Is ‘Castle’ season 8, episode 9 new tonight on ABC? An explanation and what’s next

Castle -Typically when “The Bachelor” premieres, “Castle” fans get a little bit of good news in the form of new episodes. Unfortunately, that is not going to be the case this year. Rather than airing “Tone Death,” the first new episode of 2016, on Monday, you’re going to have to wait instead until February 1.

Why the long wait? It’s mostly a decision by the network to fill the month of January with “Bachelor Live,” their new aftershow hosted by Chris Harrison that will feature week in and week out interviews from people associated with the show and the fan community. They’ll probably draw decent ratings for this, or ones that are at least close to what “Castle” was getting for the first part of season 8.

The only silver lining that we can offer to some of you out there who may be a little bit disappointed is that this is going to lead to some more new episodes coming up consecutively once we get to February. If ABC were to air a new episode every week starting with “Tone Death” (which is going to be a fun case inspired in part by “Pitch Perfect”), they would be done come May 2. That’s something that they may now consider, even if “Castle” does tend to air a little deeper into May sometimes. There is value that comes in airing shows without breaks.

Of course, if they do this it will just show how ABC has completely confused everyone when it comes to their plan for the Nathan Fillion – Stana Katic series this season. First, it appeared like they were doing the split-season model. Then, it appeared like they were moving away from it. Now, they’re practically doing it again!

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