I don't get The CW... I really don't.

Sooooo... fans were not happy one bit Thursday when they found out that new mid-season premiere Supernatural and Smallville episodes that were going to air tonight were going to be pushed back a week for reruns of The Vampire Diaries and Nikita. And then we found out their excuse:

"Contrary to rumors, it's not about preemptions. The CW hopes that re-airing the "The Vampire Diaries" in a timeslot that doesn't compete with ratings juggernaut "American Idol" will help to boost total viewership."

This reasoning makes no sense. Idol to me is no excuse. They should have known for months that it'd be competition; hell, Idol has existed for longer than the CW.

Not to mention Supernatural and Smallville have both been up against other popular shows on the other major networks for years (CSI, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty, The Office, Survivor, etc.) and they never got the kind of treatment The Vampire Diaries and Nikita are getting with Idol. Oh, and they'll just be in the SAME EXACT predicament next week, which makes this schedule exercise all the more pointless.

I think the worst thing about it is the little notice. If they made this decision a week or two ago, then I'm sure most people wouldn't have been so pissed. Or if they were, people would have been like "well, this sucks" and then moved on with their day instead of flooding the CW with tweets and phone calls. And people ARE pissed. Twitter exploded when this news came out. I don't venture into fandom often, but today it proves all the more that fandoms of any kind don't like to be toyed with.

I think most networks would not make schedule decisions like this at the last minute. You don't get all your fans' hopes and expectations up with two months' worth of hype and promotion (especially when said promotion is minuscule in comparison to a show like The Vampire Diaries) and randomly decide to make a change for a ridiculous reason like this with just barely over 24 hours' notice. It's certainly not the end of the world, but it IS a poor programming choice.

Smallville has served The WB/CW for 10 years and is in its final season, and Supernatural has been going for 5 years into 6; both have fans worldwide (and if you don't believe me, Google for pics of Supernatural fan conventions in Australia, the new animated series that's being made for Japan, and check out YouTube videos of promotional ads and so forth for the show in places like the UK, Canada, and Australia) and deserve better treatment than this.

But considering this is the same network that canceled Everwood, treated Reba like crap even though it was one of their most successful shows, and gave 7th Heaven an extra season it desperately didn't need after a much hyped original series finale, I'm not surprised.

Oh, and one final note: I would appreciate it in the future when publications report on Supernatural that they would be so kind as to mention that dudes like the show too. Thanks.