I’m telling you right upfront: This is going to be a morbid and dark post.
Tuesday at the CBS portion of the Television Critics Association press tour, CBS confirmed that next season on “Kevin Can Wait,” Erinn Hayes (Kevin James’ wife on the show) is dead and Leah Remini (KJ’s wife from “The King of Queens”) will be reuniting with James.
Of course, the viewer has to anticipate it. If it happens with enough lead time and in a creative way, it can be ratings gold. Probably the greatest death of a character was the “LA Law” episode where the evil Rosalind Shays fell down an elevator shaft to her demise. It was a shocker, but since it was meant to be a total surprise, NBC never reaped the ratings benefit from that event. This was the days before DVRs, streaming and social media, so there were limited opportunities to watch and rewatch the scene and maybe throw an ad in front of the clip.
There have been several occasions when the real passing of an actor will provide an occasion to incorporate that into the storyline and get a one-time pop for the series. It’s usually done in a tasteful way.
Two of the biggest shows on television today “The Walking Dead” and “Game of Thrones,” factor death into the very essence of the series and make it impossible to miss an episode or go on social media immediately after the show.
I had an occasion back in the NBC days to actually put a hit out on a character in a series. A Martinez played Agent Nick “Coop” Cooper, sort of the boyfriend to “Profiler” lead Dr. Samantha Waters (Ally Walker, wife of FX leader and Peak TV proselytizer John Landgraf). The ratings for “Profiler” were starting to sag, and I suggested that we pull out the oft-used trick of doing an episode where we show several recurring characters with the tag, “This week on ‘Profiler,’ one of these people will die” or some variation of that. The decision was made to off Agent Cooper. I’m pretty certain we got a pop in the ratings.
I had an opportunity to meet A Martinez on several occasions, including when he was on…
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