COVID-19 is impacting yet another production. The Flash will have a shortened season due to the coronavirus production woes. This has delayed the season 6 finale which is forcing the show to go on hiatus early with the remaining season 6 episodes to air later in 2020.
The Flash has enough episodes to get it to May 19 and after that, the show will go on hiatus as the network tries to figure when exactly in 2020 to air the remaining episodes. In its place, the new DC-inspired series Stargirl will be moved up a week and take over The Flash’s traditional Tuesday slot. The Flash isn’t the only CW show to have to go through this. The Vampire Diaries spinoff series, Legacies, will air episode 16 as its season finale on March 26 and will be replaced by the second season on In The Dark. Supernatural has finished 18 of its planned episodes for its fifteenth and final season but sound work and special effects weren’t completed on the last few that were shot so they will be held for a later date. As of now, Supernatural will air up until March 30 and then replace by episodes of Whose Line is it Anyway? A decision is still being made on how to handle airing the remaining episodes of the final season because two more episodes still need to be shot and it remains uncertain when productions can get back to work.
Out of all the networks, The CW has been one of the first to try to solidify a concrete scheduling plan in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fox’s Empire, also in its final season, still has one or two more episodes to shoot but no plans have been made about pumping brakes and going on hiatus until these episodes can be shot. The remaining networks, seem content with running the new episodes they have for their current series’ and just accepting the fact that they’re being cut short with scripts planned to finish out the current season likely shifted to next season or scrapped completely. Grey’s Anatomy became of the first big shows to announce that they will not resume production on their 16th season and the April 9 episode will now serve as its season finale.
