EXCLUSIVE: Sullivan’s Crossing has become one of the shiny new hits on Netflix, entering the streamer’s weekly charts at No. 3, scoring 3M views and 22M hours watched in its first week on the service.
However, the series is not a Netflix original; its first window in the U.S. is on The CW, which has just renewed it for a fourth season.
The Nexstar-owned broadcaster has picked up the series, which stars Morgan Kohan, Chad Michael Murray and Scott Patterson, for another 10-episode run in 2026.
This comes ahead of its Season 3 finale, which airs on The CW tonight (July 16) at 8 p.m.
The CW President Brad Schwartz told Deadline that it was an “easy” decision given that Sullivan’s Crossing, which was created by Virgin River executive producer Roma Roth, is a top three show on the network by both total audience and 18-49.
The series, which is produced by Fremantle, is a co-production between Canada’s Bell Media, which airs it on CTV and Crave in Canada and on The CW. Bell made its renewal decision ahead of its May upfront, but Schwartz said this was just a case of budgeting cycles not being the same.
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Based on the novels by Virgin River author Robyn Carr – there are five books in the series – Sullivan’s Crossing follows neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan (Kohan), who finds herself in legal trouble and returns to her hometown in rural Nova Scotia to reconnect with her estranged father (Patterson), while figuring out her relationship with Cal (Murray).
The third season finale sees the group preparing for the grand opening of a new restaurant, Sully gets a surprise visitor who helps him realize he needs to take a new direction, and Maggie finally reconciles her head with her heart, just as someone from her past arrives with a shocking revelation.
The CW came on board ahead of Season 1, attracted to the “warm” and “cozy” vibe of a show that would do well in “heartland Middle America,” particularly a female audience. It helped develop the series, which came on just as the network was transitioning out of the young adult DC Comics shows that had made up most of its schedule before Nexstar acquired the network in 2022.
Schwartz said the fact that it starred the likes of Chad Michael Murray, who starred in The CW’s One Tree Hill, and Patterson, who starred in The CW’s Gilmore Girls, was part of the attraction and helped with marketing.
The series is exec produced by Roth and Reel World Management’s Christopher E. Perry (Virgin River) as well as Fremantle’s Michela Di Mondo and Hilary Martin. Marc Tetreault, Mark Gingras and Jason Levangie serve as producers with Fremantle distributing globally.
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“I’m very excited with the Season 4 renewal and am extremely grateful to have supportive partners who understand the value of my brand as well as the importance of producing comfort programming,” said Roma Roth. “It’s very gratifying to know Sullivan’s Crossing is resonating so well with our global audience.”
The fact that the show has been a hit on Netflix, which launched it in the U.S. last week, is a bonus.
Schwartz joked that it “takes a pretty big show” to knock Squid Game off the top of the charts.
“It just shows that we were right. We developed a big hit show and audiences are finding it wherever,” he said.
Netflix previously launched the show in Canada and the U.S. will get the third season on the streamer in August. “To be able to produce or co-produce these shows and have them be very successful for The CW, first and foremost, successful on The CW app and then be able to be monetized and maybe even find a whole new second window audience is [great],” he added.
The idea is that success on Netflix will help drive audiences back to The CW for the start of Season 4. It’s also been a boon for its own digital service – Sullivan’s Crossing was the most-streamed show on The CW app in June with average monthly unique users up 13% over last season and last week. When it was added to Netflix, streams went up 153%, according to Schwartz.
“We’ve seen this before,” he said. “We’ve seen it with Schitt’s Creek. We’ve seen it with Breaking Bad. We’ve seen it with Riverdale. We’ve seen shows become really, really successful on their first window platform, and then find a whole [new] audience on the second window platform, and then that audience comes back and finds the new season.”
Schwartz is not bothered that Netflix may take some of the glory. “I feel proud that we’ve created a show that millions of people are watching, and now millions more people are watching, and the goal for us is to be really good marketers, and to go find that audience that is finding it on Netflix and tell them, ‘Hey, Season 4 is coming to The CW’,” he added.
Given that there are five books in the series, he said that the show “still has a lot of runway left”.
