Networked Insights: The CW’s Pickups

NEW YORK: The CW’s two midseason replacements, Cult and The Carrie Diaries, score high on Networked Insights’ ranking of shows generating a buzz in social media, according to the company’s lead television analyst, Sean Reckwerdt.

"The CW is always very strong on social with their shows," says Reckwerdt at Networked Insights, which studies social media conversations to see which series are trending among potential viewers.

Cult focuses on an investigative journalist searching for his brother, who disappeared after becoming obsessed with a TV show about a cult leader. "It comes from the Gossip Girl team," he says, and should be able to appeal to a similar audience as The CW hit.

The Carrie Diaries is about a 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw—from Sex and the City—in 1984. Reckwerdt notes that so far, the show has not been too popular with older Sex and the City viewers, "although they’ll probably still check it out," he says. "It is appealing more to the younger audience. It’ll probably gear more towards Gossip Girl fans."

Reckwerdt also found strong interest in Arrow, based on a DC Comics character and slated for Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. "Arrow is their Smallville replacement," he says. Smallville, he continues, was on the air for a long time and as such still has a strong fan community online. "It will have a strong premiere," Reckwerdt predicts of the series. "Whether or not it sticks around…"

Reckwerdt expects that the new medical drama Emily Owens, M.D., paired on Tuesdays with Hart of Dixie, won’t stick around on The CW schedule for long. "Medical dramas have not been doing well," Reckwerdt says, pointing to recent cancellations like ABC’s Off the Map and CBS’s A Gifted Man.