Supergirl season 1

The first season of the American television series Supergirl, which is based on the DC Comics character Supergirl / Kara Zor-El, a costumed superheroine who is the cousin to Superman and one of the last surviving Kryptonians.

Supergirl was ordered to series in May 2015, and later picked up for a full season in November 2015, with filming taking place primarily in Los Angeles. Melissa Benoist stars in the title role, and is joined by principal cast members Mehcad Brooks, Chyler Leigh, Jeremy Jordan, David Harewood, and Calista Flockhart.

The series premiere was watched by 12.96 million viewers, tied with NBC's Blindspot as the top-rated series premiere of the 2015–16 fall season. The season, which premiered on CBS on October 26, 2015, and ran until April 18, 2016, over 20 episodes, overall received positive reviews. The series was renewed for a second season on May 12, 2016, and moved to The CW. This is the only season to air on CBS.

On both the original broadcast, and still on some streaming services the order of episodes 4 and 5 is reversed. However, they are in this listed order on home video.

The hosts of The Talk, Sara Gilbert, Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Aisha Tyler and Sheryl Underwood, cameo as themselves.

By September 2014, Warner Bros. Television was looking to create a television series centered around Kara Zor-El / Supergirl. Executive producers for the series include Greg Berlanti (also a creator/producer for Arrow and The Flash), Ali Adler, who were both writing the script, and Berlanti Productions' Sarah Schechter. DC Comics' Geoff Johns was also expected to be part of the project. Titles under consideration for the series included Super and Girl. Berlanti confirmed the show shortly after, and stated it was in development and had yet to be pitched to networks. On September 20, it was announced that CBS had landed Supergirl with a series commitment, with an expected premiere in 2015 of the 2015–16 television season.

The show was officially picked up to series on May 6, 2015. On November 30, 2015, CBS ordered an additional seven episodes of Supergirl, for a full season of 20 episodes.

In January 2015, CBS Entertainment chairwoman Nina Tassler revealed the show would be a procedural, saying, "There will be [crime] cases, but what [executive producers] Ali Adler and Greg Berlanti pitched was a real series arc for her. The beauty of it is now with shows like The Good Wife and Madam Secretary, you can have serialized story elements woven into a case of the week. She's a crime solver, so she's going to have to solve a crime." In July 2015, Adler spoke on how much influence Superman would have on the show, saying, "Our prototype is the way the president is seen on Veep. It's certainly [inspired by] so much of what Julia Louis-Dreyfus' character goes through. Ultimately, this is a show about Supergirl and we really want to see it through her lens."