Horray! The CW has announced an early renewal of “Supernatural” for a sixth season, starring Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, but this renewal rejoicing comes with a change in command. The show is losing Eric Kripke as its showrunner. Now, don’t freak out yet- Kripke is not abandoning the show. Kripke and co-showrunner, Robert Singer, will still be very involved with the show in an executive producer capacity. Sera Gamble, who has been with the show from day one, is the executive producer that will step in as showrunner to run the day-to-day.
Kripke had originally conceived “Supernatural” with a five-season run:
“I’m looking at this season as the [last] chapter in this particular story. That doesn’t mean there can’t be a new story. Buffy did it. The X-Files did it. You close a chapter on a big mythology storyline and then you begin a new one.”
It seemed like Kripke was ‘warming up’ to the idea of another season of adventures with the Winchester brothers, but now it looks like the show creator has already moved onto other projects. He is said to be “finalizing a new deal with Warner Bros. that will feature a big development component” and we already know that he has a hand in the “Supernatural” web spin-off series “Ghostfacers”. Wonder what he’s going to bring us next?
“Supernatural” performed better this season with an infusion of women in the 18-34 year old demographic (up by 29%, likely due to the lead-in from “Vampire Diaries”). The CW describes the show as having “one of the most loyal audiences of any show on television and does heroic work in a perennially tough time period.” It’s been up against ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy”, Fox’s “Fringe”, and CBS’s “CSI”.
Can the show maintain a forward momentum after the world is saved from the apocalypse?
