Kreisberg, co-creator of Arrow and The Flash, had joined the series as a writer and executive producer; and Arrow / The Flash and Smallville alum Glen Winter was announced to be directing the pilot. Principal photography for the pilot took place from March 4 to March 29, 2015. Filming locations included the Warner Bros. lot, where Lois and Clark was shot. Each episode cost approximately $3 million to broadcast, which is one of the highest license fees ever for a first year show. Filming wrapped in March 2016. Music The score for the season was composed by Blake Neely. Release Broadcast The season began airing on CBS on October 26, 2015, and ended on April 18, 2016. The season premiered on October 29, 2015, in the United Kingdom on Sky One. The series premiered in Australia on December 6, 2015, on FOX8. In Canada, Supergirl aired in a sim-subbed simulcast on Global with the American broadcast in the season. Home media Reception Ratings Critical response The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 92% approval rating with an average rating of 7.53/10 based on 71 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Melissa Benoist shines as Superman's plucky little cousin in Supergirl, a family-friendly comic-book adaptation that ditches cynicism for heart." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 75 out of 100 based on 33 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Max Nicholson of IGN gave the season a score of 7.3 out of 10, along with the verdict, "While Supergirl's first season disappointed in several key areas -- namely its villains and romantic subplots -- Supergirl herself was spot-on, and the story offered several surprising twists (e.g., Hank Henshaw as J'onn J'onzz). Yes, not all episodes were winners, but when the series flew, it soared, especially in terms of emotional impact." Reviewing the season as a whole, Colin Campbell of Polygon criticized the costumes, fight sequences, the ludicrous villains, the predictable nature of the plot, and felt that the title character was not "Super enough", but noted that "unless your interest is in seeing yet another comic-book franchise transferred reverently to the screen they're of only marginal concern." Evan Valentine of Collider ranked Supergirl eighth in his list of the worst and best superhero television series of 2015 and wrote, "Aside from presenting the best Supergirl we’ve seen in live action with Melissa Benoist [...] it managed to capture