DC has had a pretty good success with their super hero TV shows in spite of underwhelming showings in the box office. How do they hit that teen-twenty-something market so effectively? Well they recreate Buffy in every show.
Buffy had her Scooby team. Every successful DC show has replicated this formula. It might not be obvious unless you watch the shows back to back to back though. After watching Smallville, Arrow, and The Flash, you can turn on Supergirl and wonder, "who is the character that is actually a wolf in sheep's clothing.
"Oh, they just have a team dynamic and this is true of every show," you might say. Yes, to a degree. All of these shoes have the same characters mapped out. Hacker/science (admittedly, almost all of the Flash characters fall under this heading), comic relief, wise mentor, not quite good/evil character, and somewhere along the line another super friend to come to help when chips are down. This is exactly the Buffy formula, I think it might be the first time this formula is used on TV. It is a slight tweak to the actual Scooby gang (from Scooby-do). 
Other pieces of the formula include Monster of the week with big bad theme throughout season. Special circumstance that creates all the evil they are to fight/most villains have a common background/origin.
It really is a can't miss formula and only becomes obvious when you have three shows on one network using it at the same time under the banner of an expanded universe.
If you like the DC shows and have not seen Buffy, I suggest that you check it out. While the DC shows are arguably good, Buffy was great (for the most part) and really pretty revolutionary in some episodes.
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