Jared Padalecki did not mince words while criticizing The CW for its “cheap content” strategy.
The actor, 41, a longtime fixture of the network’s primetime lineup, starred on the crime drama Walker for four seasons until its cancellation in May. The CW aired the show’s final episode on Wednesday, June 26. The same day, Variety published an interview with Padalecki in which he unleashed his true feelings about his former employer.
“I feel like The CW that I was a part of last year is not The CW that I was a part of under [former chairman and CEO] Mark Pedowitz for that entire, almost 20-year stretch,” Padalecki told the outlet. “They’re just changing the network around, where it’s not really going to be a TV network as much as it’s going to be, ‘Here’s something fun for an hour that you’ll never watch again, but hopefully you watch it. And it’s cheap!’ And I hate to say that, but I’m just being honest. I mean, f—k it. They can’t fire me again. I’m just being brutally honest. I think it felt to me like they were looking for really easy, cheap content that they could fill up time with.”
Late last month, Padalecki revealed in an emotional social media post that Walker had been canceled.
“Howdy y’all,” he wrote on May 21. “It is with a heavy heart that I share this news with you. #Walker will not be airing on #CW for a fifth season. It’s a tough piece of news to be sure, but we are SO thankful for the #WalkerFamily that has been built, both on set and off.”
Walker — a reboot of the 1990s drama Walker, Texas Ranger — premiered on The CW in January 2021 with Padalecki in the titular role as Cordell Walker and also serving as the show’s executive producer. It followed Cordell’s return home after a two-year undercover assignment investigating the death of his wife, Emily Walker, who was played by Padalecki’s real-life wife, Genevieve Padalecki. (Married since 2010, the couple share three children: Thomas, 12, Shepherd, 10 and Odette, 7.)
“We’re just about a month [removed] from the announcement that we weren’t picked up again, so it’s kind of funny how life imitates art, or art imitates life,” Padalecki told Variety. “What Cordell went through in the finale and what I’m going through now are mirrors. I’ll be 42 next month. Am I waiting until I’m 60 and I have 800 episodes of television or something? I have to live my life now. … I think, ironically, in trying to tell somebody else’s story for so long, I’ve realized that my story has value too.”
