History NeverTrustATrailer / LiveACtionTV

*** The Australian trailer kept repeating "Father and daughter REUNITED!", even though Jenny was actually a newborn clone who took her first breaths in the episode.
**** That's likely to be more a case of DidNotDoTheResearch since The Doctor originally travelled with his ''granddaughter''.

** [=FiOS=]'s info is at it again: All of TomHanks' appearances on talk shows in March 2010 are descibed as "ToyStory 3's Tom Hanks" even though he's doing PR for ''ThePacific'' while ''Toy Story 3'' doesn't bow until June and never gets mentioned. Clearly, [=FiOS=]' info writers know what their viewers ''[[AdultChild really]]'' like to watch.

* Those infamous official Korean {{Sherlock}} trailers that make it appear Sherlock and John's relationship is the focus of the series. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFR_Z30d5nQ Any]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN4xBm44KH0 of]] them.

** The BBC One trailer for "The Waters Of Mars" ends with the [[BlatantLies Blatant Lie]] of someone knocking four times just like {{the prophecy}} said, in the actual episode however, [[spoiler:it was {{lampshade hanging}} and the Doctor stopped the villain from knocking a fourth time.]] The trailer repeated the fist knock.

* ''{{Survivor}}'' has done this. Especially in ''Samoa'', they tried to edit it so that people were thinking about eliminating Russell..except for some incredibly odd reason, seeing the episode brought out ''no'' talks about actually ''doing'' it.

** A recent trailer for Deep Space 9 on the CBS Reality channel showed how to do it when you've no idea which show you're talking about. It went on strangely in poetic terms, including the line "When the universe sleeps...Enterprise wakes (and basically saves us all)." Huh?

** Sadly, this trope may have led to the show's cancellation. The original TV-spots didn't quite present the show as they should have.
* ''{{iCarly}}'': [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFTsGQFtM1U Done exceptionally badly for the episode ''iStart A Fan War'']]. After months of fandom speculation that this episode would be a [[{{Shipping}} ship-centric]] episode that would involve shipping development, the first trailer appeared to confirm that not only would it involve the ships (using both popular ships by their PortmanteauCoupleName), but that it would actually end the ShipToShipCombat in regards to which became canon. This was not what happened, as the show ended with an AuthorFilibuster about how shipping was not what the WordOfGod wanted to focus on. Obviously, neither ship was even vaguely developed positively.

** The promos for "Jade Gets Crushed" make it seem like the premise of the episode is Jade going on a rampage. Really, she's significantly nicer in the episode than usual.
* A preview for the ''{{Lost}}'' episode "Stranger in a Strange Land" promised that three huge questions would be answered in it. These turned out to be the meaning of Jack's tattoos, what happened to the children the Others kidnapped and what happened to Cindy the flight attendant. Those last two have the same answer so many viewers argued they shouldn't count as separate questions, and it's not like many people were chomping at the bit about the first one either. The producers immediately said they never intended the episode to be one that was full of reveals like that, and blamed the network for unduly raising the viewers' hopes when it became one of the show's most unpopular episodes.

* Bravo is notoriously bad for doing this with their reality TV shows. Misleading episode descriptions, cut n' paste editing, mismatched dialogue--they've used every trick in the book.
* An interesting case on ''{{Battlestar Galactica}}'': the trailer featured D'Anna [[spoiler:telling Roslin that she's the final Cylon who has yet to be revealed. However, the cut revealing who she was talking to caused some speculation that Roslin actually wasn't the person she said it to. It turned out D'Anna ''was'' talking to Roslin, but was just playing a prank on her. Of course, had Roslin been the final Cylon]] this would have been a major case of both TrailersAlwaysSpoil and LyingCreator (as showrunner and producer Ron Moore had officially declared that [[spoiler:Roslin is ''not'' a Cylon]]).
* A preview for an episode of ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' revolving around the team being trapped in an unpleasant version of a LotusEaterMachine, with the trailer using Carter's line "How do we know this is real?" as if it were a serious question and dramatic concern. In the actual episode, this is just the set-up for a final joke to cap off what's otherwise a particularly dark episode.

** Two particular examples for the original ''{{Stargate SG-1}}.'' One, where it was hyped up that a team member would end up dying and a clip of O'Neill falling to the ground wounded in battle was shown(It ended up being the doctor who died). The second was set up with Carter finding herself alone on a ship with only illusions to help her. The trailer made it look like she and O'Neill would end up kissing, but in the actual episode it was only a fantasy of hers that passed through her mind for a second- two at the most.
*** To be fair, in the first example, the episode itself actually implied that up until the last five minutes or so. So it wasn't just the creators of the ad, but the writers as well who intended the audience to be misled.

* On the subject of ''{{Series/Merlin}}'', a trailer for one episode of the BBC series had Merlin dramatically reveal to the court that he was a wizard. In the actual episode, no one believed him and the scene had no impact on the plot.

* ''TheSopranos'' tended to do this a lot, with the trailers playing up the mob violence that was rarely the center of the upcoming episode.

* A trailer for a ''{{Dexter}}'' episode asked "Which one of these suspects is the ice truck killer". The "suspects" seem to have been chosen completely at random, two are very well established characters who couldn't be the killer barring some bizarre TwistEnding. Another has the notable handicap of being ''dead''. The [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil process of elimination]] would seem to point to the fourth suspect who, having been only introduced in the previous episode, seems the natural candidate anyway, but since whoever made the trailer has clearly not watched a second of the show it would probably be hopelessly naive to think so. Another on asked if this was the episode were Dexter would be found out, which only did not happen, but had absolutely nothing to do with the plot.
* Australia's Network Ten does this with all its commercials. Another example is its adds for ''{{Burn Notice}}'', which always end by asking if this is the episode where Michael's plan fails, followed by footage of an unrelated car exploding from later in that episode.

** The ad for the sixth season, showed Cuddy with House's voice saying that ''she had said yes, but he heard no'' which could be seen as that House had proposed to Cuddy and she had said yes. [[spoiler: Turns out that he was talking to Wilson about how Cuddy had given him permission for an insane treatment on his patient and House was having second thoughts about it]].

* A {{Desperate Housewives}} preview ended by promising "a twist so shocking, we can only hint at it," followed by the first line from the chorus of Kate Perry's "I Kissed a Girl": "I kissed a girl, and I liked it." The obvious implication was that one of the housewives would become a lesbian, or at least question her sexuality for a while. The episode did at least follow through with ''two'' lengthy girl on girl kisses, but it was part of a minor comic relief subplot where Susan's lesbian boss mistakes her for being interested, and the misunderstanding is entirely cleared up at the end never to be brought up again.
** Not sure if it counts since it wasn't exactly a trailer, but an animated ad on the internet.

* Trailer for the seventh season finale of {{Monk}}. Narrator: "You'll never believe what he finds [at the site of his wife's murder]..." What did he find? [[spoiler: Nothing. In fact, the episode was about him admitting that there wasn't anything to find.]] Though to be fair, no one believed it.

* Cracked.com has this trope listed as #1 of the "5 Cheap Tricks TV Shows Use To Keep You Watching" found [[http://www.cracked.com/article_16593_p2.html here]].

* Can't say anything for the trailers (I wasn't a fan at the time), but the Verizon [=FiOS=] info for a particular episode of ''{{Bones}}'' states that the cast is working undercover at a bar to help solve a case; additionally, ads hyped the fact that [[{{UST}} Booth and Bones would wind up in bed]]. Actually [[spoiler: the episode was AllJustADream because a comatose Booth was hearing Bones read the rough draft of her latest novel and his mind was inserting his friends as various characters, including himself and Bones as a HappilyMarried couple.]]

* In the lead-up to the ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'' 3-parter "The Wedding," in which Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa get married, Fox did a promo of the "Someone's getting married...who could it be?" variety, and seemed to suggest that it might be one of the Rangers, perhaps Billy, or even [[OfficialCouple Tommy and Kimberly!]] Never mind the fact that they're all supposed to be [[{{Squick}} teenagers]]...
* One promo for an episode of ''OneTreeHill'' outright stated that Peyton was going to once again have feelings for Nathan. Cue the episode where Nathan and Peyton become partners on a project and spend the rest of the episode having fun with no mention of romance at all.

* On a sleazier note, a trailer for the less-than-stellar dramedy ''Wildfire'' showed one character inviting another to a TwoPersonPoolParty, with a clear implication of sex. Since this was on primetime TV before the {{Watershed}}, in the actual episode the line was immediately followed by a blunt refusal.

** In another episode from a later season, Jill hires a professional (played by Tom Wopat) to install granite countertops; the handyman turns be the same guy who once flirted with her at the gym and tried to ask her out. Nothing happens between them, and Jill actually ''fires'' the guy because his behavior makes her so uncomfortable. The advertisement, on the other hand, shows the two of them kissing passionately (which actually happened during a DreamSequence in a previous episode), Jill tearfully confessing "He ''kissed'' me!" (which he ''did''--briefly, without her consent, right before she fired him), and Tim opening the front door and coming face to face with the flirtatious handyman (who actually just came back to get his tools).

** This isn't really deceptive, the show got a lot of mileage out of pretending it didn't approve of Earl being a colossal jackass for RuleOfFunny because he could fix it in the non-flashback part of the episode.
* The trailer for a recent episode of TheBigBangTheory had the narrator announce "this is the episode you've been waiting for", then showed scenes of a hot woman in the guys's apartment and a scene of Sheldon giggling, making it look like he was attracted to her. Needless to say, or it wouldn't be in this category, Sheldon had no romantic interest in the woman whatsoever (she was a fellow physicist he invited to stay with him) and the giggling was taken out of context. (Said woman did have sex, but with Leonard, and later, Raj).

* Possibly overlaps with TonightSomeoneDies: an episode of ''Series/ColdCase'' had a plot where one of the detectives had gone missing and the others were looking for him. The trailer had a scene where they encounter a body, with one of them pulling away the sheet and reacting appropriately. [[spoiler: of course, it wasn't their friend, but a homeless guy who had jumped off a building, and had no importance to the plot whatsoever]].

* The commercials for the U.S. version of ''Masterchef'' only featured Gordon Ramsey as the judge. They completely failed to mention that there's two other judges involved in this.

* {{Everybody Hates Chris}} did this all the time in the later seasons. They weren't even subtle. No editing, just stuff that didn't happen. One episode trailer had Drew in a school talent show, getting booed off the stage and people throwing things at him. Never happened, not even if a dream before hand about how things might go. He just showed up and rocked.

* In the previews for the ''{{Castle}}'' episode "Nikki Heat", we see Castle hold a diamond ring in a box and ask an unseen person "Will you marry me?". In the actual episode, Castle is just giving Ryan advice on how to propose to his (Ryan's) girlfriend.
* Newer ''HowIMetYourMother'' trailers in Germany feature only various scenes of Barney, letting it appear as if he were the main character.

* One trailer for ''WWEToughEnough'' featured some {{WWE}} Divas as guest stars, and showed one of them slapping Jeremiah with the implication that he'd done something untoward to deserve it. In truth, he was just drunk and being goofy, and ''asked'' to be slapped in a moment of euphoria.

** The trailer for one ''DeepSpaceNine'' episode showed the Enterprise being destroyed... or so we thought. Turns out it's a ship of the same class, called the ''Odyssey'' (Justified, maybe, in that WordOfGod says that the point of it happening in the episode was to tell the viewers "This might very well happen to the ''Enterprise''" and to make them think of the familiar ship in that situation).

* One ''StarTrekVoyager'' episode trailer was particularly bad in this respect, being designed around the line "He violated me" in such a way as to make it sound very much as though Seven was going to be raped by a crew member; the trailer even featured a "Who did it?" sequence with flashes of various male crew members' faces. The actual episode, however, was just about an alien culture trapping her in a laboratory for study and stealing some of her nanoprobes. The plot ''does'' play at DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything, with Borg nanoprobes replacing date rape, but it was still incredibly misleading.

*** ''Voyager'''s action quotient is such that it's not entirely unwarranted. Now, when they tried to do the same with ''[[StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]''...

** Final ''StarTrek'' spin-off example: UK TV channel Virgin 1 markets ''StarTrekEnterprise'' on the basis of the handful of relatively sexy moments that make up the 4 seasons. While it might have featured more blatant sexual situations than the previous ''StarTrek'' series, the show was still pretty tame by most modern standards.

* During the middle of its run ''RedDwarf'' had an intro sequence that made it look more like some kind of high-adventure show than an irreverent comedy with a sci-fi backdrop.

* Possibly overlaps with TonightSomeoneDies: an episode of ColdCase had a plot where one of the detectives had gone missing and the others were looking for him. The trailer had a scene where they encounter a body, with one of them pulling away the sheet and reacting appropriately. [[spoiler: of course, it wasn't their friend, but a homeless guy who had jumped off a building, and had no importance to the plot whatsoever]].

** Not strictly under this trope, but the name of the episode "Beck falls for Tori" made the Beck/Tori shippers go mad (and the Beck/Jade shippers slightly nervous, although the producer was known for being a troll) until it was discovered that Beck was literally going to fall of a building as a stunt double for Tori.

* In the middle of the Jasmine arc of ''{{Angel}}'', an OnTheNext centered around Angel and Fred kissing, with the announcer going on about how the crisis will drive them together... in the actual episode, the kiss turns out to be a FakeOutMakeOut and no romance comes of it.

* The trailer for the US version of ''LifeOnMars'' is shot like a ''StarskyAndHutch'' parody. Seriously, watch it.

* Parodied to extreme in the {{Arrested Development}} episode "S.O.B.s". And in its trailer, of course.

* A Brazlian cable TV trailer for a Dawson's Creek episode had Dawson saying the words ''I love you'' to Pacey, then leaning towards him. The voice-over even joked about ''Dawson borrowing some of Jack's genes'' (all the trailers in that network were really humorous and tongue-in-cheek) It turned out that episode had Dawson and Pacey reading one of Dawson's movie scripts, and he's not leaning towards Pacey, he's just reaching for the script. Though the ''reading the script'' scene was the first one in the episode, so for half a minute you thought Dawson was really professing his love for Pacey.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''ArrestedDevelopment'', in which the clips at the end of each episode were almost ''never'' actually featured in the next, but sometimes became important in their own right.

* Happens far too often on ''{{House}}''. For example, the trailer for an episode during the Tritter arc had the following exchange:

* Likewise, at one point, Nickelodeon aired promos for "Crush Week" starring Justin Bieber and the girls from the cast of {{Victorious}}. One thing present there was a new episode of said show called "The Wood". The promos hinted the possibility of Tori and Beck becoming "more than friends" (read: a couple), showing a scene of her calling Beck on her phone, expressing love and offering to tickle his tummy. Almost immediately, fans of the Beck and Jade pairing that is currently present on the show raged and bashed the thought of said idea. Then, when the episode aired, it had next to nothing to do with love or pairings. It was a fusion of two clips-one with Tori calling her aunt about their puppy, another with Beck ordering a pizza. This made Jade think Tori was hitting on Beck, causing them to [[HilarityEnsues ensue hilarity]]. Thus, the Beck/Jade shippers got worked up for nothing.
** Although at least that was what actually happened in the episode itself, with a reality show cutting those two conversations together in-universe, it wasn't created by the promo department.
* The promos for "Jade Gets Crushed" make it seem like the premise of the episode is Jade going on a rampage. Really, she's significantly nicer in the episode than usual.

* Late in the run of ''HerculesTheLegendaryJourney'' the trailers practically guaranteed that a particular episode was the finale of the series. Turns out Hercules ''did'' retire...for about five seconds.

** In another episode from a later season, Jill hires a professional (played by Tom Wopat) to install granite countertops; the handyman turns be the same guy who once flirted with her at the gym and tried to ask her out. Nothing happens between them, and Jill actually ''fires'' the guy because his behavior makes her so uncomfortable. The advertisement, on the other hand, shows the two of them kissing passionately (which actually happened during a DreamSequence in a previous episode), Jill tearfully confessing "He ''kissed'' me!" (which he ''did''--briefly, without Jill's consent, right before she fired him), and Tim opening the front door and coming face to face with the flirtatious handyman (who actually just came back to get his tools).

* During its last few seasons, ''HomeImprovement'' was notoriously misleading with its advertisements. In one particular episode Jill catches her her oldest son, Brad, in a compromising position with his girlfriend Ashley. The advert shows Brad getting caught in the act, followed by Jill asking, "Is Ashley pregnant?"; we see Brad's serious facial expression--and a ''shocked'' reaction from his mother. The reality? [[spoiler: Ashley isn't pregnant, and the two didn't even have sex; the episode actually centers around Brad's frustration with his mother for constantly butting into his private life.]] Not that you'd know it, of course.
** In another episode from a later season, Jill hires a professional (played by Tom Wopat) to install granite countertops; the handyman turns be the guy who once flirted with her at the gym and tried to ask her out. Nothing happens between them, and Jill actually ''fires'' the guy because he makes her so uncomfortable. The advertisement, on the other hand, shows the two of them kissing passionately (which actually happened during a DreamSequence in a previous episode), Jill tearfully confessing, "He ''kissed'' me!" (which he ''did''--briefly, without her permission, right before she fired him), and Tim opening the front door and coming face to face with the flirtatious handyman (who actually just came back to get his tools).

* ''PawnStars'' and ''AmericanRestoration'' both History Channel Shows, do this for their opening previews. They mix and match scenes and voice overs to make up events that never happen in the show. For example making something seem to be a fake in PawnStars or breaking something in AmericanRestoration.

** The BBC One trailer for "The Waters Of Mars" ends with the {{Blatant Lie}} of someone knocking four times just like {{the prophecy}} said, in the actual episode however, [[spoiler:it was {{lampshade hanging}} and the Doctor stopped the villain from knocking a fourth time.]] The trailer repeated the fist knock.

** The BBC One trailer for "The Waters Of Mars" ends with the {{Blatant Lie}} of someone knocking four times just like {{the prophecy}} said, in the actual episode however, [[spoiler:it was {{lampshade hanging}} and the Doctor stopped the villain from knocking a forth time.]] The trailer repeated the fist knock.

* Those infamous official Korean {{Sherlock}} trailers that make it appear Sherlock and John's [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean relationship]] is the focus of the series. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFR_Z30d5nQ Any]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN4xBm44KH0 of]]them.

*** Yes, I do understand that, but the point I was trying to mention was that it made fans wonder if Tori and Beck would become more than friends, which the episode wasn't about at all.

** For several weeks there, the trailers for ''StargateAtlantis'' alluded to replicator involvement. "Or is it a Replicator trap?" "Is he really back from the dead, or is it another Replicator?" Needless to say, Replicators weren't even mentioned in those episodes.
** ''StargateUniverse'' follows the trend for a recent episode. Footage of the crew running down the hallway is accompanied by the usual urgent voice overs, as if they're running to avert some disaster. In the actual episode, it turns out it's just the crew working out during the opening montage.