The CW’s 15 Best Original Shows, Ranked

Summary The CW was formed in 2006 as a merger between UPN and The WB, creating a new home for popular TV shows.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend found success on The CW despite modest ratings, winning critical acclaim and awards during its run.

The CW is home to a variety of successful shows, from supernatural dramas like iZombie to superhero series like Superman & Lois.

The CW is a relatively young American television channel, but in its lifespan, it has given a platform to some incredibly popular shows. The CW was first broadcast in 2006 as the successor to UPN, or the United Paramount Network, and The WB. The network was a new home for shows that were founded by its two parent companies, CBS and Warner Bros., which is actually how it derives its name by using the initials of both companies.

The previous companies had established a history of creating TV shows for older teenagers and young adults. However, with mergers between larger corporations and both channels releasing similar content, or at least content aimed at similar audiences, it made sense to merge the two. From then on, the content being created and released became more focused and connected with the audience more strongly, until it became the juggernaut it is today, with an ever-growing list of original titles to its name.

15 Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a show that experienced a fair amount of success on The CW. The network has premiered and canceled many shows within a short period in order to find the shows that work best and this is clearly one that made sense for The CW. It originally premiered in 2015, and ran for four seasons before reaching a natural stopping point.

The rom-com musical series never really spiked in ratings, but the series did enjoy a significant amount of critical acclaim during it's run. The show won Primetime Emmys, Golden Globe Awards, and Critics Choice Awards during its release, validating the quality of the series overall. While it may not be high on everyone's list, it is certainly a show worth revisiting with a great style of comedy and a talented cast and crew behind it.

Related The CW: 10 Shows That Everyone Forgot About Although there have been many successful shows on The CW, not all series can be hits. These shows failed to succeed and have since been forgotten.

14 One Tree Hill

One Tree Hill began airing in 2003, just a few years before The WB joined with UPN to become The CW. Despite this, with the show's nine-season run concluding in 2012, it spent most of it's time airing on The CW, which earned it a spot on this list. The series was also responsible for launching the careers of celebrities like Chad Michael Murray and James Lafferty.

The series is a teenage drama show that follows Lucas (Murray) and Nathan Scott (Lafferty), two brothers from the small town of Tree Hill. There is romance, drama, and plenty of conflict in the show, which made it a huge success among younger viewers, which in turn won the series a Teen Choice Award early in its run. As the series developed, and the characters grew up, the story got deeper and more intriguing, as the characters grew with the audience.

13 iZombie

The CW does many things well, but supernatural drama tends to standout on the network for being innovative, clever, and thoroughly entertaining. iZombie, starring Rose McIver, does all of that and more in a witty, and tense procedural drama series. McIver plays Dr. Liv Moore who has the misfortune of becoming a zombie. However, her death is also one of her greatest assets.

Whenever Liv consumes the brain of the deceased, she is able to inherit some of their memories. Of course, this comes in incredibly handy when the bodies are victims of murder mysteries, and Liv becomes an invaluable asset to the local PD in helping solve crimes. The premise is wacky, but the execution is spot on, and it all adds up to a great time.

Related 25 Best Zombie TV Shows On Netflix Not all shows about the undead are created equal, but these Netflix Zombies are some of the best that TV has to offer.

12 Superman & Lois

Of course, considering Warner Bros. ownership of the DC Comics TV and Film rights, The CW is also home to many incredible superhero shows, including the whole Arrowverse. Superman & Lois was the latest entry into the Arrowverse, with much looser connections to previous shows than its predecessors. However, with a fresh new take on a Superman story where Clark Kent is all grown up, the series proved to be incredibly popular.

Despite many of the other DC Comics-based shows being canceled in order to avoid any confusion or overlap with the incoming James Gunn DCU, Superman & Lois managed to hold its ground and was renewed for a fourth and final season in 2023 (via Variety). The show followed Superman as a father, with two teenage boys, and Lois Lane, who married Clark years prior, and has an established career as a famous journalist. The show was a fresh new take on the age old story, and it had a great cast of actors bringing it to life.

11 Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl ran for six seasons on The CW between 2007 and 2012. The series features a spectacular and talented cast, including Blake Lively, Penn Badgely, Chace Crawford, Taylor Momsen, and many more, along with narration by Kristen Bell. The series was inspired by a novel by Cecily von Ziegesar which also had the same title.

Another teen drama series, Gossip Girl, focused on the lives of the wealthy upper-class adolescents in the heart of New York City's Upper East Side. The show is narrated by an omniscient unknown blogger who regularly posts intimate details about the young socialites, much to their dismay. With a pivotal mystery and the explosive relationships that play out on-screen, Gossip Girl is absolutely one of the best executed teen dramas on TV.

Related How Old The Gossip Girl Cast Was Compared To Their Characters Gossip Girl featured a cast full of talented young actors who went on to have impressive careers, and many of them got their start on the show.

10 Jane The Virgin

Jane the Virgin is a romantic dramedy in the style of a telenovela. Gina Rodriguez plays the leading lady, Jane, who miraculously finds herself pregnant after what should have been a routine check in with her gynecologist. Originally airing between 2014 and 2019, with a total of five increasingly wild seasons. The series is incredibly funny, full of dramatic twists and turns and includes an outstanding cast.

Jane has her whole life turned upside down after a doctor mistakenly artificially inseminates her instead of another woman who paid to have the operation. While that premise alone is dramatic and gripping enough to pull in viewers, the drama only goes up from there. Each season, and most episodes, the series ends on intense cliffhangers with wild twists that work perfectly in this satirical format.

9 Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars is another series that appeared on UPN just before the network merged. The series originally ran from 2004 to 2007, but due to massive fan engagement and crowdfunding, it eventually got a feature film sequel and another season years after the show ended. The series was a teen noir mystery very much in the same tone as things like Nancy Drew, which the self-aware series acknowledged throughout.

The show starred Kristen Bell as the titular lead. Veronica is a young woman with a passion for solving mysteries and helping others. Throughout the show, she frequently showcases her incredible talents, often succeeding in solving cases before the officials do. However, due to her age, she is rarely taken seriously. Overall, a great series with excellent writing and a dedicated fanbase.

Related Veronica Mars: The 10 Best Episodes, According To IMDb Veronica Mars is one of the most beloved cult TV shows of all time, but what are the best episodes in the series, according to IMDb?

8 Everybody Hates Chris

Everybody Hates Chris is a partially autobiographical series based on the life of comedian Chris Rock. The series is narrated by Chris Rock, with a spectacular cast including Tyler James Williams as a younger version of Chris and Terry Crews as his father. Released between 2005 and 2009, the series appeared on both UPN and The CW during its runtime.

The stories contained in the show are obviously hyperbolized in order to make a more entertaining show. However, the sitcom is an outstanding story about a young Black boy growing up in Brooklyn during the 1980s. The series and the performances from the whole cast is outrageously funny, and a show well worth watching again and again.

7 Smallville

Smallville is another series that started on UPN in 2001, but having run for 10 seasons until 2011, most of the story played out on The CW. The series follows a young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) in the opposite position to his Superman & Lois counterpart. Growing up in the small town of Smallville, Clark is desperate to find a balance between the weird alien powers he has, and living a simple and normal life.

Smallville was one of the earliest and best superhero series. The show dived deep into the life of a hero before they don the cape, as they learn to control their abilities, and recognize that their powers require them to live a life apart from their peers. The show did begin to get slower in later seasons, considering Clark didn't even put on the suit until the finale, and even then it was CGI, but the overall show was one of the best from the network.

Related 10 Best Episodes Of Smallville Every Superman Fan Must Watch Smallville was a unique take on the Superman story and had a lot of great episodes that gave Superman fans a new appreciation for Clark Kent.

6 The Vampire Diaries

The Vampire Diaries is another supernatural drama series with a focus on a different group of the living dead as the name suggests. The show ran from 2009 until 2017 on The CW for a total of eight seasons. The show pulled in incredible viewing figures that kept the network renewing the show with each new season.

In the quiet town of Mystic Falls, Elena Gilbert and her friends cross paths with some mysterious strangers. Damon and Stefan Salvatore are vampires, and when they arrive, trouble erupts in the once quiet town. Each episode sees the group go through struggles personally and with one another, as they familiarize themselves with the world of monsters and witches. While it doesn't break new ground for vampires or the supernatural in general, the series was incredibly well-executed and kept fans coming back for more.

5 The 100

In 2014, The CW debuted another new series that took them into the realm of post-apocalyptic sci-fi. The 100 proved to be a roaring success that would go on for seven seasons and get fans talking consistently about the mysteries and stories that would unfold in the show. The series is loosely based on a novel by Kass Green which shares the same title, but The CW's The 100 also forged its own path.

The tone of the series shifts a lot from the first season to the last, but essentially, it follows a group of juvenile delinquents sent to an abandoned and decaying Earth almost 100 years after nuclear war devastated the planet. However, when the kids arrive, the planet is not the empty shell they thought it would be. The intensity and mystery of the series is enough reason to watch alone, but it is also just an outstanding show with an incredible premise.

Related All 7 Seasons Of The 100, Ranked Worst To Best The 100 is a series with seven incredible seasons. Which one ranks the highest as the most enjoyable?

4 The Flash

The Flash is another DC Comics title which was released as a central part of the Arrowverse. While The Flash was released after Arrow, the show quickly overtook its predecessor in popularity and became the flagship shows for the Arrowverse. Released between 2014 and 2023, one of the primary reasons the show came to a halt after nine successful seasons was the incoming DCU.

Starring Grant Gustin as the titular lead, the series saw the inhabitants of Central City fighting a wide array of metahumans. The series followed a procedural crime format, with each episode centering on a new super threat. Despite some seasons slowing down or getting repetitive at times, the show was gripping and one of the absolute best superhero TV shows of all time.

3 Gilmore Girls

Gilmore Girls started out in 2000 on The WB, and ran until 2007, airing on The CW. The show won a Primetime Emmy and continues to appear on many lists of the greatest TV shows of all time (via Variety). The show ran for a total of seven seasons, with a revival miniseries in 2016 titled Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.

The show revolved around the unique relationship between a young mother and her teenage daughter who have an extremely close-knit relationship. Despite their closeness, there is tension, and both girls need to find their path as independent individuals, as well as ensure their connection doesn't fall apart. The series is one of the most genuine and heartwarming shows to come from the network, and despite airing early on The WB, it earns its place in the top three here.

Related Gilmore Girls: The 5 Tallest (& 5 Shortest) Actors In The Cast While some of the actors on Gilmore Girls are super tall, others are much smaller. Here are how the actors stack up when it comes to their heights.

2 Riverdale

Riverdale is a modern phenomenon. The series, which aired from 2017 to 2023, is a loose adaptation of the Archie comics, but the tone of the series is a dark and gritty teen mystery. The show quickly amassed a dedicated fanbase, and the central cast are outrageously talented despite their youth.

Every episode exposes a new dark side of the town after which the series is named, and the people and parents in the community become increasingly implicit. As Archie and his friends, Jughead, Veronica, and Betty set out to uncover what is really going on in their once sleepy town, they stumble into bigger and darker secrets in every episode. The series also features great romance and drama between the central friend group that make all seven seasons bingeable from start to finish.

1 Supernatural

Supernatural could be regarded as one of the flagship series to air on The CW. Beginning in 2005 on The WB, the show was moved over to The CW early on, where it thrived for the next 15 years. The series continued with just as many seasons until it finally came to an end in 2020, but fans continue to call for more seasons of the show despite its longevity.

The show centers on the Winchesters, Sam (Jared Padalecki), and Dean (Jensen Ackles) as they set out across the continental US to fight a wide variety of demons, monsters, and supernatural beings. The series, which was created by Eric Kripke, who went on to develop The Boys for Amazon Prime, is easily the best show that The CW has made to date. From the action and adventure, to the horror elements of the show, it's a perfect blend of genres. In addition, the casting was perfect, and the story continued to be thrilling to the end, even with 327 episodes.