‘Arrow’ spoilers: The CW orders an extra hour of Oliver Queen

How much does The CW love their new series “Arrow” at the moment? Let’s just say that they are wanting to make sure they get as much of Oliver Queen as possible before season 1 wraps up in May.

The network has confirmed that there will be an additional episode of the show this season, which brings the overall total for the year up to 23. This is a similar sort of order to what we are seeing from such other hit shows as “Supernatural” and “The Vampire Diaries,” which are really helping to anchor what is otherwise a schedule still in need of some serious help.

It’s also rather nice that the network let the producers know about this change-up now, especially since there are so many episodes of the show still to write. We already have now the token Big Bad of the season in Seth Gabel’s character (formerly known as “Vertigo” in the Green Arrow comics), a man who is actually assisted more by Oliver’s actions more than hurt. He gets a foothold in Starling City with a certain type of drug that he is peddling named Vertigo, and over time he starts to have more and more people under his spell. Early indications on set are that Gabel’s performance here is not only spectacular, but may be some of the best work ever done on one of the network’s series. Let’s hope that this turns out to be true.

When “Arrow” premiered in October it was the network’s most-watched premiere since “Nikita,” and it and “The Vampire Diaries” are the only two series to average above a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic. It also at times has lifted The CW above NBC at the 8:00 hour, as the network’s comedy lineup has struggled in this timeslot.