‘The Mentalist’ season 6: Episode 7 promo released, despite episode 6 not even airing
It’s hard to really even count the ways in which CBS bungled what happened when it comes to “The Mentalist” last night, and all of this clearly shows that there are at least a few people out there who do not have the finger on the pulse of the internet.
Let’s start with what is somewhat understandable, at least in their decision to not air Sunday night’s new episode entitled “Fire and Brimstone” thanks to the NFL running so late that the episode was not going to air until 10:59 p.m. Eastern. This means that for folks in such places as New York and Miami, their episode would not have ended until almost midnight. Television is a business, and if they felt like they were not going to get anyone staying up that late, why air the episode? We get that, and it will be on next week.
But, the first mistake here was not making it clear enough on-air to people staying up and waiting to see the episode that it was not going to be new, as previously scheduled. While it was all over the internet, not everyone checks that. This also had to be particularly embarrassing to Canadian broadcast CTV, who tweeted that an all-new episode was coming on only to realize that this wasn’t going to happen.
When questioning why CTV did not go ahead and air “Fire and Brimstone” (since there was no delay), the easy answer is that they don’t want to have a part of the country spoiled. But then, for whatever reason, someone decided to not replace the promo at the end of the episode of CBS with something else. So basically, you had a preview for episode 7, entitled “The Great Red Dragon,” out there without episode 6 even airing. We’re not going to post it here, since it gives away some pretty big things that happened in the story; however, it’s all over the internet, and even the show’s official YouTube page has an extended preview online.
We can sit here and complain about all of this, but the truth is that NFL football will almost always win over anything original. It gets huge ratings, and CBS pays a ton of money for the license to broadcast the games. These sort of things happen with delays and preemption’s thanks to sports, and we only wish that they could be handled in a way that everyone gets all of the information at the same time.
Photo: CBS
FLOYD
November 6, 2013 @ 6:52 am
the episode did run on the internet (as the rerun was going) then CBS sneaked off..so a few of us will have to wait two weeks to get a new episode..I think the cast has had it with cbs..they through away a great episode and a lot of ratings they can’t get back
The dude
November 6, 2013 @ 2:57 am
You know some channels are a bit smarter and after football or hockey games they put on some bs programming that they just forget about if the game runs late, or they juts tart half way through. Like a rerun, or a sports show they can start late!
Jjjj
November 4, 2013 @ 11:21 pm
It did air on CTV In Canada, and CTV has football also.
BF
November 4, 2013 @ 8:01 pm
I don’t understand. The NFL game was on NBC, not CBS. What does a game running long on NBC have to do with a program on CBS?
fla girl
November 5, 2013 @ 1:44 am
There was a football game on CBS also.
At least it was on ch 10 from Tampa.
fla girl
November 5, 2013 @ 1:57 am
It was the Steelers vs the Patriots.
BR
November 4, 2013 @ 7:36 pm
FYI- I watched the episode that was supposed to air last night on iTunes this morning.
Jake
November 4, 2013 @ 7:03 pm
Was not happy about the rerun airing, but it was inexcusable for CBS to run the promo for the very next episode at the end of the rerun, spoiling everything for fans.
Been years since I called a network about programming but they basically ruined an entire episode and wasted regular viewers’ time.
KB
November 4, 2013 @ 6:09 pm
Running the show as advertised despite the late start would not have cost the network much. Certainly not as much as the bad decisions are costing them in terms of view disenfranchisement. I agree that this decision was very contemptuous their audience – and very bad business.
Charlie Johnston
November 4, 2013 @ 5:34 pm
I was very unhappy. I love the show and had no clue it was not going to be the one promoted all week long. I would have understood the timing problems out east – but for heavens sakes tell us. I tuned in and kept thinking I had seen it before in the first 15 minutes…but did not want to turn away for fear it actually was going to turn out to be the new one or tat there had been a mistake in what aired – and they would shortly announce that and run the actual show. But to just put a rerun up with NO trailer that the planned show would run the next week…really bad judgment – and contemptuous of their audience.