‘Sherlock,’ ‘Criminal Minds,’ ‘Big Brother,’ and the best of the TV media’s April Fools’ gags

We have to say here that by and large, this was one of the quieter April Fools’ Days in recent memory when it comes to the TV industry pranking some of their fans and viewers. Typically, ABC comes out with a big spectacle of fake TV shows, and another network at least tries to do something. Unfortunately, there was nothing  that came out from these worlds that really caught our eye.

With that being said, we do have to give kudos to at least four outlets today who caught our eye (and made us laugh) with some gags that may have caught a few people believing that it could actually be true.

1. Entertainmentwise ran a funny piece about a potential crossover between “Game of Thrones” and “Sherlock” coming up, which Benedict Cumberbatch was “spotted” filming in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

2. Reality Blurred introduced us to “How I Met Your Big Brother” with an amazing amount of insight and satire in a few paragraphs. Odds are, we’d probably enjoy the ending of this more than the “How I Met Your Mother.” He also published a “What Survivor Quitter Are You?” quiz that has a setup so funny, we don’t want to ruin it here.

3. SpoilerTV had a couple of good gags, with our favorite being the story that Michael C. Hall was cast to play Susan B. Anthony in an HBO miniseries.

4. Our personal favorite of the entire day goes to TVbythenumbers for their fake CBS fall schedule built entirely out of longstanding hits and spin-offs, including “Criminal Minds,” “Not So Criminal Minds,” and then “Mischievous Minds.”

If you missed it, earlier in the we published our own gag, an announcement that “Dancing with the Stars” was cutting more costs by replacing the entire judging panel and Tom Bergeron with various unqualified celebrities. It’s all in good fun, and we hope you really laugh some of this stuff off. Happy April Fools’! (Photo: BBC One)