Major CW Show’s Future Is Up in the Air

Walker Independence finished its freshman run on Thursday, but it remains to be seen whether it will be the series’ final episode on The CW. Nexstar Media Group acquired majority ownership of The CW in August 2022, replacing network boss Mark Pedowitz with TV executive-turned-venture capitalist Dennis Miller. According to Nexstar executives, The CW will target older viewers and offer low-cost unscripted programming in the future, TVLine reported. But “there may be a couple of shows that distinguish themselves this year that we want to hold over to next year,” CEO Perry Sook said. The showrunner of Walker Independence, Seamus Kevin Fahey, hopes the prequel spinoff series will be among these series that receive a renewal. So far, only All American has been renewed for the 2023-24 season.

“It’s been an interesting time. It’s been an interesting past couple months,” Fahey told TVLine. “What’s going on in town, there’s just a lot of reinvention and restructuring, and so we’re waiting still for the dust to settle a little bit [to] figure out where we really stand.” According to Fahey, there are “a lot of fans at The CW. A lot of folks love the show. A lot of folks are very honest it’s their favorite show on The CW… We have a lot of support at [CBS Studios]. Everyone loves the show. We’re all proud of what we did on the show.” Despite this, “it’s still coming out of a fog of speculation to figure out [if], hopefully, we have a home,” Fahey says, adding that Independence is “a great show to pair up with Walker mothership. I think there’s still a lot of opportunity to feed off each other, work in a lot more Easter eggs and crossovers and stuff like that.”

However, in light of the uncertain circumstances at the network, “there’s definitely a Plan B,” Fahey shares. “We just all want to keep telling these stories… Everyone’s just anxious to get back to it. Mentally, that’s where we’re at: hoping for the best, planning for the worst, and just honestly happy with what we’ve done and hoping for more.” When asked if Plan B would involve finding the show a new home, “I don’t know how much I’m allowed to talk about it, but yes,” Fahey said. “If The CW isn’t ready to move forward, what are the other options? So naturally, it would lead to that. But again, we’re still very hopeful. There’s still a lot of champions over there for it. So we’ll see what happens. No one wants it to go away, long story short. We’re going to do what we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”