The CW announced early renewals for next season, and one of the more surprising picks is Supernatural.  The show will officially be back for a sixth season despite creator Eric Kripke's original five-year plan for the series.  While Erick Kripke will be back, EW's Michael Ausiello is reporting that Kripke will no longer be the showrunner.  He will stay on to work on Supernatural, but according to Ausiello, writer Sera Gamble will take over showrunner duties.

In addition to Supernatural, the CW has also renewed America's Next Top Model, The Vampire Diaries, 90210 and Gossip Girl.  The first two are hardly surprising since The Vampire Diaries and ANTM are the networks two highest-rated shows, but the others are a bit surprising.

Gossip Girl has struggled in the ratings during its third season and the show has been off the air for a few months, waiting to return March 8.  Meanwhile, 90210 had a sub-par second season paired with the disastrous Melrose Place reboot.

Conspicuously absent from the list are One Tree Hill and Smallville, two of the networks long-running shows that are solid in the ratings.  One Tree Hill routinely beat Gossip Girl on Monday nights while Smallville is the CW's third highest-rated show behind The Vampire Diaries and ANTM.

Also missing are freshman shows Melrose Place (which seems unlikely to return) and Life Unexpected (a critical darling with middling ratings).  But there's still time for both.

For now, the Supernatural fans can rejoice that Sam and Dean will still be fighting demons next season, while fans of vampires, models and sexy high school and college students will still have a place on the CW.


Source: The CW
(Image courtesy of the CW)