INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

‘Criminal Minds’ Season 12 And ‘Chicago P.D.’ Season 4 Canceled This Week: Why All the Scheduling Changes?

By Alexandria Ingham
Published on: 02:14 PST, Nov 3, 2016

Fans looking forward to the latest episodes of Criminal Minds Season 12 and Chicago P.D. Season 4 were disappointed last night. The last-minute scheduling change meant that reruns were aired on CBS and NBC. This was a repeat of the night before for CBS, but NBC decided to join in this week. Other networks chose not to make major scheduling changes.

The MLB World Series went into the seventh game on Wednesday, November 2, 2016. With so many baseball fans tuning in, the two big networks decided not to go up against it for the ratings. It was partially expected with Criminal Minds since CBS decided not to go up against the baseball game on Tuesday. As the Inquisitr previously reported, CBS chose to air reruns of NCIS, NCIS: New Orleans, and Bull on the Tuesday night.

Another reason it is not that surprising for CBS is that Criminal Minds Season 12 has been performing poorly. From Episode 2, fans have boycotted the show with the hashtag #NoHotchNoWatch. This was in response to the decision made by CBS and ABC to fire Thomas Gibson, who plays SSA Aaron Hotchner, from the show after an altercation during the summer. There are fears from other fans still supporting the show that Criminal Minds will be canceled after Season 12.

NBC kept its regular programming on Tuesday but decided to change the schedule on Wednesday. Fans were disappointed to tune in for Chicago P.D., Law & Order: SVU, and Blindspot to find out that the two shows were postponed for the night. Reruns were aired instead as the network chose not to even consider fighting for the ratings.

ABC’s schedule had already planned for a change this Wednesday. The Country Music Association Awards was scheduled for the night, which was aired live on the network despite the baseball game. NBC and CBS had known about this beforehand and had decided that they could compete with those tuning in for that. What they couldn’t do was compete with the awards show and the sporting fixture at the same time.

The CW also chose not to change its scheduled programming, according to Entertainment Weekly. This could be due to the historic low ratings for the network anyway, or the fact that it knows the majority of its fanbase will watch shows on DVR or stream the day after through the CW app. CBS and NBC rely on live ratings. The CW may have also just chosen not to disrupt expectations for the new episodes of Arrow and Frequency. The ratings haven’t been released yet to see if this was a bad call by the network, which caters to a younger audience.

CBS only decided to push Criminal Minds. Code Black and Survivor fans were able to tune in for the new episodes. It’s unclear whether this is because the network wasn’t worried about the views as much as Criminal Minds or thought the fans would tune in for new episodes anyway.

The change to the scheduling could cause a slight issue for Chicago P.D., which is currently seeing a crossover romance with Chicago Fire. The episodes would have been planned to air in a specific order to build this budding romance, so a push of one week could change things. Could this mean an episode of Chicago Fire is pushed at some point to counter this problem? There is no news about this yet.

It’s also unclear what will happen with the episodes from this point. It won’t be long before the midseason final episodes of Criminal Minds Season 12 and Chicago P.D. Season 4 air. Will they be pushed later into December or will there be a new midseason final episode point? This could leave a lackluster break point, which usually has some sort of cliffhanger to get people to tune back in for the midseason premiere in January.

The benefit on Wednesday was that fans were given a little extra warning about the cancellation of their shows for the night, unlike NCIS and Bull fans on Tuesday. The shows announced on their own Twitter feeds that they would have the night off so that there was no need to choose between the baseball and their favorite TV shows.

The good news is that unlike NCIS and other Tuesday night shows, there will be new episodes of the Wednesday night shows next week. NCIS had already been scheduled for no new episodes on Tuesday, November 8 due to the Presidential Election. There will be no need for the networks to postpone new episodes of the Wednesday night shows another week.

Do you think the two networks made the right call? Would it have been better to air the episodes anyway and allow people to record them or stream the shows the next day?

[Featured Image by PLS Pool/Getty Images]

Share this article: ‘Criminal Minds’ Season 12 And ‘Chicago P.D.’ Season 4 Canceled This Week: Why All the Scheduling Changes?
nbc
More from Inquisitr