The CW set their sights high with their new edgy anti-hero drama Arrow - and it turns out the emerald archer hit the bull’s eye by pulling in the highest ratings the network has seen in three years. Arrow’s debut drew in over 4 million viewers and a 1.3 rating in the 18-49 demographic, which the network hasn’t seen since the premiere of Vampire Diaries back in 2009.

In another rare ratings feat Arrow’s first hunt actually tied NBC's new Wednesday night comedies Animal Practice and Guys With Kids for the hour in the demo and total viewers. The second episode of Supernatural season 8 also received a superhero assist from Arrow by pulling the veteran drama’s numbers up to 2.6 million viewers and a 1 rating from last week’s season premiere.

The premier episode of Arrow gave some brief insight into the backstory of Starling City’s new protector, who is based on DC Comic’s bow-wielding superhero Green Arrow.  While the pilot didn’t exactly illustrate how a rich playboy trains himself to become a nearly-unstoppable crime fighting machine, it did however show the missing Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) return home with a new purpose after five years of being marooned on an deserted island. Now as Arrow, Queen seeks to clean up the Starling City streets, to right the mysterious wrongs of his father.

Recently Arrow himself Stephen Amell sat down with Zap2it, where the Canadian actor touched upon the heavy workload of Arrow and his interest in doing his own stunts:

"I do have a really good stunt guy. We barely used him for the second episode, but we used him a bit for the pilot. The insurance on the pilot was tougher, because it's a pilot, so if there's a production delay, it's just dead. We had seventeen days to shoot that episode. Now, we have eight days [per episode], and a lot of the shots are more like steady cams and single shots, so it has to be me.

There will be some times where it is my stunt double because of scheduling. I can't be in two places at once. It's never me saying, "When is my day over?" It's more, "When do they legally have to get me off of the lot, based on when I have to be back the next day?" The first call is a big thing in the acting world, and in the union world. There needs to be a 12 hour period, and I need it. Although I mentally prepared myself for six day weeks, six-seven day weeks. It's busy. It's good, though. It's definitely good."

Arrow Ratings- Stephen Amell as Arrow

The strong ratings for Arrow reflect well on The CW’s gamble to branch out and bring new viewers to the network with a darker and edgy program. Whether the network’s other somewhat dicey wager in the updated cop drama Beauty and the Beast pays off as well remains to be seen, but rest assured we’ll let you know.

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Catch Arrow Wednesday’s @ 8/7c on the CW.

Source: Futon Critic & Zap2it