CW crown prince Jared Padalecki hates the network's new direction
"I mean, fuck it. They can’t fire me again," the Supernatural star lamented
Until recently, Jared Padalecki hadn’t really known the pain of a beloved show being canceled before its time. The CW’s Supernatural went on until its original premise was on life support, finally bowing out at the end of its 15th season in 2020. That would not be the case for Walker, the adaptation of Walker, Texas Ranger that Padalecki led and produced for the network a year later. In May, the actor announced on his Instagram that the series had been canceled after its fourth season, a change of plans he told Variety he was still “grieving” in a recent interview.
To say goodbye to a beloved character before he’s said everything you think he needs to say is hard; to do so because the network that’s been home for the past two decades is pivoting to a harebrained bid for relevancy with their supposed 58-year-old demographic is downright devastating. In his Variety interview, Padalecki did not hold back explaining just how frustrated he was about being sidelined for televised board games.
“My understanding is—and again, this is just what I’m told—that Nexstar (the network’s new owner) is going in a different direction with The CW. I mean, they have an hour of ‘Trivial Pursuit’ and an hour of ‘Scrabble’ coming up. I don’t know why you wouldn’t just download the app or grab a board game and play with your friends, but they’re clearly just—what’s that great quote? It’s like, ‘If somebody tells you who they are, ask questions. If somebody shows you who they are, believe them,’” he said.
If it sounds like the actor is talking about a bad breakup, that’s because he essentially is. “I feel like The CW that I was a part of last year is not The CW that I was a part of under [former chairman and CEO] Mark Pedowitz for that entire, almost 20-year stretch,” he continued. “They’re just changing the network around, where it’s not really going to be a TV network as much as it’s going to be, ‘Here’s something fun for an hour that you’ll never watch again, but hopefully you watch it. And it’s cheap!’”