While at The CW portion of the TCA Press Tour, President Mark Pedowitz took some time to talk about new and returning programming.  During the interview, he spoke about why he decided to let go of the Supernatural spin-off, Tribes, and that he’s still hoping to expand the franchise, at some point, how Jane the Virgin came to the network, what made them decide to bring back Beauty and the Beast and where it’s headed in Season 3, why Star-Crossed and The Tomorrow People ultimately didn’t get renewed, what made The 100 a success, and where things are headed on The Vampire Diaries Season 6 and The Originals Season 2.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Question:  Can you talk about letting go of the Supernatural spin-off, Tribes, and the likelihood of another spin-off, at some point?

MARK PEDOWITZ:  Well, the Supernatural spin-off that came in did not creatively quite get to where we wanted to go.  We have told Jeremy Carver and Eric Kripke and Bob Singer that we are very open to doing another spin-off.  We are waiting for them to come in with whatever the new idea or concept is.  I would love to get a Supernatural spin-off done.  I think it’s a great franchise that has a lot of legs to it.

How did Jane The Virgin come to be, and how did it get to you?

PEDOWITZ:  One of the nice things of having relationships over the many years in this industry is that Ben Silverman was very much involved with me when I was at ABC with Ugly Betty.  Ben called myself and Thom Sherman, our head of creative, up and said, “I have a bunch of telenovelas.  Are you interested?”  And we said, “We’d love to see them.”  He pitched us a number of shows, and one title that jumped out for us was Jane The Virgin.  It has some resonance.  It has an interesting storyline.  And it has a feel to it and a title that catches your attention. 

What made you decide to bring back Beauty and the Beast?

PEDOWITZ:  Beauty and the Beast has a very engaged fan base.  It had a very big international following.  We brought it back because it’s a very profitable show for everybody.  That’s the reality to it.

What can you say about Season 3 of that show, and where things will pick back up?

PEDOWITZ:  Well, they’re out in the public.  They’re a couple.  They had to find a life together.  You have these very two Type A people.  How do they make their life work?  They’re not going to be very quiet.  Brad Kern has a really good place to go, in terms of their discovering cases and working together, as they go forward.  He is a medical doctor.  He’ll get his license back.  It’s a couple months later, and by the way, spoiler alert, the sister comes back.

The fans of Star-Crossed were very upset, all over the internet, about the show being cancelled.  Did you listen to their complaints, at all?

PEDOWITZ:  I did receive 90 boxes of pasta this week.  Look, we appreciate the fans and everything they do, and I gather they were upset.  There just weren’t enough of them to keep the show going forward.  That was the rationale.  But, we appreciate their passion for the show.  We understand that that’s what makes shows work.  In this case, there just weren’t enough audience members to stay with it.

Was that also the case with The Tomorrow People?

PEDOWITZ:  The Tomorrow People was a more interesting thing.  Julie Plec, Greg Berlanti and Phil Klemmer did a great job.  The show just did not generate the audience that we hoped to generate.  It did not generate on air as much as we hoped, and it did not generate digitally as much as we hoped.

What made the difference for The 100?

PEDOWITZ:  We felt that with The 100, under Jason Rothenberg had done something that we were looking to get to.  He made a gritty show out of something that was maybe not unique at first, but he made it unique.  And it had a solid following.  We appreciate the critical reviews that we received.  And more importantly, it had a very, very strong digital following.  It was only 13 episodes.  To make sure that we broke a little bit from the model, we ordered 16 episodes for this year.

What can you say about the upcoming seasons of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals?

PEDOWITZ:  That is a conversation with Julie Plec, and I would be under penalty of some painful thing, if I gave it out.  But that said, when it is organic, we’ll do a couple of cross-overs.  There will be some aspect of Mystic Falls this year that will make it difficult, as the season ended last year, for the supernatural creatures to get in.  And for The Originals, the question is whether Klaus and Elijah can win back the city of New Orleans, after they were fooled by the werewolves.

Do you know how long it will be until they bring Damon (Ian Somerhalder) out of purgatory?

PEDOWITZ:  I cannot give you that because then I will be pummeled.