Exclusive: Criminal Minds EP Ed Bernero Previews Season Six, and Possible Addition to Cast

August 30, 2010  |   Filed under: Features,News,Preview  |   Posted by:

By: Adam Wright

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Criminal Minds will be entering its sixth season on CBS this fall. However over the summer, the crime-drama has made headlines with the departure of A.J. Cook and demotion of Paget Brewster.

I had the opportunity to talk to Criminal Minds Executive Producer Ed Bernero about the new season. What’s in store for season six? Here’s what he had to say.

***

Note: Any questions asked specifically about A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster were passed, as they’ve already been addressed.

Adam: Criminal Minds is returning for its sixth season on September 22nd. That’s pretty impressive for a crime-drama, especially with ratings still going strong. How do guys you keep things fresh after this long?

Ed: Our main subject matter is serial crime and there is (unfortunately) a fairly bottomless pit of source material.  That said, all of us on the show, both in front of and behind the camera, continually challenge each other to be fresh and a little different with every story.  To stretch ourselves creatively and not just rely on the scary bad guys/girls. We really believe every episode should be a mini-movie experience for the audience.

***

Adam: The great thing about Criminal Minds is that it has bounced-back from a cast-member departing. Mandy Patinkin left the series, and later was replaced by Joe Mantegna. Thankfully the audience welcomed Joe to the series to great response. What do you credit this to, the show bouncing back after a major departure? Not any show can do that.

Ed: Well, first of all, if it’s going to happen to a show, they couldn’t do any better than Joe stepping in.  He’s been amazing addition for the audience as well us everyone at the show.  Secondly, it all goes back to stories.  If the rest of the cast is talented (as ours definitely is), and the stories are compelling, I think cast changes, as disruptive as they are, can eventually be absorbed by the audience.

***

Adam: Can we expect a new cast-member to be added sometime this season?

Ed: Yes.  In the 6th season of any show, but especially a police show, the 6th season poses challenges in staying fresh.  One of the reasons is you’ve basically explored a lot of interaction between the members of the team and you really need a fresh face to bounce everyone off of.  Sort of like a new hub for all the characters to react to.  We’re in the process now of trying to conceive a new fit for the team.  They’ll have to be a character that strikes different chords than the team we have, so working on it has been fun (and challenging).

***

Adam: During season five, there was two major storylines. The first was Aaron Hotchner?s downward spiral after the death of a loved-one. I have to say Thomas Gibson really raised his game last season. Can we expect more of that in season six?

Ed: We are theming this season “Secrets”.  We’ve devised a secret that each of our characters has that no one knows about.  Some of them are kind of fun, some of them pretty serious.  The sharing (or not) of those secrets will affect the team in some surprising ways.

***

Adam: Last season we also saw Derek Morgan step-in as the leader of the team while Hotcher was out. But when he returned, Morgan stepped back down.  Do you think Morgan will have another shot as the boss in the future? He seemed a natural for it.

Ed: Morgan is a tremendously important character for the show.  I agree that he was great in that role (as team leader) but we also really missed him kicking in doors and whipping butt on the bad guys.  I think, for now, he’s going to stay that guy for us.

***

Adam: Penelope Garcia (played by Kirsten Vangsness) is an audience favorite, so it was so good to hear that she will be appearing on both Criminal Minds and the new spinoff Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior (premiering in midseason). First off, how did that decision come about? And with Vangsness pulling double-duty, that doesn’t mean be seeing less of her on the original, does it?

Ed: The notion of ‘Garcia’ doing both shows was thought of pretty early in the process.  She’s such a fun character and a breath of air when you see her amidst all the grim facts of our stories.  And, no, you won’t see less of her on CM, which is also one of the reasons she was able to do both.

***

Adam: Criminal Minds has welcomed some great guest-stars. Can you tell us about the line-up planned for Season Six?

Ed: Well, we’ve only shot three episodes so far but we’ve already had Tim Curry, Gil Bellows and Daniel J. Travanti join our family.  We’re also looking at potentially bringing an American Idol on (in a surprisingly naughty role) as well as a HUGE country singer.

***

Adam: From the previous five seasons, what have been your favorite guest-stars / serial killers?

Ed: Favorite?  We’ve loved working with everyone we’ve worked with.  That’s like asking me to choose between my kids!  Seriously, we’ve been very fortunate that there are a lot of exceptionally talented people who want to come and be real bad guys/girls for us.

***

Adam: What else can you tell me about season six? Is there one character especially highlighted this season?

Ed: No.  I don’t think so.  As I said, the secrets will have varying degrees of impact but we aren’t going into the season planning on focussing on anyone more than the others.

***

Adam: Finally, I ask this to all my interviewees. What have you been watching on TV lately?

Ed: Hmmm… I actually try to watch a little bit of everything.  There is some exceptional work being done on television and I’m proud of everyone working in it today.

***

I want to thank Ed for taking time from production to talk with me. You can watch the sixth season premiere of Criminal Minds on CBS and CTV on September 22nd.

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Posted by on August 30, 2010. Filed under Features, News, Preview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
  • DJ

    Great interview Adam!

  • Angela

    Insensitive to “pass” on questions about AJ Cook and Paget Brewster. And to say it’s because they’ve been addressed is laughingly ridiculous when he talked about Joe Mantegna replacing Mandy Patinkin. Um, unless I dreamed all the interviews and articles over the YEARS on that subject, it isn’t as if those questions haven’t also already been addressed.

  • Megan

    WHEN in any interview has Ed addressed any questions regarding AJ Cook and Paget Brewster??? If anything this interview is making me think that Ed himself may have had alot to do with what happened with them and as a fan of the show this disappoints me. I dont want to see a new character introduced – there were so many story opportunitities with AJ and Pagets characters if only the writers could have came up with something creative!!!

  • HotchRossiFan

    Thank you for doing that interview, Adam! And thanks to Ed.

    I don’t want the women to leave, but now that the deed’s been done, I don’t want a new chick to replace them.

  • jjfan

    As much as this decision by CBS pisses me off and it does extremely piss me off because of its sexist connotations and the fact that I think the decision will only hurt the show. It pissed me off more when people think Ed had something to do with it. Ed had absolutely NOTHING to do with any of it. The show is co-owned with ABC and it is ABC who employs and pays Ed and the other writers while CBS employs and pays the actors on the show. CBS was the one who made the decision to fire AJ immediately and Paget later, NOT Ed. He fought to keep AJ for the 2 eps she is going to be in in order to close out her and give her the respect she and JJ deserve and besides what exactly are you looking for him to say? That he is pissed? That he hates the decision? That he wants them back like we do? What is there for him say that could make this horrible decision any better? He had nothing to do with it so what could you want him to say about it that fans and the cast themselves have already said? I have talked to someone who is close to Ed and those on the show and they told me he is extremely upset about losing both ladies. They all are.

    I have no doubt that if the decision were left up to him, AJ and Paget would still be on the show instead of gone and reduced. Point your anger at CBS, they are the morons who in order to save a buck who fired them. This decision had nothing to do with creativity and everything to do with money. AJ’s contract was up and the network didn’t want to pick up her option for this season nor did they want to negotiate at all with her. The network didn’t want to keep her NOT Ed and the other writers.

    Ed was very verbal, as were many others, with regards to Mandy because 1) the guy is difficult to work with and 2) he walked away from the show without a warning leaving them all in a lurch so I don’t blame Ed for constantly voicng his anger about that. Why Adam felt the need to bring it up, to me felt like he was hoping Ed would say something aout AJ and Paget but also I think Adam was trying to show that the show has and can survive the departure of main cast members. He, imo was talking about AJ and Paget’s situation without actually asking about it. I am kind of tired of hearing about the whole thing with Mandy though…it is done and has been done. Move on.

    This article also didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know about the upcoming season from the criminal minds fanatic blog who gets almost all the info on the show before media outlets do and actually has contact with the cast, crew and writers for the show. Check out the site, it is awesome.

  • Adam Wright

    jjfan:

    Thanks for the comment, I appreciate your point of view.

    To clear things up for you though, all the questions about AJ Cook and Paget Brewster were the first questions on the list. After those questions, I bring up Mandy. I brought him up because as you mentioned, I wanted to show the CM has already fought through a departure.

    I did not know he was going to “pass” on the AJ and Paget questions when I sent him the questions. So when I got the answers back, I only got the ones he answered, which are the ones posted.

    So as you see, I wasn’t trying to trick him to talk about the ladies, because I didn’t know at the time he was going to pass.

    Hope that cleared things up. Thank you.

  • Sylvia

    To say that questions about AJ and Paget leaving have been addressed is laughable on Ed’s part, and also completely offensive to his (former?) fans. He and CBS have totally disrespected us by giving us a big fat nothing when we repeatedly asked why the female cast members were being sacked for no reason, seemingly other than being female and older than 25. This interview only cements my decision not to watch Criminal Minds in season six. I was a huge fan all the way through, bought every season on DVD and promoted the show to all my friends and for Ed to pretend like nothing has happened over summer is a huge slap in the face. Well, the show ends here for me. Guess I’ll have to find something less sexist to watch!

  • Victoria

    The changes being made to this series show just how out of touch it’s writers, creators and producers are with the shows fans/viewing audience.

    It is absolutely ridiculous that you would break up a team of actors who work so well together, with such obvious chemistry. Simply put, this show “works” because the actors on it “work” together as a team. When you watch it, no one actor seems more important then the other. Just like a real team. You have achieved creating an “actual” team with this set of actors who play a “team.” Which is why it “works.”

    Who made the uninformed, uneducated, out or touch decision that we, the viewers, we rather you sink your money in to guest stars, then keep this team together? Seriously?! You are going to get rid of part of your very successful casting just to add annoying guest stars that take the focus off the show and story line? Having American Idol on this show is outright disgusting. You obviously didn’t think that through. You do NOT have the same demographic at ALL. Even if you did, you apparently have your heads buried so far in the dirt that you are unaware that no one will even be watching American Idol anymore. It has lost all of it’s audience with the departure of Simon and Paula. Do you really think people will tune in to see Randy Jackson on your show?!:) Saying that it will be a sexy episode makes it even MORE annoying.

    You see, what makes Criminal Minds work is that they show respect for the victims of these horrific crimes. Something CSI has moved away from. CSI has the low class, disrespect to have their medical examiners call dead burn victims “crispy.” That is just sick. It’s not funny. This show deals with very serious issues. While we know that each episode is fiction, they are all drawn on fact. On actual events that did happen to someone at sometime. This is not comedy. it’s not suppose to be funny, sexy or flippant. Having American Idol on your show ABSOLUTELY will remove all the integrity you have shown in previous seasons. After all, Psych did a “American Idol” type episode. It was very funny and enjoyable because that show is a detective COMEDY. It has absolutely no place in THIS show, which deals with extremely serious, and personal subject matter.

    CM has always been a step above. They have never been disrespectful, or exploitive of crime victims. Things like sexed up American Idol episodes sound not only stupid and uninteresting, but disrespectful and exploitive. If we wanted to watch American Idol, we would. You do not need guest stars, or a new female cast member. The ones you have are excellent. Since you are not replacing any male cast members, and obviously you are not really cutting costs, just redistributing it in order to bring on guest stars and a new cast member, your decision seems a little sexist as well. Season six sounds like a victim of peer pressure. What you THINK people want to watch, according to the latest TREND magazine. You are sadly mistaken. No one wants this. If I want comedy, I will watch comedy. If I want music, I will watch MTV. Oh wait, I can’t. They ruined themselves too! By turning into “reality” TV” and not “music” TV. Idiots. Oh, and for your demographic information, I am in my 30′s. I have watched your shows since my 20′s. I am a professional, who works in the field of PROFILING, and victim rights. But I am no “prude” or “stick in the mud,” because not only do I club on the weekends, I own the damn club. Get your head out of your ass. Fix this.

  • Kevin

    LOL, lots of comments, so that means good interview and good using what you got from them to get some remarks. Keep it up.

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  • SUNRISE

    When Mandy Patinkin and Lola Glaudini left the show I was concerned, because I was really hooked, however Joe Mantegna and Paget Brewster brought a fresh new vive to the show that really makde it better. They brought something to the show that had been missing. You can see that there was a difference in the show, you can see the chemistry between each of the cast members, you see how much they really care about each other and how much they love what they do this is what makes the show what it is. Yes the writing is great, yes the story lines are good but the chemistry between the cast is what makes all of it work.

    As much as I love the show if Criminal Minds changes again I may be in shopping for a new show. You don’t get this kind of chemistry between people it’s very rare, but once you get it you keep it as long as you can. Bad move to change what you got working.

  • babeekitch98

    UMMMM……I still dont understand is Paget Brewster still on the show or not because she had something special goin on and if shes not on my favorite show then i guess i wil have to get a new favorite crime television show.