Is ‘Castle’ season 8, episode 9 new tonight on ABC? Reason for ‘Tone Death’ delay

Monday, February 1 was originally supposed to be the return date for “Castle” season 8, so we have a little bit of sympathy for many of you out there if you are suddenly wondering what in the world happened with the show not being on the air.

Well, we do have an twofold answer for you:

1. Blame the Iowa caucuses. While we don’t necessarily think that the political event will have a huge impact on primetime ratings in the form of people being out in Iowa, this is the sort of thing that people do love to watch a ton of cable news coverage on. We think ABC doesn’t want to air a big winter premiere for an important show up against all of that cable-news competition, and they’d rather wait until February 8, a week where less is going on and people could be looking for Super Bowl hangover cures.

2. “The Bachelor” is going three hours for one more week. This could be the best of both worlds ultimately for ABC, at least in that they’ve gotten a chance here to give themselves one more hour of programming. “Bachelor Live” is airing tonight instead of “Castle,” and then there will be another episode airing on February 14 to make up for the repeat tonight. This spot on Valentine’s Day probably would’ve been used on a low-rated repeat or something if not for this move. As for how that “special” episode of Castle will do outside of its timeslot, that’s to be seen. Consider it an interesting test in the event the show is renewed for season 9 to see if it could fare better in another spot.

If you want to get some other news on next week’s all-new “Tone Death,” head over to the link here right now! Also, sign up over here to have some other news on all we cover sent right to you, courtesy of our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)