Supergirl is about to go up, up, and away. The series is ending after it airs its upcoming sixth season on The CW. The news is somewhat surprising, especially after DC just held an entire event around its multiverse that highlighted the show and other Arrowverse series. It isn’t clear whether the network chose to end the series or whether Arrowverse head Greg Berlanti and the rest of the showrunners felt it was time for the series to end. Supergirl herself, Melissa Benoist, posted about the cancellation on Instagram.
Supergirl‘s ratings for the fifth season were definitely down. (Maybe people hated the bangs.) The season debuted relatively strong, but its live viewership plummeted over the course of the season and its overall ratings were far off from those of the fourth season. The CW doesn’t really care about ratings all that much, though, especially those of shows that are part of its lucrative DC Comics properties, so that might not be the cause of the cancellation.
Thankfully for fans, the show’s sixth season is currently getting underway in Vancouver, meaning that the writing team will have the chance to properly conclude the series. The show notably features the first female lead in the Arrowverse even if it originally wasn’t supposed to be part of it when it debuted on CBS, not The CW. It’s also been one of the more socially aware CW shows over its run, often dipping into current events while exploring Kara’s relationship with her adopted family and more famous cousin. Of course, Supergirl also played a major role in The CW’s popular yearly crossover events.
Given Benoist’s statement, it doesn’t appear that she wanted to leave the role for any reason. That was the reason that Arrow ended after Stephen Amell decided he wanted to leave the series. This won’t be the end of the -El family on CW, however. There is a planned Superman & Lois that will give Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman his own series. Fans shouldn’t be worried that the end of Supergirl signals the end of the Arrowverse.
