The CW pilots: ‘Hunger Games’-esque series, ‘Vampire Diaries’ spin-off lead

When you are still this early into pilot season, it is a little difficult to keep track of everything. Basically, you have over 40 ideas competing for just a small number of openings at the five major television networks, and some projects are such underdogs that you barely hear about them at all.

Out of these networks, the one to us that is perhaps the easiest to make the sense out of is The CW, mostly because their schedule is rather cut-and-dry since they have no comedies, and only ten hours of original programming a week. Let’s go ahead and cross out some of the givens here:

-“Arrow” and “Supernatural” will almost surely be the Wednesday-night lineup again. The same goes for Fridays, since we’re betting that “Nikita” finds a way to get a fourth and final season despite its low ratings.

-Thursdays are pretty simple, given that “The Vampire Diaries” and the upcoming spin-off “The Originals” are certain to take foothold during this night.

-Mondays are a mess. We can’t imagine “The Carrie Diaries” coming back right now, and while “90210” could return, we see it being a shortened final season a la “Gossip Girl.”

-The jury is still out on “Cult,” since it hasn’t premiered yet. But “Hart of Dixie” should return, being that it is better-rated than anything the network has on Mondays.

So what are the top candidates coming in for the network? We’re still hearing that they are very high on “The Selection” following a year of rewrites and getting the project back together. The show still has a premise similar to “The Hunger Games” in that it features a woman selected by lottery to compete in a competition, where the winner married the wealthy prince of a nation. The network loves serving as an extension to some pre-established properties, and this could be “The Vampire Diaries” all over again.

The other show to watch, for now, is the “Wonder Woman” origin story “Amazon.” This is the second time in three years that a network has tried with this story, and it’s still going to be a tough sell. Even if it does get picked up, where do you put it? The only thing we can think of is if you move “America’s Next Top Model” to Mondays and pair it on Fridays with “Nikita” in the old “Smallville” timeslot.

What new show are you the most excited to possibly see on the air? If you want to read more on the “Vampire Diaries” spin-off, you can do so by clicking the story over here.

Photo: The CW