[...but back in 2002 there was a lot of buzz about adding Chloe and Smallville was at the height of its popularity. now everyone's kind of lost interest in the show and the character.
Typical DC: revamping their characters to match a TV show or movie months or years after the show or movie was popular.
This has been going on since at least the 1970s. I remember when DC revamped Shazam to be more like the TV show and set Wonder Woman back in the 1940s to mirror the Lynda Carter TV show. Right afterwards, however, CBS cancelled Shazam and the producers of Wonder Woman decided to reboot the show to be set in present day.
Then there was the time they started drawing Lois Lane to look more like Margot Kidder (right before Superman III came out and Kidder was out as Lois).
Or the time they updated Batman's costume to look more like the Keaton/Burton version (three years after that movie came out).
Expect, ten years from now, to see Batman being trained by Ras Al Ghul and the Joker a guy who wears makeup instead of having white skin.
