Jensen Ackles Launches #SaveTheWinchesters Campaign After Cancellation by The CW
Jensen Ackles and the cast of The Winchesters have started a campaign, #SaveTheWinchesters, in an attempt to save the show from cancellation through the power of its fans. The Winchesters first premiered on The CW on October 11, 2022, serving as the sole Supernatural spinoff series to be officially picked up so far. The series serves as a prequel to Supernatural, which ended in 2020 after a 15-year run, and sees Dean Winchester (Ackles) narrate the story of how his parents, John Winchester (Drake Rodger) and Mary Campbell (Meg Donnelly), first met and fell in love back in the 1970s.
Season 1 of The Winchesters wrapped up on March 7, 2023, and received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and audiences. Many have praised the nostalgia factor, as well as the supernatural and dark aspects of the series and the cast’s performances and chemistry. However, others have found it lacking creativity and merely playing out like a Supernatural and Scooby-Doo hybrid. Still, given its connection to the widely popular Supernatural, it had a strong enough start to intrigue viewers and demonstrated the potential to grow.
Unfortunately, The Winchesters may not get to prove itself as a worthy successor of Supernatural due to a premature ending.
Was The Winchesters Canceled?
Reports arose on May 11, 2023, that The CW had canceled The Winchesters after just one season. Ackles later confirmed the reports by resharing them and telling his fans that they had some work to do to save the show.
The Winchesters‘ cancellation was disappointing for fans, but not overly surprising. The CW has been undergoing major changes ever since Nexstar Media Group acquired 75% ownership of the network last year. Nexstar’s cost-saving measures include greatly reducing the number of original scripted shows the network airs. As a result, nearly all of its current scripted shows have been canceled or scheduled to wrap up this year, including The Flash, Nancy Drew, Riverdale, Walker: Independence, Kung-Fu, and now The Winchesters. Only Walker and All American have been officially renewed for the 2023–2024 season. Superman & Lois, Gotham Knights, and All American: Homecoming are the last three CW shows waiting for renewal or cancellation, but renewal prospects are slim.
The Winchesters crew launches #SaveTheWinchesters
While a lot of CW shows have received disappointing news in the past few months, The Winchesters‘ crew isn’t accepting its show’s cancellation without a fight. Within mere hours of the news breaking, Ackles posted a video of the cast of The Winchesters appealing to fans for help saving the show. While the show won’t return to The CW, the cast remains hopeful that the show will be picked up by another network or a streamer. It isn’t unheard of for this to occur, as shows like Lucifer, Arrested Development, Futurama, and The Mindy Project were all picked up and saved by another network or streamer after their original network canceled them.
To get The Winchesters picked up by another network or streamer, the show will have to prove that it will be fruitful and has enough fan interest to warrant a second season. This is why the cast of The Winchesters is urging everyone to start sharing #SaveTheWinchesters across social media. They are hoping to stir up a fan campaign on social media to attract attention from other networks and streamers. So far, fans have been stepping up to help Ackles and the rest of the crew get The Winchesters saved. #SaveTheWinchesters has been trending on Twitter as thousands have shared the hashtag.
Fan campaigns have found success in the past, saving shows and films that were initially set to be canceled. It remains to be seen if The Winchesters will be saved, but the fan campaign is gaining traction, and the sheer speed with which the cast and crew got this campaign off the ground proves that the Supernatural fandom is still very much alive.
(featured image: The CW)
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