The WIT Analysis: The CW

Dynasty generated the most interest in social media out of the four new shows unveiled by The CW last week, according to data from The WIT.

The reboot of ABC’s 1980s classic prime-time soap will air, as the original did, on Wednesdays at 9 p.m., filling a slot previously held by Riverdale, which moved up to 8 p.m. The trailer logged 6.7 million views on the official YouTube and Facebook pages. Dynasty was also The CW’s most talked about new show, with 20,000 comments on Facebook and Twitter over the last week. The show has generated 50,000 Facebook likes and signed up about 1,000 Twitter followers.

“While the glossy drama arouses natural curiosity, the qualitative indicators are not all so positive,” says The WIT’s Caroline Servy, citing “a high share of [thumbs down] dislikes on YouTube and a low level of Facebook shares for the trailer,” which, she says, “confirm the mild welcome made by social media users. While some rejoice at the lead role of Elizabeth Gillies (Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll) and see a new guilty pleasure coming, a majority question the necessity of another teen-skewing version of a cult classic after the disappointing reboots of 90210 and Melrose Place by the network in the late ’00s, or of a new show about the life of rich white people after The O.C. or Gossip Girl. And as often, people feel that they have seen it all with this five-minute trailer.”

Greg Berlanti’s new DC Comics-based show, Black Lightning, premiering midseason, is the second most anticipated show for The CW. The trailer had about 4.6 million views as of today, while there were some 15,000 comments posted on social media. The show currently has 26,000 Facebook fans.

“The trailer has received generally good reviews, although the excitement is moderate toward the new superhero show, with the concern it will be too similar to The CW’s Arrow or Flash,” Servy says. Social media chatter also involved superhero fans asking for shows about other DC characters, such as Static Shock, rather than Black Lightning.

In a distant third is the midseason dramedy Life Sentence starring Lucy Hale, with a trailer that logged 2.4 million views. The WIT says that there were 17,000 comments posted on Facebook and Twitter about the new series.

“The audience is raving about the choice of Lucy Hale in the lead role and sees potential in the dramedy, hopeful that it will have the same quirky comedy vibe as Jane the Virgin or Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Servy notes. “They also have a feeling this could be ‘Chasing Life [a canceled 2014-15 ABC Family series] without cancer.’ On the negative side, people felt that the four-minute trailer revealed too much information, while other users personally touched by cancer fear the lighthearted tone of the series could trivialize the disease.”

The CW’s fourth show, Valor, barely resonated in social media, with less than 200,000 trailer views and 2,000 comments.