No network has a reputation quite like that of The CW. The broadcast channel was formed in 2006 as a merger between entertainment giants CBS (now Paramount Global) and Warner Bros. following UPN and The WB ceasing operations. Together, the two companies created The CW, which featured a new slate of original shows.
The network started with clear goals: to appeal to an under-served viewer. It aimed for a younger audience, originally tapping into the teenage demographic, specifically teen girls. It became known around that time for Gossip Girl, which was a strong departure from most other high school shows because it opted for a raunchier and more scandalous take on the inner lives of teens. The network eventually expanded its demographic outreach with the premiere of Arrow, ushering in a steady stream of DC-based superhero shows and a more balanced viewing audience. A period of critical acclaim followed thanks to telenovela Jane the Virgin and musical comedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, both of which earned their stars awards. Then, at last, came Riverdale, a pulpy successor to the legacies of both Gossip Girl and Arrow.
Throughout its lifetime, The CW has often been synonymous with cheesy, cheap, or perhaps even “dumb” shows. Under the leadership of Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery (Nexstar Media Group took control of the network in October 2022), the network invested everything in the series that worked, spawning five or more seasons of every show that had consistent viewers—for better or worse. Riverdale is a prime example, often referred to online in less-than-positive terms as a “peak CW show” due to its off-the-rails storytelling. A show airing on The CW became grounds for dismissal for being of lesser quality than that of a cable giant or specialty programmer. It is the rare network that seems to have become associated with a very certain kind of show, despite having a roster that contains nearly every genre of TV imaginable.
What the network looks like under Nexstar is quite different (think fewer originals, more imports, plus sports), but the narrow view of The CW that currently exists undercuts the wide variety of excellent series that have aired since the network’s creation. Often, shows aimed at younger people are dismissed for their plotting, but The CW was a special network because of its ability to embrace pulp and melodrama to make entertaining TV. Every series felt like the cast and crew were having fun making something enjoyable. It was a network that had a bit of everything, from comfort watches to critically acclaimed hits, and it deserves more credit than the reputation it has.
So, if you’re willing to give the infamous network a chance, below are the 15 best CW shows, and where to stream them.
Note: Series that aired at least half their run on The CW Network were eligible for this list, but shows that were almost entirely on The CW were given priority.
15. The Vampire Diaries
Created by: Julie Plec, Kevin Williamson
Stars: Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder, Candice King, Matt Davis, Joseph Morgan
If ever a TV show moved the needle on bourbon sales, I’m guessing it was The Vampire Diaries. Vampire brothers Stefan and Damon Salvatore (Paul Wesley, Ian Somerhalder) have a seemingly endless supply of brown liquor and an impressive collection of glassware. And I’ll admit, never before has a show more inspired me to drink along with the leads. But I digress… What began as an angst-filled teenage supernatural drama eventually developed into a compelling and frequently gruesome foray into the world of vampires (and werewolves and witches and hybrids and siphons and …) alongside the men and women who love them. While CW shows are often painted as skewing towards melodramatic teen/YA fare, that’s an unfair assertion and one that The Vampire Diaries did a great job of dispelling, particularly once it grew out of its early “Dawson’s Creek with vampires,” phase. Season 1, while intermittently strong, was more or less one of those shows people refer to as a guilty pleasure. It was fun, but not really good. Once creators Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson (creator of Dawson’s Creek, not a coincidence) really got a feel for where they wanted to take the show, however, it took off, and over the course of eight seasons proved to be a reliably well-acted, creepy, and ethically complicated hour of drama. —Mark Rabinowitz
14. Smallville
Created by: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar
Stars: Tom Welling, Kristin Kreuk, Michael Rosenbaum, Eric Johnson, Sam Jones III, Allison Mack
Now that pop culture is so saturated with superhero media, it’s hard to imagine what a sensation Smallville was when it first aired in 2001. While the series debuted on the now-defunct The WB network (moving to The CW for its last five seasons), its long-standing run and ultimate end on The CW marks it as belonging to both networks. Starring Tom Welling as Clark Kent, who carried the show for a decade, Smallville worked both as an origin story for Superman and, eventually, a full-fledged DC series about the beloved character. Smallville may have started as a villain-of-the-week show, but it eventually evolved into a much grander story connecting all aspects of the DC mythos. The exploration of Clark Kent as a character still makes for a fascinating journey that even holds up two decades later. The show always held fast to its roots, and even when Smallville became bigger in scope, it always kept Kansas in its heart. While newer and older iterations of the Superman characters may supersede Smallville’s depictions in the collective consciousness, it remains an impressive feat and one of the most inspired takes on creating a live-action superhero show. Even though the Arrowverse, shows like Gotham, and even aspects of the MCU, all set out to create grand origin stories and watch characters become legends, Smallville remains one of the first great achievements in superhero media in the 21st century. —Leila Jordan
13. Superman & Lois
Created by: Greg Berlanti, Todd Helberg
Stars: Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Jordan Elsass, Alex Garfin, Erik Valdez, Inde Navarrette
Post-Smallville, The CW spent years building up its superhero roster with more unknown DC heroes, but the network tackled the big man again with Superman & Lois. Executive producers Greg Berlanti and Todd Helbing approached the legendary character from a more grounded perspective, adopting the melodrama that had defined the structure of the Arrowverse, and adding a more cinematic perspective. The series follows an older Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin) and his wife Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) as they struggle to raise their teenage sons while dealing with otherworldly threats. The series immediately stands apart from the CW shows that came before it, filled with the optimism of old school comics and the charisma of a cast perfectly fit for their characters. While many filmmakers have been lacking inspiration for what to do with the character of Superman, Superman & Lois energizes him by centering the story on his family and understanding him at his core. The end result is one of the most interesting CW initiatives to date, and a new version of these beloved characters to live on. —Leila Jordan
12. Reaper
Created by: Michaele Fazekas, Tara Butters
Stars: Bret Harrison, Tyler Labine, Missy Peregrym, Ray Wise, Rick Gonzalez
Reaper follows the misadventures of Sam (Bret Harrison), a twentysomething white boy slacker who has to come to terms with the fact that—thanks to his parents selling his unborn soul to the Devil (Ray Wise)—he’s now saddled with being hell’s least likely bounty hunter. The cult-favorite supernatural comedy made its debut in September 2007, but the subsequent 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike ultimately shortened its life. The first season featured a healthy (for the time) 18-episode run, and it was renewed for a second season, but it ultimately failed to score a third. And while creators Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas were eventually able to bring two of its stars back to cameo in a single 2018 episode of another doomed high-concept project, Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, Reaper’s early demise just came too soon in the “new media” age for even the most fervently run fan campaigns to have had any hope of finding it a new home. That Butters and Fazekas were able to put such a unique twist on the broadcast procedural formula—something they were both well-versed in, having just come off of several seasons as co-EPs on Law & Order: SVU—remains as impressive now as it was then, as is how immediate and idiosyncratic the core cast’s chemistry was, even in the pilot. —Alexis Gunderson
11. All American
Created by: April Blair
Stars: Daniel Ezra, Taye Diggs, Bre-Z, Greta Onieogou, Samantha Logan, Michael, Evans Behling, Cody Christian, Karimah Westbrook, Monét Mazur, Jalyn Hall, Chelsea Tavares, Da’Vinchi
More or less the Platonic ideal of the American High School Drama, The CW’s All American is a bright spot of explicitly diverse near*-realism (*I’m looking at you, all you unreasonably fit twenty-something Adonises) in a still mostly white network sea of superheroes, the supernatural and the comically stylized.
Inspired by the life of professional American football player Spencer Paysinger, All American tells the story of Spencer James (Daniel Ezra), a star football player from South L.A. who’s recruited by a coach (Taye Diggs), an expat of the same neighborhood to come play for him in Beverly Hills—a plan that necessitates Spencer moving in with the coach and his family in order to get around the school’s hyper-strict zip code requirements. Much of the drama that follows, both in Beverly Hills and back in South L.A., is what you’d expect: The rich kids have expensive pill addictions or are spiraling into depression after being left alone in their mansions for months on end by their oblivious jet-setting parents, while the kids in South L.A. are trapped in a school that is chronically underfunded and over-policed, and are at risk for falling into gang life.
But the compassion and grace with which All American handles all of these problems, matched with the grounded performances each of the young actors puts in, gives the show ample opportunity to transcend primetime melodrama. As the lead, Ezra is excellent, as compelling in tender moments of private vulnerability as he is in athletic feats on the field, but equally arresting are Bre-Z as Spencer’s fast-talking, bar-spouting queer best friend Coop, and Samantha Logan as the fragiley sober Olivia Baker, Coach’s daughter and the first friend and confidante Spencer makes in Beverly Hills. Although it did not initially make much of a splash, All American has proven to have staying power. It’s clear that teens know exactly where the good shit’s at—and now you do, too. —Alexis Gunderson
10. Everybody Hates Chris
Created by: Chris Rock, Ali LeRoi
Stars: Tyler James Williams, Terry Crews, Tichina Arnold, Tequan Richmond, Imani Hakim, Vincent Martella
Chris Rock is one of the funniest comedians of all time. This is far from a controversial stance. Upon developing a period sitcom about his Brooklyn childhood for the (now defunct) UPN back in the mid-2000s, however, the question emerged of whether or not his brand of knowing, acerbic comedy could survive the transition to network TV. The answer proved to be both yes and no. From the opening seconds of its pilot, Everybody Hates Chris positions itself as an incisive, utterly confident comedic tour-de-force that is perfectly in line with Rock’s brand. And yet, in the hands of co-creator/showrunner Ali LeRoi, the show aimed to be much more than simply the comedian’s stage work reformatted into TV storylines. The result was a family sitcom that both harkened back to the Norman Lear comedies of old, while still retaining the rapid pace and tight construction of the best single-camera productions. The show was never more successful, however, than when it came to its casting, with Tyler James Williams demonstrating immense charisma and comic timing as a young Chris; meanwhile, Terry Crews and Tichina Arnold would promptly enter the pantheon of great TV couples as Chris’ larger-than-life parental units. And though low ratings and frequent schedule shifts would ultimately snuff Chris out after four seasons, it quickly sketched out its place as one of the greatest sitcoms of the new millennium. —Mark Rozeman
9. Riverdale
Created by: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Stars:: K.J. Apa, Cole Sprouse, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, Madelaine Petsch, Marisol Nichols, Ashleigh Murray, Mädchen Amick, Luke Perry
This is the way I’ve been selling Riverdale to friends who have not seen it: it’s Gossip Girl meets Twin Peaks, but with the characters from Archie Comics. That alone should be enough to suck them in, but if they need more convincing, I add that the late Luke Perry plays Archie’s dad, Molly Ringwald plays Archie’s mom, Skeet Ulrich plays Jughead’s creepy hot dad (who is also the head of the local gang, the Southside Serpents), and for the first third of the first season, Archie is boning his music teacher, Ms. Grundy—who, unlike in the comics, where she’s an elderly white-haired lady, goes around wearing heart-eyed sunglasses and picking up teen boys. It’s ridiculous and campy in all the right ways (hey, this is a CW teen drama, after all), but there’s also a compelling murder mystery driving the plot of the first season (“Who killed Jason Blossom?” is Riverdale’s “Who killed Laura Palmer?”), with new twists and turns peppered in along the way. And it only gets wilder from there. —Bonnie Stiernberg
