Why Supergirl deserves its weekly promo trailers back

The CW’s decision to drop Supergirl’s weekly promo trailers undermines the hard work of all involved and the passion of the fans watching. 

As someone who has covered Supergirl‘s weekly promos for years now, you can bet it was a bit of a shock for yours truly when The CW suddenly decided that it would no longer be airing promos for the show now that it’s in the back half of its final season. But that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the outrage and, ultimately, disappointment that was felt by the Supergirl fandom at the network’s unannounced decision to pull the promos.

Supergirl has been part of The CW’s line-up for years now and, like the rest of its Arrowverse counterparts, the rest of The CW’s programming and basically every show on network television, it has followed up new episodes with a short trailer for the next. It’s just how things work on American TV and it has worked incredibly well for years now, teasing fans with what’s to come while promoting the show at a time when you can guarantee its core audience is watching.

The network’s decision to pull the Supergirl promos just because the show is coming to an end has understandably sparked upset from the fans. This doesn’t mean that The CW isn’t promoting the show at all, but one single trailer for the back half of the season feels like a slight on fans who are jumping at every chance they can to enjoy even the smallest of teases before their favorite TV show comes to an end. Why change what wasn’t broke at a time when fans need them more than ever?

The same thing happened to fellow Arrowverse series Black Lightning, but as wrong as that was, it’s only Supergirl‘s larger online fanbase that has drawn attention to the issue. And quite frankly, both shows deserve better.

Supergirl deserves better

Supergirl‘s ratings may have decreased over the years (as any veteran show’s ratings do) but let’s not forget that it was, at one point in time, bringing in 13 million viewers. Yes, the good old days of bigger budgets, movie-like episodes and Cat Grant resulted in the former CBS series being the biggest superhero show on network TV (and perhaps of all time).

Its move to The CW downsized everything but its passionate fanbase stuck by its side, ensuring that it quickly became one of the most-watched shows on the network (most of the time being the second most-watched behind The Flash). And those fans continue to make it a trending topic week in and week out.

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More than that, Supergirl has inspired a legacy of female-led superhero movies and TV shows while also championing storylines that start important conversations in regards to race, sexuality and discrimination. And even in its sixth season it continues to do so, with its most recent episode shining a light on racism in the prison and foster systems while also focusing on the birth of a new hero in Kelly Olsen’s Guardian – something that made fans incredibly upset that “Dream Weaver” was the first episode in the show’s entire history not to receive the typical promotion. Of course, they now know that succeeding episodes won’t be receiving weekly promos either but it doesn’t change the fact that its final run feels a little cheapened because it now feels like the network has given up on promoting it in the same way that got it to this point in the first place.

The fact that the show is ending shouldn’t negate all that it has accomplished. It’s a shining light in the superhero, comic book and TV world that broke new records and started new trends, using its platform to champion change and equality. Moreover, everyone involved in the production has put a lot of hard work into producing 13 episodes that fans can enjoy and appreciate before it ultimately concludes. And yet the network’s decision not to promote those specific episodes on a weekly basis makes the show’s ending feel less important than the 100+ episodes it produced beforehand and, more importantly, less important than the other shows on the network.

Regardless of how long you’ve been watching Supergirl, who your favorite character is or what subsection of the fandom you considered yourself part of, the Supergirl trailers brought its fans together in collective excitement for what came next on a weekly basis. Taking away the promos robs fans of that last chance to come together to anticipate and speculate about their favorite TV series. And on a show which is built on the philosophy of “Stronger Together”, that’s not the way its run should end.

Should The CW return Supergirl‘s promo before the show comes to an end? How did you feel whenever you found out there would be no weekly trailers? Let us know in the comments below!