We’ve known for a while that the Arrow and The Flash crossover episodes were seen as a success over at the CW, not to mention fun for fans and the actors and writers themselves. This week at the TCA press tour, CW President Mark Pedowitz announced that the network sees the Arrow and The Flash crossing over in the future, likely as an “annual event.”
The Arrow and The Flash crossover episodes did really well in the ratings, and absolutely helped the CW during the November sweeps, so it’s no surprise that Pedowitz also said that he’d like to see Arrow and The Flash cross over during the “fourth quarter” every year. According to IGN, he wants the crossover events to remain something special, and he sees them, "in the vein of a Doctor Who Christmas Special."
It's good to keep in mind that the more shows do cross over, the more fans do get desensitized to the idea of one show affecting another. However, when the show’s crossed over in 2014, it was a special event, made better by the fact the episodes were extraordinarily well thought out and did help to enhance the plots of both shows moving forward. If there are enough ideas to continue allowing the gang in Starling City and Central City to help one another out, I’m all for event programming. And while doing the crossover in the later part of the year is pretty predictable, event programming of that ilk, like the Doctor Who Christmas Special, has been known to work.
Fans of Arrow and The Flash should certainly be happy that the CW is taking the crossover possibilities seriously. It probably helps that the ratings were extremely high for both the Tuesday and Wednesday night outings of the big event. The Flash episode of the crossover event brought in 4.3 million total viewers while the Arrow episode that followed a night later brought in 3.8 million total viewers. It was the highest episode of both shows after each show’s premiere, which is telling. People were invested. And some people who didn’t normally watch either Arrow or The Flash decided to hop nights and tune in. People wanted to see fun moments like this:
I’m not sure either superhero drama will be able to maintain those ratings heights if crossing over becomes an annual thing. However, as long as people are still interested in both superheroes interacting, look for them to crossover annually. Because, why not?
The CW’s The Flash returns to the schedule on January 20 at 8 p.m. ET. Arrow returns on January 21, also at 8 p.m. ET. Check out the rest of the 2015 midseason TV premiere dates here.
