‘Supernatural’ season 9, ‘The Vampire Diaries’ season 5 premiere dates announced

For the fall 2013 season, The CW is traveling down what is a very familiar road. Specifically, they are not bothering at all to premiere some of their shows until the month of October. So why do this? They are aware of the large competition that can exist on the other major networks during this time, and they seem to almost be taunting in a way, confident enough that viewers will check out some other new programs, tire of them quickly, and then come back to their old favorites. (This also shortens the length of some of their long hiatuses.)

We’ll get to the specific analysis in a second, but for now let’s get to the dates. All of the times listed here are Eastern / Pacific, so adjust accordingly if in other time zones.

Monday, October 7

8:00 – “Hart of Dixie” (new night)

9:00 – “Beauty and the Beast” (new night)

Wednesday, October 9

8:00 – “Arrow”

9:00 – “the Tomorrow People” (new series)

Thursday, October 10

8:00 – “The Vampire Diaries”

9:00 – “Reign” (new series)

Tuesday, October 15

8:00 – “The Originals” (new series)

9:00 – “Supernatural” (new night)

Friday, October 25

8:00 – “The Carrie Diaries” (new night)

Of all of these shows, the biggest question mark is why wait an extra week on the Tuesday lineup, and our theory is that executives want to let the flagship “Vampire Diaries” series air before the spin-off, that was there are more opportunities to promote and build it. (Granted, we think it would have been far smarter to just air the show after “The Vampire Diaries” than risk not having the same fans committed to watching your shows two nights a week.)

Do you appreciate The CW starting things up a little later, and what’s your take on the schedule as a whole? If you want to see some other schedules, and preview some new shows, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: The CW