The CW is continuing to hand out early renewals.
The network has renewed their drama series Beauty & The Beast for a 13 episode fourth season – months before the show’s third season has even premiered. The show’s third season is set to launch on The CW on Thursday May 21st at 8/7c.
Beauty and the Beast follows the complex relationship between Detective Catherine Chandler and Vincent Keller, a former marine who was reported KIA in Afghanistan in 2002 and saved Catherine from the assassins who murdered her mother several years ago. The drama series is produced by CBS Television Studios and stars Kristin Kreuk, Jay Ryan, Austin Basis, Nicole Anderson, Nina Lisandrello, Max Brown, Brian White and Sendhil Ramamurthy
Beauty & The Beast narrowly swung a third season renewal last May, after it suffered a dip in the ratings compared to its debut run. That said, the drama has previously been described as a “cash cow” for international distributor CBS Studios International and does well on online platforms, including Hulu.
With the pick-up for a fourth season, The CW has renewed some nine series for the 2015-2016 broadcast season; after having previously granted renewals to Arrow, The Flash, Supernatural, Jane The Virgin, The 100, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals and Reign.
The only series still awaiting word on a pick-up is perennial bubble show Hart Of Dixie and the yet-to-premiere The Messengers and iZombie. But given the large number of returning series, the network has little space left on their 2015-2016 schedule, especially as they are looking to pick up 1-2 new dramas out of their current pilot slate.
