Insider Hits Back at Jared Padalecki for Rant About The CW Canceling ‘Walker’

After Jared Padalecki ripped The CW for canceling , an insider is hitting back. The Walker, Texas Ranger reboot got the boot ahead of its Season 4 finale earlier this summer, becoming the latest victim on the network that has been changing quite a lot since its merge with Nexstar. The Supernatural alum told Variety that the network, once known for steamy teen dramas, superheroes, and the supernatural, was going in a different direction, most notably with the upcoming installments of Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble.

He mentioned that it’s just a cheap way for The CW to keep going and he was only being “brutally honest” about it. However, in the July 22 print edition of The National Enquirer, one insider was brutally honest as well, saying that “Walker was only drawing about 500,000 viewers. A game show can draw that many viewers at a tenth of the cost!”

It should be noted that The CW was not known for having big ratings, and it would be impressive if a show managed to get even over a million viewers. Even so, Walker‘s viewership was down from Season 3, where it averaged a 0.09 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 690,000 viewers, according to TV Series Finale. For the fourth and final season, it only had an average 0.06 demo rating and 504,000 viewers. Aside from All American, there has been no other scripted show from pre-Nexstar that has been renewed for another season. All American: Homecoming and will be wrapping up this year, and Superman & Lois will be premiering this fall as well.

Over the last couple of years, The CW has dramatically cut down its scripted content, and it’s very possible that scripted shows won’t exist on The CW in the near future. The network is turning into a place for sports, reality television, and acquired programming, but who knows what could happen. That doesn’t mean that the Walker cancellation isn’t frustrating, because it is, especially since Season 4 ended on a cliffhanger. But it does seem like it would have happened sooner or later.

As with any cancellation, there is always the possibility that Walker could make a comeback in the future, whether streaming or on The CW again, depending on where the network is years from now. It’s hard to tell what will happen, but at least fans can always watch all four seasons of Walker on Max.