It’s not exactly a revelation that the CW doesn’t have much of a future, which is really where any discussion of Smallville has to begin. Dawn Ostroff first wrecked UPN and then went on to wreck the CW. At this point the CW’s ratings are in the toilet, it has no workable online viewing strategy, and its high profile attempts to remake 90210 and create an All Gossip Girls network has failed badly. Smallville, the network’s highest rated series, is headed for Season 9. Its ratings have been declining too, but they’re still above the rest of the network. Which is sad when you consider that they’ve been below 4 million for a while now. The question for the CW is whether Smallville is worth spending insane amounts of money on in order to get a Season 10. The CW has tried the spinoff strategy before, but as turns out no one wanted to watch any of the spinoffs. That just leaves the inevitable, Smallville can’t continue forever. There isn’t enough budget and the show is essentially now Superman, just without the costume. It might somehow claw out a Year 10, but it’s not too clear that even the CW will make it to then.