The CW moves ‘The Vampire Diaries,’ ‘The Originals’ on Fridays; ‘The 100’ season 3 premiere date

If The CW wanted to completely stun us with part of their midseason schedule, we have to give them some credit today for succeeding. Never in a million years did we anticipate them moving “The Vampire Diaries,” arguably their flagship show until “Arrow” and then “The Flash” came around, to Friday nights. Yet, that is precisely what is happening.

Both the Ian Somderhalder – Paul Wesley show and its spin-off “The Originals” will be going to Fridays starting on January 29, and we feel like the reasoning here is probably that they feel like they can get better numbers elsewhere on Thursdays; also, these moves may help to shore up Friday night’s ratings in a way that we have not seen in some time.

So what are they moving these shows for? You may have already heard that DC’s “Legends of Tomorrow” is going to be premiering on January 21 at 8:00, and it will be followed by the third-season premiere of “The 100.” This is a good spot for this show in particular, and it’s nice to see that the network has some faith in it and likes its creative direction. Granted, we don’t know that “Legends” will be a smash hit, but we’re at least envisioning a premiere in the 0.7-0.8 range at least. For The CW, that is a pretty nice lead-in to work with.

The network has yet to announce return dates for some of their other shows, but late January seems like a safe bet. They did just announce that they have ordered extra episodes of both “Crazy Ex Girlfriend” and “iZombie,” likely to fill up some holes in the schedule.

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