Filming dates

Filming Dates by Season

Supernatural takes 8 working days to film an episode. Production runs Monday to Friday. If Episode 1 starts on a Monday, the last day of filming is the following Wednesday and Episode 2 starts filming on Thursday.

There is not much public information about the shooting schedule for the early seasons of Supernatural so most dates are based on fan reports, dates encoded in on-set photos, and educated guesses. In later seasons the crew, guest actors, and directors started tweeting during production. Some directors (e.g. Guy Bee) have tweeted pictures of Call Sheets which include 'Day N of 8' along with the date, which makes it definitive when they were shooting.

A normal season has 22 episodes a year. Production begins around the beginning of July and finishes around the end of March. There are very few holidays. They include the first Monday of September for Labor Day, the second Monday of October for Canadian Thanksgiving; the entire 4th week of November for US Thanksgiving; and 2-3 weeks at Christmas. Season 3 was shortened to 16 episodes because of the writers strike; Season 7 was extended to 23 episodes.

Season 1

Ep #	Dates	Notes
1.01	Mar 2005	Exif data on promo pics... The scene on the bridge where Dean and Sam argue was filmed approx. 3/9/05. Scene in motel room ('no chick flick moments') was filmed approx. 3/17/05. There is also footage from filming the episode in an early interview that shows the date on the director clapboard to be 3/15/05 (this scene appears to be the struggle between Sam and Dean in Sam's apartment early in the episode). . Also Jared at 1st Paleyfest talked about the time gap between the pilot and next ep.
1.02	Late Jul 2005	Exif data on promo pics, plus fan pics. There was a picture taken by a fan showing a graveyard scene set up for SPN on July 25. Looks like the opening scene where Sam visits Jess' grave in Palo Alto. Exif data on promo pics for the scene in the wendigo's lair is 7/27/05.
1.03	Mid Aug 2005	Exif data on promo pics taken outside Bill Carlton's house shows date of 8/17/05.
1.04	Late Aug - Early Sep 2005	Exif data on promo pics for one of the plane scenes, plus the final scene when they listen to the voicemail on John's phone show date of 8/30/05. Plus when Jared and Jensen did the commentary for this episode, one of them had remarked something about the episode being filmed in September.
1.05	Early-Mid Sep 2005	Exif data on promo pics for the scene of the boys' confrontation with Bloody Mary has date of 9/8/05. There is also a fan sighting/report dated 9/15/05.
1.06	Mid-Late Sept 2005	Exif data on promo pics for the opening scene at the gas station (where Sam gets the email from Rebecca) and a scene in the sewers show dates of 9/21/05 and 9/22/05.
1.07	Late Jul - Early Aug 2005	Filmed as the third episode but shifted around in the schedule. This was confirmed by one of the producers in the season 1 companion. Exif data on promo photos (for scene where the boys meet Laurie and the scene near the end in the church) show dates of 8/4/05 and 8/8/05.
1.08	Late Sep - Early Oct 2005	Exif data on promo pics during the scene where the boys are holed up in Larry's house to fight off the bugs show a date of 10/4/05. There is also a fan sighting from September 30 about filming in an area that looks to be under construction (which is assumed to be the development where Larry's house is).
1.09	Early-Mid Oct 2005	Exif data on promo pics showing the boys with Missouri (and later John with Missouri) show a date of 10/6/05.
1.10	Mid-Late Oct 2005	A script for auction has shown a final/blue draft date of October 18, 2005. Filming probably took place around this date or shortly thereafter. Plus Exif data on promo pics (mainly the scene of confrontation between Angry!Sam and Dean) show a date of 10/24/05.
1.11	Early-Mid Nov 2005	There was a fan report dated around November 8 that mentioned SPN filming in a certain location. It sounded like it was one of the scenes of Dean and the sheriff. Also, Exif data on promo pics taken of the scene in the orchard (Sam, Dean and Emily) are dated 11/18/05. Finally, there are bits from the season 1 gag reel that show Sam and Dean at the bus stop where they said goodbye to Emily. They appear to be takes of the boys giving a holiday greeting. A clapboard shows the date of 11/15/05.
1.12	Late Oct - Early Nov 2005	Filmed before 1.11. Exif data on promo pics showing the boys at Roy's healing tent, Sam and Dean in the rawhead's lair, and Sam outside Roy's house show dates of 11/4/05 and 11/8/05.
1.13	Late Nov - Early Dec 2005	Exif data on promo pics showing the boys at Roy's healing tent, Sam and Dean in the rawhead's lair, and Sam outside Roy's house show dates of 11/4/05 and 11/8/05.
1.14	Early-Mid Dec 2005	No promo pics from this one, but there is a scene during the season 1 gag reel that appears to be from the scene where the boys are questioning one of Max's old neighbors and Sam starts having his visions again. The clapboard goes down and shows a date of 12/9/05.
1.15
1.16
1.17
1.18
1.19	2006
1.20	2006
1.21	2006
1.22	Spring 2006

Season 2

Ep #	Dates	Notes
2.01	2006
2.02	2006
2.03	2006
2.04
2.05
2.06
2.07
2.08
2.09
2.10
2.11
2.12
2.13
2.14
2.15
2.16
2.17
2.18
2.19
2.20	2007
2.21	2007
2.22	2007

Season 3

Ep #	Dates	Notes
3.01	July 2007	(probably includes july 20th; fan reports from shooting location)
3.02	2007
3.03	2007
3.04
3.05
3.06
3.07
3.08
3.09
3.10
3.11
3.12
3.13
3.14
3.15	2008
3.16	2008

The Writers Guild of America strike began Monday, November 5, 2007, and ended February 26, 2008. As the strike began, scripts which were already written were allowed to be filmed, but no new writing could be done. After the strike, new scripts had to be written before filming could begin. Supernatural was able to produce 4 (?confirm this) episodes after the strike and before the end of the shooting season.

Season 4

Ep #	Dates	Notes
4.01	2008
4.02	2008
4.03	2008
4.04
4.05
4.06
4.07
4.08
4.09
4.10
4.11
4.12
4.13
4.14
4.15
4.16
4.17
4.18
4.19
4.20
4.21	2009
4.22	2009

Season 5

Ep #	Dates	Notes
5.01	2 Jul 2009 - 13 Jul 2009
5.02	15 Jul 2009 - 24 Jul 2009
5.03	24 Jul 2009 - 5 Aug 2009
5.04	6 Aug 2009 - 17 or 18 Aug 2009	best guess
5.05	18 Aug 2009 - 27 Aug 2009
5.06	28 Aug 2009 - 9 Sep 2009	best guess
5.07	10 Sep 2009 - 21 Sep 2009
5.08	22 Sep 2009 - 1 Oct 2009	best guess
5.09	2 Oct 2009 - 14 Oct 2009	best guess; Canadian Thanksgiving 12 Oct
5.10	15 Oct 2009 - 26 Oct 2009
5.11	27 Oct 2009 - 5 Nov 2009
5.12	6 Nov 2009 - 18 Nov 2009
5.13	19 Nov 2009 - 2 Dec 2009	best guess; Production gets US Thanksgiving week off
5.14	3 Dec 2009 - 14 Dec 2009	best guess. Production shuts down for Xmas vacation.
5.15	4 Jan 2010 - 11 or 12 Jan 2010	best guess
5.16	12 Jan 2010 - 21 Jan 2010	best guess
5.17	21 Jan 2010 - 1 Feb 2010	Start date confirmed, feb 1?
5.18	1 Feb 2010 - 10 Feb 2010	best guess
5.19	10 Feb 2010 - 23 Feb 2010	best guess
5.20	24 Feb 2010 - 5 Mar 2010	Start date based on tweet by Clif (@bodyguard4jandj)
5.21	8 Mar 2010 - 17 Mar 2010	best guess
5.22	18 Mar 2010 - 30 or 31 Mar 2010	best guess

Season 6

Ep #	Dates	Notes
6.01	13 Jul 2010 - 22 Jul 2010
6.02	23 Jul 2010 - 4 Aug 2010
6.03	5 Aug 2010 - 16 Aug 2010
6.04	30 Jun 2010 - 12 Jul 2010	Directed by Jensen; filmed first so he could prep.
6.05	27 Aug 2010 - 8 Sep 2010	Filmed after 6.06 (6 Sept holiday?)
6.06	17 Aug 2010 - 26 Aug 2010	Filmed before 6.05. According to Russ, swap was combination of location availability and cutting vampire script down to fit under budget.
6.07	9 Sep 2010 - 20 Sep 2010
6.08	21 Sep 2010 - 30 Sep 2010
6.09	1 Oct 2010 - 13 Oct 2010	Location manager Russ told tour production takes the day of Canadian Thanksgiving off (second Monday in October).
6.10	14 Oct 2010 - 25 Oct 2010
6.11	26 Oct 2010 - 4 Nov 2010
6.12	5 Nov 2010 - 19 Nov 2010	Location manager Russ told tour production takes the entire week of US Thanksgiving off (4th Thursday in November).
6.13	29 Nov 2010 - 8 Dec 2010
6.14	8 Dec 2010 - 17 Dec 2010	Production closes for Xmas vacation.
6.15	5 Jan 2011 - 14 Jan 2011
6.16	17 Jan 2011 - 25 Jan 2011
6.17	3 Feb 2011 - 14 Feb 2011	Originally intended to be 6.18; filmed second.
6.18	25 Jan 2011 - 3 Feb 2011	Originally intended to be 6.17; filmed first.
6.19	4 Feb 2011 - 23 Feb 2011
6.20	23 Feb 2011 - 7 Mar 2011	?7 Mar shared
6.21	7 Mar 2011 - 16 Mar 2011
6.22	16 Mar 2011 - 29 Mar 2011

Season 7

Ep #	Dates	Notes
7.01	18 Jul 2011 - 27 Jul 2011	Confirmed by
7.02	28 Jul 2011 - 9 Aug 2011	Confirmed by
7.03	6 Jul 2011 - 15 Jul 2011	Directed by Jensen. This episode was shot out of order so he could prep. Confirmed by
7.04	10 Aug 2011 - 19 Aug 2011
7.05	22 Aug 2011 - 31 Aug 2011
7.06	1 Sep 2011 - 13 Sep 2011
7.07	14 Sep 2011 - 23 Sep 2011
7.08	26 Sep 2011 - 5 Oct 2011	Confirmed by
7.09	6 Oct 2011 - 18 Oct 2011	Canada Thanksgiving 2nd Monday October, Guy Bee tweets of call sheets for Day 1, Day 5 and Day 8.
7.10	19 Oct 2011 - 27 Oct 2011
7.11	28 Oct 2011 - 8 Nov 2011
7.12	9 Nov 2011 - 18 Nov 2011	Production has entire Thanksgiving week off.
7.13	28 Nov 2011 - 7 Dec 2011	?Dec 7 in both this and next?
7.14	7 Dec 2011 - 16 Dec 2011	Production closes for Christmas vacation.
7.15	4 Jan 2012 - 13 Jan 2012
7.16	16 Jan 2012 - 25 Jan 2012
7.17	26 Jan 2012 - 6 Feb 2012
7.18	7 Feb 2012 - 17 Feb 2012
7.19	20 February 2012 - 2 March 2012
7.20	5 Mar 2012 - 14 Mar 2012	Confirmed
7.21	15 Mar 2012 - 26 Mar 2012
7.22	27 Mar 2012 - 5 Apr 2012	Tweets from director Guy Bee of call sheets for Day 1 and Day 8. Possibly a 9th day shooting on this ep, since apparently shooting on ep 23 started 9 Apr.
7.23	9 Apr 2012 - 19 Apr 2012	Extra episode 23 this season. Shooting for this ep should have started on the 6th, but Day 1 tweet from Jerry Wanek suggests the 9th instead. Jim Michaels tweeted that the season Wrap Party was Saturday, 14 April 2012. Tara Larsen tweeted that Thursday, 19 April 2012 was the last day of filming.

Season 8

Ep #	Dates	Notes
8.01	?Jul 2012