Criminal Minds

Tonight, Agent Morgan is in the spotlight as CBS replays “Profiler, Profiled.” He returns to his hometown for a visit only to have a murdered child show up. He becomes the focus of the police investigation, and his BAU team members are working to clear this up. He refuses to talk about his past, which leads them to the conclusion that he’s hididng something. This episode from season two is a good one if you missed it the first time around, and good for giving some background and depth to Shemar Moore’s character. “Profiler, Profiled” on on at nine tonight.

“3rd Life,” guest starring Gina Mantegna, will air on January 9. This has been pushed back a few weeks from its original airdate. This episode is eagerly awaited for two reasons: one, star Joe Mantegna is the father of Gina, who plays the missing teenager. Also, it’s the last of the new Criminal Minds episodes for the foreseable future.

(The picture above is from People Magazine - which named Shemar Moore as one of the sexiest men alive. He came in at a very respectable #10.)

Mandy Patinkin returned to CBS in the form of a Criminal Minds rerun. CBS reaired season two episode, “Distress.” CM won the night in total viewers, but a rerun of Law and Order: SVU won the 18-49 age group.
The only original programming CBS aired Wednesday night was the Kennedy Center Honors, whose ratings dropped by 37% from last year.

Happy Day After Christmas!!
Tonight, CBS will reair an episode from season two. If you missed Mandy, this is a good time to tune in. “Distress” takes the BAU to Houston to investigate a series of murders surrounding construction sites, believed to have been done by a homeless person. This is the one where the homeless man turns out to be a former soldier. This was a sad episode, but good. There is a little more info at Criminal Minds Wiki.
Also, this is shortly after Reid was kidnapped and tortured so there are some differences in his character. This, by the way, is bugging me about season three. They have made very little reference to his supposed drug problem - so is it a problem? There’s not a lot going on with his character in season three. Anyway, hopefully, we can get some new episodes soon that look into him a little more.

This episode is at 8:00. At 9:00, the Kennedy Center Honors are on.

Criminal Minds repeat “Scared to Death” loss in the Wednesday night ratings war. A new episode of Private Practice won the nine o’clock time slot. Private Practice helped ABC win the 18-49 year old group. NBC led in total viewers. CBS rebounded with a rerun of CSI:NY at ten.
That’s to be expected. “Scared to Death” originally aired not very long ago, and Practice was new. CM does have a few more new episodes to offer, so I’m sure the ratings will be back up for those.

And speaking of new episodes, Joe Mantegna’s daughter, Gina, will be making a guest appearance on her dad’s show. Gina Mantegna plays a teenage girl, who is missing and whose best friend is brutally murdered in “3rd Life.”

Miss Mantegna is most well known for her role in the 2006 movie, Unaccompanied Minors.

Some info on upcoming episodes:
CBS will air an original episode of Criminal Minds next week. “Birthright” takes the BAU to Fredericksburg, VA to track down a killer who victimizes young women. He makes them pretend they’re at a party.

That would be too simple. The murders resemble ones that occured 25 years before. If you want to be surprised DON’T READ ANYMORE!! It turns out that 25 years ago, in similar circumstances, one of the kidnapped women escapes. But she has a child as a product of rape by her captor. The killer’s wife is also pregnant. She figures out what’s going on and kills him so he can’t hurt anymore people.
Anyway, now is the son taking after his father? That’s pretty twisted.

In “3rd Life,” the BAU visits the west coast. This is the episode Gina Mantegna plays in. The case involves two missing teenage girls. One of the girls is murdered, and the team has to race to save the other girl (the still-missing girl is Gina).

“Birthright” airs next week, December 12, and “3rd Life” is scheduled for December 19.

Tonight, CBS is going to reair “Scared to Death.” This is the episode with the pshychiatrist who uses his patients’ fears to kill them.
Not to deter people from watching tonight, but I think this was the weakest episode of season three. If you’ve seen it before, tell me what you think. If you haven’t, definately tune in, because even a weak Criminal Minds episode is worth watching.

The Chicago Tribune’s entertainment section, “The Watcher,” has a rundown on strike-related programming today.
First, Jericho will return with seven new episodes on February 12. CBS was going to cancel Jericho last year, but fans mounted a strong blog campaign and kept it on the air. Their reward is coming soon.

Law and Order is coming back - don’t worry. There will be some cast changes, but new episodes will start airing on January 2. Sam Waterston will still be on the show, and some new talent will arrive. Law and Order: Criminal Intent moved to USA network. NBC needs them back because of their lack of new content. LOCI returns to NBC on January 9.

Also making comebacks are The New Adventures of Old Christine, with Julia Louis Dreyfus, which begins its third season January 28 on CBS.

CBS has announced more scheduling changes and additions for January. Coming back:

*Power of Ten with Drew Carrey
*New episodes of 48 Hours Mystery
*Survivor 16
*The first ever winter edition of Big Brother
*A six part miniseries called Comanche Moon
*A new sitcom called The Captain, with Fran Kranz (”The TV Set”), Chris Klein (”American Pie”), Jeffrey Tambor (”Arrested Development”), Raquel Welch (”The Three Musketeers”), comedian Al Madrigal, Valerie Azlynn (”Two and a Half Men”) and Joanna Garcia (”Reba”)
*A new game show, Do You Trust Me, has also completed production and is awaiting an air date.

CBS will replay its strong shows -Criminal Minds, the CSIs, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, NCIS, Without a Trace, Cold Case, 60 Minutes, and Shark.

Tonight’s episode, “Identity,” has the team racing to find one half of a killing duo. The other half killed himself when apprehended by authorities. They travel to Montana to investigate the kidnappings and murders of four women, and another woman is kidnapped.

Criminal Minds has aired six episodes this season, and they have scripts for six more. CBS fares pretty well (not ideal, but ok) in the strike. They have a lot of crime shows in their lineup, which do well in reruns. This summer, Criminal Minds did very well in the ratings with reruns. CBS also has popular reality shows, Amazing Race, Survivor, and Big Brother, which may return early.

The Power of Ten and Password are also ready to go should they be needed, and they can also be produced very quickly. New episodes of Jericho and The New Adventures of Old Christine are also available.

Fox also fares well because American Idol, which can begin as early as January, will fill up a lot of Fox’s airtime. They also have Kitchen Nightmares and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, whose writers are not governed by the WGA.

Shows that are in danger are Pushing Daisies and Heroes. They could disappear from the lineup altogether as they run out of new episodes.

If we run out of new Criminal Minds episodes, we can start checking out the books based on the series.

The Writers Guild of America has voted to strike as nearly as Thursday, November 1, if an agreement with networks is not reached - which seems unlikely at this late date. CNN reports that networks have enough scripts in stock to last through New Year, and possibly into February. After that, it’s reality shows, game shows, or reruns. The writers strike could also affect next season’s shows.
The AP reports that “[p]ilots for next fall are being written now and the development process, which includes rewrites and casting, extends through the spring.” If the writers aren’t working, the process is stalled.
The impending strike would affect networks, and advertisers as well. If not as many people are watching tv, because they’re sick of reruns and reality, much less money is being generated. The writers and their families, though, are the ones who have to deal with the uncertainty of their futures: their jobs are in jeopardy, and they’re not getting paid their usual salaries.

For more info on the Writers Guild strike, click on the CNN link above, or visit an earlier post I did that is in a little more detail.

Variety writer, John Dempsey, has an interesting article today about networks selling shows to cable so they can play the reruns. Shows that typically do well in the ratings for the networks are getting only small prices per episode compared to a few years ago.

Lost and Heroes are big ratings boosters during the week with new episodes but were sold for only $200,000 per episode. This is compared to at least a million similar shows would have gotten even last year.
One reason for this is that Lost and Heroes are serialized. You have to know what’s going on to like the new episodes…you can’t jump right in. These shows typically don’t do well in reruns. Big shows like Alias, 24, and The Shield are not pulling in big numbers of viewers on cable.

CBS pushed back the cable release of Criminal Minds from 2009 to 2010because they can’t get the price they want, which is mid-to-high six figures.
Dempsey writes, “Scott Koondel, exec VP of CBS TV Distribution, says, however if a cable network showed up with a solid offer for 2009, he wouldn’t hesitate to make the accommodation.”

The reason for the lackluster price for popular shows: too much competition. Dempsey writes:

The cable-network grids are so clogged with these shows that they end up cannibalizing one another.

Actress Archives reports that once again CBS dominated Wednesday night. Except for the eight o’clock hour (when Fox’s Back to You beat out Kid Nation on CBS), the network had a strong night showing reruns. Criminal Minds and CSI: NY were the tops shows of the nine and ten o’clock hours.
Actress Archives writes:

When the CBS shows - Criminal Minds and CSI: New York - come back with new episodes, it seems clear that the eye network will dominate Wednesday nights. They’re practically doing it in repeats.

Hal Boedeker - the TV Guy- reports that CBS was #1 in ratings Wednesday night. Power of Ten, hosted by Drew Carey pulled in the most viewers for the eight o’clock hour at about 8.7 million people. Rerun Criminal Minds episode “Lessons Learned” was also the top ranked show for 9:00, averaging 8.3 million viewers. Pretty impressive when a rerun generates that many viewers.
“Lessons Learned” first aired on November 22, 2006, and has agents Gideon, Prentiss, and Reid traveling to Guantanomo Bay, Cuba, to try to stop a chemical terrorist attack on the U.S. In this episode, Prentiss shows why she’s in the unit. Her knowledge of the Arabic language and culture is key in trying to prevent the anthrax attack that jihadists have planned. (For an episode recap go to TV.com) This episode was written by real BAU agent Jim Clemente.
Here’s a clip of Clemente talking about his job as a profiler. He specializes in cases involving children, particularly internet crime.

The other night, here in re-runland our Canadian network (CTV) played two episodes of “Criminal Minds” in a row. For some reason, our satellite on screen guide almost never gives any details as to which episode it is, but I didn’t care; I sat down to enjoy it anyway.

Much to my surprise and delight, it was “The Big Game” so I watched it and loved it as much as the first time around. When the credits rolled I waited with anticipation for the 9 pm episode to get going, expecting to see “Revelations” since that would make SENSE.

Instead, they inexplicably showed “Fear and Loathing”. I was so annoyed. Hopefully they’re planning to show it next week, but it’s just silly to jump over “Revelations” straight to a later episode that shows Reid dealing with what happened to him.

To help myself wait for next week, I found a nice long promo for Revelations on YouTube:

Technorati Tags: criminal minds, the big game, revelations, fear and loathing

I have to say, even though reruns are never as much fun as brand new episodes, at least they can help tide us over throughout the dreaded hiatus season.

Next week on May 30th, they will re-air “Ashes and Dust”, an episode where a suspect breaks into middle class homes and sets fires with the intent to kill while families are sleeping. The first time I watched the episode, it really set my adrenaline through the roof. I’m eager to see whether it will still get my pulse racing the second time around - I think it will.

The following week, June 6th, they will re-air “The Big Game” which was one of the most anticipated two-parters ever - the one where a religious fanatic is trying to rid the area of those deemed unworthy. It’s also, of course the infamous episode where Reid goes missing, leading in to the second part (”Revelations”) which was possibly the best episode of the show, ever.

Also, if you’re like me and you’re a) Canadian and b) someone who watched the American Idol finale and the Lost finale last night, you missed the rerun of “Distress” but the Canadian network CTV runs episodes on Sundays, whew!

(Photo source)