New 'Supergirl' Trailer Shows Off Super VFX
Saving the network from middling safety.
A new trailer for Supergirl is showing off some really gorgeous VFX, priming the series to be a mandatory curious watch of the fall.
Could it save CBS?
Not that CBS needs saving. The network is ranked number one in total viewers, largely in part to their expert targeting of middle America. Still, the median age of a CBS viewer, 57, is the oldest out of all the other broadcast networks (Fox has the youngest median at 45). Age may be profitable, but can the network ensure this success in the distant future when millennials enter their mid-life crises?
There’s no time to invest in the future like the present, and Supergirl — partially related to the massively successful Arrow and The Flash which has the coveted 18-49 demo down pat — looks to be targeting those same viewers like laser vision.
Besides being a series centered on a woman superhero, something even powerhouse Marvel has not yet produced and will not until 2018’s Captain Marvel, the series looks gorgeous in its VFX and looks to stand head-and-shoulders to The CW’s effects-heavy The Flash. Comic book movies have spoiled us on what superhero shows are supposed to look like. They have to be gigantic, colorful, and need to dazzle on a fraction of the budget. But today, even that fraction can make rescuing a 747 look like a summer blockbuster, not the broadcast network series that it actually is.
It’s unclear how much CBS will rely on Supergirl, which is primarily a product of Warner Bros. anyway, to be their elixir of youth. Though CBS’ success has been because older viewers watch live without a DVR, it doesn’t hurt to have a blockbuster show to buck their image of being “the old people network.”