The Best TV Shows on The CW

Every The CW Show Ranked From Best To Worst

Highlighting The CW’s quality programming, Gilmore Girls and Smallville stand out, premiering in 2000 and 2001. Check out the most acclaimed shows on The CW, with a catalog of over 20 series updated for August 2025. From 2000 through to 2021, The CW has accumulated a diverse collection of over 20 television shows.

  • The Originals
    The Originals (2013)8.6

    A spin-off from The Vampire Diaries and set in New Orleans, The Originals centers on the Mikaelson siblings, otherwise known as the world's original vampires: Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah. Now Klaus must take down his protégé, Marcel, who is now in charge of New Orleans, in order to re-take his city, as he originally built New Orleans. Klaus departed from the city after being chased down by his father Mikael, while it was being constructed and Marcel took charge. As Klaus has returned after many years, his ego has provoked him to become the king of the city. "Every King needs an heir" says Klaus, accepting the unborn child. The child is a first to be born to a hybrid and a werewolf.

  • Riverdale
    Riverdale (2017)8.4

    Set in the present, the series offers a bold, subversive take on Archie, Betty, Veronica and their friends, exploring the surreality of small-town life, the darkness and weirdness bubbling beneath Riverdale’s wholesome facade.

  • Supernatural
    Supernatural (2005)8.3

    When they were boys, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. Subsequently, their father raised them to be soldiers. He taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America ... and he taught them how to kill it. Now, the Winchester brothers crisscross the country in their '67 Chevy Impala, battling every kind of supernatural threat they encounter along the way.

  • The Vampire Diaries
    The Vampire Diaries (2009)8.3

    The story of two vampire brothers obsessed with the same girl, who bears a striking resemblance to the beautiful but ruthless vampire they knew and loved in 1864.

  • Smallville
    Smallville (2001)8.2

    The origins of the world’s greatest hero–from Krypton refugee Kal-el’s arrival on Earth through his tumultuous teen years to Clark Kent’s final steps toward embracing his destiny as the Man of Steel.

  • Gossip Girl
    Gossip Girl (2007)8.2

    An exclusive group of privileged teens from a posh prep school on Manhattan's Upper East Side whose lives revolve around the blog of the all-knowing albeit ultra-secretive Gossip Girl.

  • All American
    All American (2018)8.2

    When a rising high school football player from South Central L.A. is recruited to play for Beverly Hills High, the wins, losses and struggles of two families from vastly different worlds - Compton and Beverly Hills - begin to collide. Inspired by the life of pro football player Spencer Paysinger.

  • Superman & Lois
    Superman & Lois (2021)8.1

    After years of facing megalomaniacal supervillains, monsters wreaking havoc on Metropolis, and alien invaders intent on wiping out the human race, The Man of Steel aka Clark Kent and Lois Lane come face to face with one of their greatest challenges ever: dealing with all the stress, pressures and complexities that come with being working parents in today's society.

  • Gilmore Girls
    Gilmore Girls (2000)7.9

    Set in the charming town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, the series follows the captivating lives of Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, a mother/daughter pair who have a relationship most people only dream of.

  • The 100
    The 100 (2014)7.9

    100 years in the future, when the Earth has been abandoned due to radioactivity, the last surviving humans live on an ark orbiting the planet — but the ark won't last forever. So the repressive regime picks 100 expendable juvenile delinquents to send down to Earth to see if the planet is still habitable.

  • One Tree Hill
    One Tree Hill (2003)7.8

    In Tree Hill, North Carolina two half brothers share a last name and nothing else. Brooding, blue-collar Lucas is a talented street-side basketball player, but his skills are appreciated only by his friends at the river court. Popular, affluent Nathan basks in the hero-worship of the town, as the star of his high school team. And both boys are the son of former college ball player Dan Scott whose long ago choice to abandon Lucas and his mother Karen, will haunt him long into his life with wife Deb and their son Nathan.

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)7.8

    When four pet turtles were bathed in alien ooze, they began to mutate and became the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Raised in New York City sewers by their foster father and wise sensei, Master Splinter, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael wage war against crime. Led by Master Splinter, the four turtles learn the ancient martial art of Ninjitsu, mastering skills of stealth, weapons, and fighting. They stop evildoers in all forms, whether barbaric gangs, lowlife crooks, deranged cyborgs, or even the crime syndicate The Foot, led by their archrival, The Shredder.

  • Veronica Mars
    Veronica Mars (2004)7.8

    In the fictional town of Neptune, California, student Veronica Mars progresses from high school to college while moonlighting as a private investigator under the tutelage of her detective father.

  • The Flash
    The Flash (2014)7.8

    After being struck by lightning, CSI investigator Barry Allen awakens from a nine-month coma to discover he has been granted the gift of super speed. Teaming up with S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry takes on the persona of The Flash, the Fastest Man Alive, to protect his city.

  • iZombie
    iZombie (2015)7.8

    A medical student who becomes a zombie joins a Coroner's Office in order to gain access to the brains she must reluctantly eat so that she can maintain her humanity. But every brain she eats, she also inherits their memories and must now solve their deaths with help from the Medical examiner and a police detective.

  • The Game
    The Game (2006)7.7

    When her boyfriend Derwin Davis is chosen as the new third-string wide receiver for the San Diego Sabers, Melanie Barnett decides to attend a local college so she can be with him. While Derwin worries about the plays on the field, Melanie adjusts to her new lifestyle. She gets a play-by-play account of the lives and relationships among NFL wives, girlfriends and mom/managers who use their best game to help their men stay on the field and on their arm.

  • Supergirl
    Supergirl (2015)7.3

    Twenty-four-year-old Kara Zor-El, who was taken in by the Danvers family when she was 13 after being sent away from Krypton, must learn to embrace her powers after previously hiding them. The Danvers teach her to be careful with her powers, until she has to reveal them during an unexpected disaster, setting her on her journey of heroism.

  • DC's Legends of Tomorrow
    DC's Legends of Tomorrow (2016)7.3

    When heroes alone are not enough ... the world needs legends. Having seen the future, one he will desperately try to prevent from happening, time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter is tasked with assembling a disparate group of both heroes and villains to confront an unstoppable threat — one in which not only is the planet at stake, but all of time itself. Can this ragtag team defeat an immortal threat unlike anything they have ever known?

  • Arrow
    Arrow (2012)6.8

    Spoiled billionaire playboy Oliver Queen is missing and presumed dead when his yacht is lost at sea. He returns five years later a changed man, determined to clean up the city as a hooded vigilante armed with a bow.

  • America's Next Top Model
    America's Next Top Model (2003)5.3

    Aspiring models compete for a chance to break into the business with a panel of judges critiquing their progress throughout the competition.