wondering where the show would go.

Executive producer Caroline Dries told TVLine,  “We knew we didn’t want to kill Elena because we do want her to come back one day, maybe in the series finale.”

In the end, they decided to place her character in a coma and carry on with the other characters in her absence, then bring her back for the series finale.

Fans felt the dynamic for the final season wasn’t quite the same without Elena.

11 Saved: The Changes To Trent's Return - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is the musical-comedy series that fans of the CW Network didn’t know they wanted. The show has earned a devoted fan base, despite ending next year after only four seasons.

The show is known for it’s very out-there episodes and eccentric musical numbers.

In season three, fans saw an episode focusing on the return of Trent, Rebecca’s creepy stalker. While fans loved the episode, it was almost very different.

The night before they shot the episode, creator Aline Brosh McKenna woke up in bed because she didn’t like the ending they had.

She wanted Trent’s return to affect more than just Rebecca’s love life.

They rewrote the episode to affect her in a more broadened way, and they changed one of their songs so that Paula was more weary of sleuthing than she used to be.

10 Hurt: Tom Welling Not Wearing The Superman Suit - Smallville

Fans of Smallville always knew that Clark would eventually become Superman. After watching ten seasons of backstory and buildup, they were ultimately disappointed not to see Tom Welling wearing the Superman suit.

It was obviously assumed they’d finally see the hero revealed in the final episode.

According to Welling, the finale was supposed to start with Clark putting on the suit and saving Lois Lane. He said he didn’t feel like it fit the show or that they had earned it.

In the closing moments of the show, fans do see him unbutton his shirt to reveal the suit underneath, but only saw him flying from a distance.

Welling was satisfied with the ending, but a lot of fans were not.

9 Saved: Not Making Raven Finn's Mother - The 100

In the first season of The 100, both Finn and Raven are a major part of the show. Their romantic relationship mixed with Clarke’s feelings for Finn added a complicated love triangle that fans were invested in for a while.

However, the dynamic between Finn and Raven was originally very different. In the first script, Raven was actually Finn’s mother.

They decided to reimagine her character to be more like Glass from the books, instead. They were rewritten as childhood friends who fell in love.

Raven has become a fan-favorite character, so the writers made a good decision to completely changer her original characterization.

It’s such a different choice than making her a 35 year old mother to the guy who ended up being her love interest.

8 Hurt: Recasting Alura Zor-El - Supergirl

Supergirl lost a cast member in season two when the actress who played Alura Zor-El, Laura Benanti, left the show.

Although she wasn’t the biggest character on the show, she was certainly an important aspect of it.

Originally, Benanti was meant to play Kara’s mom for the duration of the show.

Unfortunately, she had work commitments in New York she had to return to. Recasting a role always throws fans off, especially when it seems to come out of nowhere.

Her role was recast with Erica Durance. Durance was once on Smallville, and although her appearance on Supergirl is a cool nod in that direction, she just isn’t as convincing as Kara’s biological mother as Benanti was.

7 Saved: Making Cas a Series Regular - Supernatural

It’s hard to imagine Supernatural without Castiel. He’s been on the show for so long, it’s easy to forget that Misha Collins didn’t join the cast until season four.

He actually was never meant to be a series regular. In fact, he was never supposed to make it past a three-episode arc.

The fan reaction to the angel was so strong that the writers decided to continue his story.

Keeping Cas as a main character is one of the best decisions the show has made. Fans have seen him evolve from a loyal soldier of heaven to an official member of Team Free Will.

He’s complex and interesting, something that a show that’s been on for fourteen seasons definitely needs.

6 Hurt: Switching Jughead's Orientation - Riverdale

Jughead has been an iconic character in Archie Comics from long before Riverdale premiered.

In more recent years, the character was revealed to be non-intimate, and when the news of the creation of the show broke out, people wondered if they would stick with that important aspect of the character.

While it was considered, the writers made the decision to make “Bughead” a thing, despite the recent announcement of his orientation in the comics.

Fans of the comics were pretty upset that they decided to change his orienttion.

Cole Sprouse himself is reportedly fighting to make Jughead neutral on the show. A large portion of fans is still working to change the mind of the show’s creators.

5 Saved: Changing The Final Line of the Show - Vampire Diaries

The final season of The Vampire Diaries was pretty strange considering the main character wasn’t a part of it until the last episode.

Some fans can’t help but wonder if the season would have been different if Elena was still there. That’s not the only thing that could have been different about it, though.

The ending line of a show’s finale is really important, and the final line of Vampire Diaries could have been totally different, leaving fans with a different feeling when it was all over.

According to co-creator Kevin Williamson, they almost wrote. “Oh, I see they have hero hair in heaven,” but decided to scrap it.

The last minute change was certainly the better decision. Going with “Hello brother” was a better fit and evoked more emotion from invested fans.

4 Hurt: Losing The Showrunners - Smallville

Any show that can last ten seasons is impressive. Despite that, a lot of fans regard the earlier seasons of Smallville as the best ones. The later ones just did not have the same quality that fans felt when it first started.

The show really started to suffer when the original showrunners, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar left.

Supposedly, their departure was due to disagreements with the show’s executives. After they were gone, the show never really settled on the vision of any other particular showrunner.

The show just wasn’t the same after their leaving in season seven. Fans have always wondered if the show would have been better if the two had stuck around.

3 Saved: Casting Cole Sprouse as Jughead - Riverdale

Betty and Cheryl aren’t the only Riverdale characters who were almost played by different actors.

While fans are obsessed with Cole Sprouse as Jughead, the moody outcast was almost played by someone else, and KJ Apa almost missed out on playing Archie.

Sprouse was asked to read for the part of none other than Archie Andrews. It’s hard to picture him trading in his iconic hat and serpent jacket for red-hair and a letter jacket.

Lucky for fans of Jughead, Sprouse was way more attracted to the role of an outcast.

The decision to cast him as Jughead definitely helped the show. Apa is also the perfect Archie, proving this change was for the betterment of Riverdale.

2 Hurt: Lexa Leaving The Show - The 100

The 100 writers received a lot of backlash for Lexa’s tragic end on the show. Fans were sent reeling when they realized their favorite character would no longer be in new episodes each week.

While it may have been a shock to viewers, it ends up that the actress had already planned on leaving the show.

She had to stop appearing on The 100 in order to start filming her new showFear the Walking Dead.

If she hadn’t been a part of her new show, however, it’s easy to see Lexa having a much different fate.

The writers only ended up taking her out of the show because the actress had to work on other projects.

1 Saved: Bringing Back Michael - Jane The Virgin

Jane the Virgin is one of the most successful shows on the CW. It’s even garnered the coveted 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s known for it’s crazy twists and turns, and one of the biggest plot twists yet was in the season four finale.

After mourning Jane’s late husband Michael, it was revealed that he is in fact still alive. Both fans, Jane, and apparently even the actors themselves were shocked.

Apparently, this twist was so last minute that even the cast wasn’t aware it was happening.

The script kept out what exactly it was Rafael had to tell Jane, making the surprise ending even more intense for everyone involved.

Creator Jennie Urman even admitted that bringing the actor back didn’t even occur to her until thinking about the show’s final ending.

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Can you think of any other last minute changes that hurt or saved CW shows? Let us know in the comments!

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