Fancast – 
That ‘Smallville‘ fans are being treated to a two-hour “movie” event on February 5 is testament to the particularly super season that has been unspooling since fall.
“Creatively, we’ve been really happy with the show this year,” CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff told me at a Saturday cocktail party toasting the success of ‘Vampire Diaries‘ and arrival of ‘Life Unexpected.’ “And honestly, we were pleasantly surprised because it’s very hard for a show approaching its 10th year to find that much new life in it.”
Helping lift ‘Smallville’ to a new level this season has been some long-awaited movement in the iconic Clark/Lois romance, which until recently had only been teased and/or explored through storytelling cheats.
“Everyone’s been dying to see it,” Ostroff concurs. “The viewers have been really wanting that relationship, and I think the way [the writers] have been handling it is great, I really do.”
Although Ostroff isn’t yet able to pull the trigger on a Season 10 pick-up for ‘Smallville’ – “It’s only January,” she reminds – she is quick to cite the numbers the show is managing in its new Friday berth. “We’re up in 18-to-34 adults, 18-to-34 women…. So far, so good!”
It should be interesting to see how large a crowd turns out for the two-hour “Absolute Justice” episode, which features such Justice Leaguers as Hawkman (played by ‘Stargate’ alum Michael Shanks), Dr. Fate (Brent Stait, ‘Andromeda’) and Stargirl (Britt Irvin, ‘V’). To draw extra eyes to the extra-special outing, Ostroff says The CW will “absolutely” supersize its promotional effort.
“We’re going to make it an event,” she says, “and do a big push behind it. We want it to be satisfying and a big deal for the fans.”
‘Smallville’ returns with new episodes on January 22.
