Looking for a lot more blood-sucking drama on The CW? Well, you're going to get it.

The little-network-that-could has given a full season pickup to "Vampire Diaries," ensuring that 22 episodes of the show will be made. It premiered Sept. 10 in the timeslot that for years was held by "Smallville," breaking up the "Smallville"/"Supernatural" pairing that has existed pretty much the entire run of "Supernatural."

But it hasn't been a disappointment to The CW. "Vampire Diaries" premiered with a 3.1 rating/5 share, nearly 15 percent better than "Smallville's" season premiere a year before. However, ratings did come back down to Earth, falling 19 percent in its second week and holding there ever since.

"Vampire Diaries'" 2.5/4 average overnight rating after six episodes is, however, slightly behind the 2.6/4 that "Smallville" earned in the same run, but is ahead of "Smallville's" overall final average rating last season of 2.4/4.

One of the drawbacks to "Vampire Diaries'" rise is that it didn't give the expected boost to "Supernatural" as some might thought. "Supernatural" is losing 28 percent of its lead-in audience from "Vampire Diaries," much worse than its dropoff from "Smallville," which was typically a little more than 12 percent.

"Supernatural" is averaging a 1.8/3 so far this year, a 14 percent dropoff from last year despite its lead-in audience remaining stable.

"Smallville" has had a tougher time since its move to Fridays, losing more than 37 percent of its average audience from the year before.

"Vampire Diaries" airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW, followed by "Supernatural" at 9 p.m.