On Monday, The CW kicked off its multi-show crossover event between it’s DC Comics / WB shows – Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow. Millions of people (3.5 million on Monday alone) have tuned in thus far; Monday was the stations most watched night since January of 2010, nearly seven years ago. The CW Press Release at the end of this article highlights just how well this crossover is doing.
The CW 4-show story taking place this week is loosely based upon a comic book event that took place across three core issues in 1989 entitled “Invasion!”. There were also around 36 tie in issues relating to the line-wide event. That main miniseries was written by Keith Giffen with pencils and line art by Todd McFarlane who did issues one and two and Bart Sears who did the interior work for issue three as well as all the cover art. In the book, an alien race known as the Dominators puts together an alliance of alien races with the goal of invading the planet Earth. It featured a lot of superheroes seen on the television shows as well as something called the Gene Bomb which was aimed at taking away the powers of the metahumans, something we saw in Supergirl’s episdoe but was referred to as Medusa.
Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim said that the idea to use this story came from non other than Greg Berlanti, one of the shows’ EP’s and Producer of the upcoming Booster Gold. “It was Greg’s idea to do the Dominators,” Guggenheim said on Monday during a CW press event. “We all collectively wanted the superheroes to face an external threat. By external, I don’t mean extraterrestrial, I just mean not a big bad from one of the shows, but rather a threat that came from outside of the shows. Greg just walked in one day — ‘Let’s do Invasion!’ I think [Andrew Kreisberg and I] both had the exact same reaction: ‘That’s totally awesome’ and ‘Oh my god, how the hell are we going to do that?’”
About the Dominators, Guggenheim stated; “We originally had designed Dominators with the green robes that were very iconic of the comic,” He goes on to say; “When we decided to do all the Dominators full CG, the robes had to go away, because the presence of the robes made animating them prohibitively impossible.”
But even though it is a three issue story spread across 4 hour-long shows, some of the story had to be put aside due to time constraints. “I’m sorry some of that stuff went away, just because it was great flavor, and I think the people who are fans of the original comic book would have seen a lot more of our joy at adapting ‘Invasion!’ in there, but to get these down to the proper time, that’s the kind of stuff that tends to fall by the wayside.”
Thus far, Invasion! has visited Supergirl and The Flash. Tonight at 8PM the story continues on Arrow and will conclude Thursday night with Legends of Tomorrow. Check your local listings for specifics and don’t forget to set your DVR!
Finally, head out to your comic book shop and ask for the Invasion! mini series to read the inspiration for this massive event.
SUPERGIRL FLIES HIGH AS #DCWEEK KICKS OFF ON THE CW, DELIVERING THE NETWORK’S MOST WATCHED MONDAY IN ALMOST SEVEN YEARS
The Four Night DC Crossover Event Starts Strong with “Supergirl” Soaring to its Most Watched Episode of the Season and Matching Season Highs in Adult Demos
“Jane The Virgin” Also Hits Season Highs in Viewers and Adults
November 29, 2016 (Burbank, CA) ─ With SUPERGIRL kicking off The CW’s Heroes vs. Villains four-night DC crossover event, The CW had its most watched Monday night (2.37M) in nearly seven years (1/18/10), according to preliminary fast affiliate ratings from Nielsen Media Research for November 28, 2016.
SUPERGIRL had its most watched (3.5M) episode of the season, and it was The CW’s most watched telecast of any series thus far this season. SUPERGIRL matched its season premiere ratings in both adults 18-34 (0.9/4) and adults 18-49 (1.1/4).
SUPERGIRL was #2 in the 8-9pm hour in adults 18-34, and matched Fox in adults 18-49.
Last night’s SUPERGIRL was The CW’s most watched show in its Monday 8-9pm time period in more than eight years (9/15/08).
Last night was The CW’s highest rated Monday night in more than five years in adults 18-49 (0.8/3 since 10/3/11) and in four years in adults 18-34 (0.7/3 on 12/17/12). It was the network’s highest rated Monday night in men 18-49 (0.9/3) in more than eight years (10/20/08).
At 9-10pm, JANE THE VIRGIN also had its most watched (1.24M) and highest rated (0.5/2 in adults 18-34, 0.5/2 in adults 18-49) episode of the season. It was the most watched episode of JANE THE VIRGIN since the season one finale on 5/11/15.
This season JANE THE VIRGIN doubles or nearly doubles its ratings when Live + 7 Day delayed viewing is added in to its L+SD totals, rising by 110% in adults 18-34, +95% in adults 18-49, and +76% in total viewers. SUPERGIRL sees significant time shifting as well, gaining +58% in total viewers, +63% in adults 18-34 and +68% in adults 18-49.
