History TonightSomeoneDies / LiveActionTV

* ''ShortlandStreet'', after playing it straight through many previous deaths of major and minor characters, [[SubvertedTrope subverted this]] in 2008 when one episode ended with several of the characters seemingly falling victim to a shootout in the {{Cliffhanger}}. The OnTheNext promo immediately following the episode announced that there would be three casualties. Naturally many fans assumed that there would be three deaths, until the actual definition of casualties was pointed out. Sure enough nobody died.

** Another interesting thing to note is that when they started filming season 4, they hadn't actually yet decided who would be in the grave. This is just one of the reasons why fans were unhappy with the result.

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'': The trailers and marketing for the Season Three finale keep reminding views that someone in the main cast will die. [[http://www.newsarama.com/29075-marvel-evokes-night-gwen-stacy-died-for-agents-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-season-finale.html One promo image]] even copies the cover for ''ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied''.

-->'''Old woman''': Oh, Gob! You could charm the black off a telegram boy!"\\

** The finale for Series 2 was set up with a trailer showing Rose saying "This is the story of the day I died", and making much of the fact that actress Billie Piper would not be returning. Of course, she only died ''metaphorically'', being sent to a parallel universe and thus separated from the Doctor.
*** It's explicitly mentioned in the episode that she was declared legally dead after disappearing during the Battle of Canary Wharf, so as far as the government's considered the claim was true.

** In the specials following Series 4, one major arc was the upcoming death of the Tenth Doctor. Of course, being a Time Lord, he regenerated into Creator/MattSmith. Despite the Tenth Doctor's angst about regenerating, some might consider a phoenix-like resurrection with a new face and slightly different quirks better than completely ceasing to exist.
*** In the Doctor's own words: "Even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away... and I'm dead."

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' Did this in it's fourth season by having the first episode show a flash-forward with Oliver standing at a grave. Another flash-forward in a later episode showed that it was not Felicity, [[WildMassGuessing although fans still speculated that she was just a hallucination.]] In episode 18, it turned out to be [[spoiler: Laurel Lance]], although leaked pictures from filming the funeral scene for the following episode and [[spoiler: Sara and her father]] visiting the grave for ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' did spoil this, including a very clear shot of the grave and whose name was on it.
** Another interesting thing to note is that when they started filming Arrow's fourth season, they hadn't actually yet decided who would be in the grave. This is just one of the reasons why fans were unhappy with the result.

* ''GreysAnatomy'' used this trope when, following the second part of a three part arc, the audience was told that someone would die. Considering the title character was lying on a hospital bed not breathing at this point, this was a fairly serious claim. Naturally, however, the minor recurring character died.

* ''Series/TwentyFour'': The show generally made this an AvertedTrope, as character death would never really be announced it all to make things as shocking as possible, but it was used halfway through the fifth season, as the previews for "Day 5: 7:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M." stated one character would sacrifice himself to save everyone. That turned out to be [[spoiler: Lynn [=McGill=]]], but if anything, the use of this trope was played in order to surprise audiences for the '''real''' intended major death in the same episode: [[spoiler: Tony Almeida.]]

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Parodied. Before the opening credits, [[Creator/RonHoward the Narrator]] announces that "one of these characters will die," while every main character flashes on screen, as well as an old lady who is unique to the episode. However, about halfway through the episode, the Narrator [[OhAndXDies simply tells the audience]] that she is the one who's going to die:

** Episode 7 of season one of had this. The Clown announces towards the beginning of the episode that "Something dreadful is going to happen. I'm going to take someone." This comes into play when [[spoiler: Shaz is stabbed and is technically dead, before Alex revives her.]]

* ''BeverlyHills90210'': A memorable example was in the second season when we were told an original character would be killed off, and of course it turned out to be David Silver's friend Scott Scanlon.
* ''Blue Heelers'': Had a run with Gary Sweet playing a gangster. One promo hyped how there would be three shots fired in the next episode (actually five, four of them being used to execute two crooks), with the final shot being the most shocking. The final shot? A hit on Sweet's character.
* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': Featured the murder of a minor regular ([[spoiler:at the hands of the sniper the team is currently hunting]]). The build-up made a point of intercutting the killer with all regulars to make them look threatened. However, the actual victim is foreshadowed by the episode title. which is an allusion to the episode in which [[spoiler: Zach left the show]].
* ''BreakoutKings'': SubvertedTrope so many times that it became annoying. When the commercials for Season 2 began to air, this was the ''only'' thing they talked about. But the creators threw a curve ball and actually ''did'' kill off one of the main characters, proving to everyone that they do have the balls to have someone KilledOffForReal.
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Used in a promo during the second season. The clips made it abundantly clear it would be [[spoiler: Jenny Calendar]].
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': Pulls this for its third-season finale. The promo specifically has Castle saying "Someone is gonna die." The producers promised that it wouldn't be a background character. [[spoiler:True to the formula, the line is actually only tangential, but the promise was kept: Captain Montgomery died while getting the bad guy. [[WhamEpisode And then...]]]]

* ''DawsonsCreek'': Used to promote one episode in which minor character Abby died.

** Set up the finale for series 2 with a trailer showing Rose saying "This is the story of the day I died", and making much of the fact that actress Billie Piper would not be returning. Of course, she only died ''metaphorically'', being sent to a parallel universe and thus separated from the Doctor.

* ''Emmerdale'': While not exactly outright said, it might a well have been advertised with how blatant it was: this British soap killed off the character Tom King after just about everyone mentioned wanting him dead ("You do realise that at this precise moment, Dad's worth more to us dead than he is alive." "If you had died instead of Mum, we'd be a lot happier."). He even mentions it himself ("If I were to go now, I'd die a happy man.").

** Pulled this with Robert Romano. However, since he was the DrJerk, nobody inside the hospital noticed until the cops told them.

* ''GreysAnatomy'': This trope was used when following the second part of a three part arc, the audience was told that someone would die. Considering the title character was lying on a hospital bed not breathing at this point, this was a fairly serious claim. Naturally, however, the minor recurring character died.

** Did this very cleverly. After being told that someone would die, [[spoiler: we saw Claire's mom collapse to the ground. After the commercial, we're now in the hospital with the possibility of brain cancer. Had this character died, it would have been quite dramatically valid. Then she got discharged, just in time for Isaac to accidentally shoot Simone dead.]]

* Series/{{Hollyoaks}}: A clever subversion from the British soap: The viewers were promised that a character would die during trailers for a special hour-long episode, only for that character to still be alive and well at the end of the special. [[spoiler: He was then killed off in the next regular episode]].

** In an advertising variant of BeamMeUpScotty, this show has become timelessly associated with this trope despite only using it twice--in season 1 when [[spoiler:Boone]] died, and in season 2 when [[spoiler:Shannon]] died. In fact, ''Lost'' has a better reputation for suddenly killing off beloved main characters with no advertising fanfare whatsoever.

* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': Set this up with Arthur in one episode. Being [[StatusQuoIsGod the kind of show it is]], nobody really fell for it. [[spoiler: It's Lancelot.]] Welcome to [[AnyoneCanDie Series 4]], folks.

** The Australian Network 10 announced on every add in the 3 weeks before the finale of this show's season 3, "[[spoiler:Marissa]] is going to DIE." Yes, everyone knew [[spoiler: Mischa Barton]] was leaving the show, but this advertising strategy completely undid the finale's setting up of [[spoiler: Marissa going to live with her dad]], a plausible explanation for the departing actor which would have made the death something of a shock.

* Reality Shows:
** Frequently subverted, where the trailers and "Next Time On..." clips will show emergency vehicles rushing to the set. Usually it turns out that the emergency service will feature as part of the task (such as in the episode of Hell's Kitchen USA where the task was to cook breakfast for the fire service, yet the trailers showed fire engines rushing to the restaurant interspersed with regular shots of flames from the kitchen's stoves).
** ''Hell's Kitchen'' itself did play it relatively straight in one episode though, where a contestant was legitimately taken ill during filming. Didn't stop them playing up the emergency vehicles in the trailer though.
* ''Series/{{Reaper}}'': The season one finale of this CW series was heavily promoted as, "Someone Will Die". However, [[spoiler:it seems that this death is the main character's (Sam's) dad, buried alive and presumed dead by the characters. In the last few minutes Sam's mom seems to have dug the still-alive man out of the ground. In a later episode, it was relieved that the commercials were technically correct. Sam's dad is no longer alive. Apparently ExactWords matter when making a DealWithTheDevil.]]

* ''{{Series/Salem}}'': {{Played straight}} for the first two episodes, the third being the first to [[SubvertedTrope subvert]] this.

* ''ShortlandStreet'': After playing it straight through many previous deaths of major and minor characters, the New Zealand soap opera made this a SubvertedTrope in 2008 when one episode ended with several of the characters seemingly falling victim to a shootout in the {{Cliffhanger}}. The OnTheNext promo immediately following the episode announced that there would be three casualties. Naturally many fans assumed that there would be three deaths, until the actual definition of casualties was pointed out. Sure enough nobody died.
* ''Series/TheSopranos'': Though not explicitly promised, this show had established a tradition of suddenly killing off a major character at the end of each season. Then along comes the series finale, and... [[spoiler: SmashToBlack in mid-scene]].

** Had a major WhamEpisode in which a popular main character dies unexpectedly at the end of a comedic filler episode. This would have been a huge shock, except the promos for the episode played up the Tonight Someone Dies angle (which spoiled the fact that someone was going to die), gave away ''which'' character was going to die, and even ''showed the first few moments'' of their death. To top it off, while the character ''did'' manage to stay dead for a couple seasons, he eventually came back as a clone.

** Hyped it in a commercial for the episode featuring [[spoiler: Harry Kim]]'s DisneyDeath, though in a somewhat broken manner, seeing as [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil they showed the death scene itself in the commercial]].

** Used at the end of Season 1, It was [[spoiler: Artie]]. [[spoiler: He]] got better thanks to an artifact.)

* ''{{NCIS}}'':

** The first season played this card with the question: Who will explode? [[spoiler:Peter, Ted or Sylar]]. Several characters in the finale [[spoiler:were shot (Matt Parkman, DL), stabbed (Sylar) or seemed to blow up in the Big Sky Explosion (Peter, Nathan), but EVERYONE re-appeared alive in the second season.]]
*** No DL didn't. He did recover from the gunshot but but was killed in between seasons after being killed in a rather flimsy manner.

* ''Dawson's Creek'': Used to promote one episode in which minor character Abby died.
* ''DesperateHousewives'': The supermarket episode of season 3.

** [[spoiler:It's explained later in the fourth season he was, between the previous season and the one where he died, possessed by a person from the future. This is actually a major plot point in season 4.]]

** It's explicitly mentioned in the episode that she was declared legally dead after disappearing during the Battle of Canary Wharf, so as far as the government's considered the claim was true.
** In Series 4, [[spoiler:they pulled exactly the same "Someone will die - if by "die" you mean "not actually die"" ending. And it didn't work this time either...]]
** And in the specials after, much was made of "[The Doctor's] song is ending" ... by which they meant he regenerated again. Despite the Tenth Doctor's angst about regenerating, some might consider a phoenix-like resurrection with a new face and slightly different quirks better than completely ceasing to exist.

*** Except for how that's complete BS. Ten himself, after regenerating from Nine, repeatedly explained and demonstrated to Rose that it was him, the same him, he just changed a bit, and Nine told her the same before he regenerated. Not to mention all the classic regenerations, where regeneration was usually far more psychologically traumatic than how the Nine -> Ten change was depicted and was very unsettling, even shattering, often leading to the Doctor being resentful of, frightened, or bewildered by his new attributes, but was never analogous to dying.
** [[http://merchandise.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/magazine-dwm433.jpg And again]] in the buildup for Series 6 - coupled with a promise from Steven Moffat that "we're not lying, we're not cheating. One of those four people is going to die."
*** However, since it was [[spoiler: The Doctor himself,]] if it isn't provoking a lot of LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt then why not? Although it did still have an air of "cop-out".
*** Well in the end, they did lie/cheat: [[spoiler: The Doctor didn't die at all. A doppelgänger MobileSuitHuman was destroyed instead]].

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Parodied. Before the opening credits, [[RonHoward the Narrator]] announces that "one of these characters will die," while every main character flashes on screen, as well as an old lady who is unique to the episode. However, about halfway through the episode, the Narrator [[OhAndXDies simply tells the audience]] that she is the one who's going to die:

** This trope was also used in Australia to advertise the episode ''Mystery Spot'', although to be fair saying that 'tonight someone dies' was a bit of an understatement really, in its own way. Plus, the whole thing ended up being subverted. Tonight Someone Dies... REPEATEDLY.

* ''Series/TwentyFour'': The show generally averted this trope, as character death would never really be announced it all to make things as shocking as possible, but it was used halfway through the fifth season, as the previews for "Day 5: 7:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M." stated one character would sacrifice himself to save everyone. That turned out to be [[spoiler: Lynn [=McGill=]]], but if anything, the use of this trope was played in order to surprise audiences for the '''real''' intended major death in the same episode: [[spoiler: Tony Almeida.]]
* ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'': One episode advertised itself in this manner, and the death in the end turned out to be a character who was not only minor, but also evil, and had a completely different personality to that he had had in the previous series, for no explained reason.

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': Parodied. Before the opening credits, [[RonHoward the Narrator]] announces that "one of these characters will die," while every main character flashes on screen, as well as an old lady who is unique to the episode. However, about halfway through the episode, the Narrator [[OhAndXDies simply tells the audience]] that she is the one who's going to die.

* ''AshesToAshes'': Episode 7 of season one of had this. The Clown announces towards the beginning of the episode that "Something dreadful is going to happen. I'm going to take someone." This comes into play when [[spoiler: Shaz is stabbed and is technically dead, before Alex revives her.]]

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': Leading up to the two-part finale of Season 6, it was heavily advertised that someone would be shot, and thus implied that a main character would die. In the end, the victim was Jim Brass, an oft-recurring but non-central character. And he survived.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Set up the finale for series 2 with a trailer showing Rose saying "This is the story of the day I died", and making much of the fact that actress Billie Piper would not be returning. Of course, she only died ''metaphorically'', being sent to a parallel universe and thus separated from the Doctor.

* ''Series/{{ER}}'': Pulled this with Robert Romano. However, since he was the DrJerk, nobody inside the hospital noticed until the cops told them.
** ''ER'' was a serial abuser of this trope, but did subvert it a few times...like killing off a major character (Gallant) in the teaser with no warning, letting the rest of the episode being the hospital's reaction at the news (as he was killed in Iraq).

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Did this very cleverly. After being told that someone would die, [[spoiler: we saw Claire's mom collapse to the ground. After the commercial, we're now in the hospital with the possibility of brain cancer. Had this character died, it would have been quite dramatically valid. Then she got discharged, just in time for Isaac to accidentally shoot Simone dead.]]

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': In an advertising variant of BeamMeUpScotty, this show has become timelessly associated with this trope despite only using it twice--in season 1 when [[spoiler:Boone]] died, and in season 2 when [[spoiler:Shannon]] died. In fact, ''Lost'' has a better reputation for suddenly killing off beloved main characters with no advertising fanfare whatsoever.

* ''{{NCIS}}'': The second season finale featured a plethora of tropes associated with Tonight Someone Dies, almost to the point of subversion. Ads for the show featured the requisite montage of major characters and promised one would not survive the finale. Throughout the episode, characters narrowly survived snakes, bombs, and gunfire, and kept talking and dreaming about each other's deaths. In the final minutes, Kate took a bullet but was revealed to be wearing a bulletproof vest (DisneyDeath) only to be shot between the eyes in the final seconds (KilledOffForReal). As this was precipitated by Sasha Alexander's decision to leave the show, it seemed to be an instance of DroppedABridgeOnHim (although she appeared for most of the third season premiere as a ghost/hallucination).

* ''Series/TheOC'': The Australian Network 10 announced on every add in the 3 weeks before the finale of this show's season 3, "[[spoiler:Marissa]] is going to DIE." Yes, everyone knew [[spoiler: Mischa Barton]] was leaving the show, but this advertising strategy completely undid the finale's setting up of [[spoiler: Marissa going to live with her dad]], a plausible explanation for the departing actor which would have made the death something of a shock.

** The commercials for the fourth episode made it seem like one of the protagonists would get killed. [[spoiler:They weren't kidding, and Maggie died]].
** The commercial for "Sex and Drugs" made it seem like [[spoiler:Nora would succumb to her stab wound. She didn't]].

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': Had a major WhamEpisode in which a popular main character dies unexpectedly at the end of a comedic filler episode. This would have been a huge shock, except the promos for the episode played up the Tonight Someone Dies angle (which spoiled the fact that someone was going to die), gave away ''which'' character was going to die, and even ''showed the first few moments'' of their death. To top it off, while the character ''did'' manage to stay dead for a couple seasons, he eventually came back as a clone.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Hyped it in a commercial for the episode featuring [[spoiler: Harry Kim]]'s DisneyDeath, though in a somewhat broken manner, seeing as [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil they showed the death scene itself in the commercial]].

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Possibly a JustifiedTrope in the episode ''No Rest For The Wicked''. It's the finale and Dean's year was up; how else do you expect them to advertise it?

* ''Warehouse 13'': Used at the end of Season 1, It was [[spoiler: Artie]]. [[spoiler: He]] got better thanks to an artifact.)

* Frequently subverted in reality shows, where the trailers and "Next Time On..." clips will show emergency vehicles rushing to the set. Usually it turns out that the emergency service will feature as part of the task (such as in the episode of Hell's Kitchen USA where the task was to cook breakfast for the fire service, yet the trailers showed fire engines rushing to the restaurant interspersed with regular shots of flames from the kitchen's stoves).
** Hell's Kitchen itself did play it relatively straight in one episode though, where a contestant was legitimately taken ill during filming. Didn't stop them playing up the emergency vehicles in the trailer though.

* ''Series/TwentyFour'': The show generally averted this trope, but it was used halfway through the fifth season, as the previews for "Day 5: 7:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M." stated one character would sacrifice himself to save everyone. That turned out to be [[spoiler: Lynn [=McGill=]]], but if anything, the use of this trope was played in order to surprise audiences for the '''real''' intended major death in the same episode: [[spoiler: Tony Almeida.]]

* ''{{The 4400}}'': One episode advertised itself in this manner, and the death in the end turned out to be a character who was not only minor, but also evil, and had a completely different personality to that he had had in the previous series, for no explained reason.

* ''BeverlyHills90210'': A memorable example was in the second season when we were told an original character would be killed off, and of course it turned out to be David Silver's friend Scott Scanlon.
* ''{{NCIS}}'': The second season finale featured a plethora of tropes associated with Tonight Someone Dies, almost to the point of subversion. Ads for the show featured the requisite montage of major characters and promised one would not survive the finale. Throughout the episode, characters narrowly survived snakes, bombs, and gunfire, and kept talking and dreaming about each other's deaths. In the final minutes, Kate took a bullet but was revealed to be wearing a bulletproof vest (DisneyDeath) only to be shot between the eyes in the final seconds (KilledOffForReal). As this was precipitated by Sasha Alexander's decision to leave the show, it seemed to be an instance of DroppedABridgeOnHim (although she appeared for most of the third season premiere as a ghost/hallucination).
** And they did it again in Season 5. This time the character that died was Jenny Shepard, at the end of the first half of the two-part finale. [[spoiler: Shepard, however, died in a blaze of glory, taking down ''all'' of the bad guys with her. All the grizzled {{Badass}}, Mike Franks(whom Shepard had asked for help), wound up doing was finish off two of the badguys who were bleeding out.]]
*** [[spoiler: And to add injury to insult, Mike Franks himself became the Someone Who Died near the end of Season 8.]]

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': In an advertising variant of BeamMeUpScotty, this show has become timelessly associated with this trope despite only using it twice--in season 1 when [[spoiler:Boone]] died, and in season 2 when [[spoiler:Shannon]] died. In fact, ''Lost'' has a better reputation for suddenly killing off beloved main characters with no advertising fanfare whatsoever.
** Played painfully straight with [[spoiler:"Homecoming"]], an earlier episode in Season 1, which was hyped with the "Someone will die" tagline, only for them to kill off [[spoiler:minor character Scott of "Scott and Steve" fame, who had little involvement in the plot and barely any lines in the few episodes he appeared in]]. The "someone" could have also referred to [[spoiler:Ethan]], who was killed at the end of the episode, but the trailer seemed to specifically indicate that one of the main characters (i.e. the good guys) would bite it.
** This silly advertising technique became notorious in Australia after it was used for every single episode of Lost in Seven network advertising, usually in the form of "Tonight it will finally be revealed what's in the Box/Bushes/Hatch/Plane/Water/e.t.c" but also in the more true to trope "Someone will DIE"
* ''All Saints'': In one episode, a few close-ups of stern faces were all that were needed to completely fool the audience into believing that "One of these women will leave the show... FOREVER" meant that one of the two feuding female characters would die, only for one of them to leave the show quietly, and furthermore, temporarily.
* ''{{The 4400}}'': One episode advertised itself in this manner, and the death in the end turned out to be a character who was not only minor, but also evil, and had a completely different personality to that he had had in the previous series, for no explained reason.
** [[spoiler:It's explained later in the fourth season he was, between the previous season and the one where he died, possessed by a person from the future. This is actually a major plot point in season 4.]]
** There is another episode where the trailer advertises the main characters being trapped together and two would not make it out alive. [[spoiler: In this episode, Shawn Ferrell and Meghan Doyle both died, but because it was a dream (sort of), they were both fine at the end.]]

* ''Series/{{ER}}'': Pulled this with Robert Romano. However, since he was the DrJerk, nobody inside the hospital noticed until the cops told them.
** ''ER'' was a serial abuser of this trope, but did subvert it a few times...like killing off a major character (Gallant) in the teaser with no warning, letting the rest of the episode being the hospital's reaction at the news (as he was killed in Iraq).
* ''Emmerdale'': While not exactly outright said, it might a well have been advertised with how blatant it was: this British soap killed off the character Tom King after just about everyone mentioned wanting him dead ("You do realise that at this precise moment, Dad's worth more to us dead than he is alive." "If you had died instead of Mum, we'd be a lot happier."). He even mentions it himself ("If I were to go now, I'd die a happy man.").
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': Did this very cleverly. After being told that someone would die, [[spoiler: we saw Claire's mom collapse to the ground. After the commercial, we're now in the hospital with the possibility of brain cancer. Had this character died, it would have been quite dramatically valid. Then she got discharged, just in time for Isaac to accidentally shoot Simone dead.]]
** The first season played this card with the question: Who will explode? [[spoiler:Peter, Ted or Sylar]]. Several characters in the finale [[spoiler:were shot (Matt Parkman, DL), stabbed (Sylar) or seemed to blow up in the Big Sky Explosion (Peter, Nathan), but EVERYONE re-appeared alive in the second season.]]
*** No DL didn't. He did recover from the gunshot but but was killed in between seasons after being killed in a rather flimsy manner.
** Not to mention Season/Volume 2, with the much-hyped painted death prophecy for Bennet. [[spoiler: He does indeed get [[EyeScream shot through the eye]]. Maya also takes a bullet and dies.]] However, [[spoiler: they're both revived with Magic Blood almost immediately, or by next episode, respectively.]]
* ''BreakoutKings'': SubvertedTrope so many times that it became annoying. When the commercials for Season 2 began to air, this was the ''only'' thing they talked about. But the creators threw a curve ball and actually ''did'' kill off one of the main characters, proving to everyone that they do have the balls to have someone KilledOffForReal.

* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': Leading up to the two-part finale of Season 6, it was heavily advertised that someone would be shot, and thus implied that a main character would die. In the end, the victim was Jim Brass, an oft-recurring but non-central character. And he survived.
** Again in the 2010 spring finale: [[spoiler: Nick gets shot by Dr. Jekyll, but not only does he survive but is also the one to kill the bad doctor. All seems well until "The Dick and Jane Killer" shanks Langston -- and cut to credits]].
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Hyped it in a commercial for the episode featuring [[spoiler: Harry Kim]]'s DisneyDeath, though in a somewhat broken manner, seeing as [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil they showed the death scene itself in the commercial]].
** ''Voyager'' did it ''again'' for the episode "Basics." Which of these characters will die tonight -- [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Janeway? Tuvok? Chakotay? Torres? Or that one murderous guy played by Brad Dourif who was only in one episode prior to this one?]] [[ForegoneConclusion Stay tuned to find out!]]
** In the preview for "Amok Time", they say that [[spoiler:Kirk dies. But he didn't - [=McCoy=] lied to save his butt from Spock gone temporarily mad.]]
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Possibly a JustifiedTrope in the episode ''No Rest For The Wicked''. It's the finale and Dean's year was up; how else do you expect them to advertise it?
** This trope was also used in Australia to advertise the episode ''Mystery Spot'', although to be fair saying that 'tonight someone dies' was a bit of an understatement really, in its own way. Plus, the whole thing ended up being subverted. Tonight Someone Dies... REPEATEDLY.
* ''GreysAnatomy'': This trope was used when following the second part of a three part arc, the audience was told that someone would die. Considering the title character was lying on a hospital bed not breathing at this point, this was a fairly serious claim. Naturally, however, the minor recurring character died.

* ''Series/{{Reaper}}'': The season one finale of this CW series was heavily promoted as, "Someone Will Die". However, [[spoiler:it seems that this death is the main character's (Sam's) dad, buried alive and presumed dead by the characters. In the last few minutes Sam's mom seems to have dug the still-alive man out of the ground. In a later episode, it was relieved that the commercials were technically correct. Sam's dad is no longer alive. Apparently ExactWords matter when making a DealWithTheDevil.]]

* ''Blue Heelers'': Had a run with Gary Sweet playing a gangster. One promo hyped how there would be three shots fired in the next episode (actually five, four of them being used to execute two crooks), with the final shot being the most shocking. The final shot? A hit on Sweet's character.

* ''AshesToAshes'': Episode 7 of season one of had this. The Clown announces towards the beginning of the episode that "Something dreadful is going to happen. I'm going to take someone." This comes into play when [[spoiler: Shaz is stabbed and is technically dead, before Alex revives her.]]
** This becomes rather ridiculous in hindsight after [[spoiler: seeing the end of the series when it is revealed everyone including Alex had been DeadAllAlong and existing in police purgatory. The only way the Clown makes sense now is as an alternate form taken by [[DevilInPlainSight DCI Keats]], both characters having tried to "take the soul" of one of the dead characters - Keats having succeeded]].
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': Used in a promo during the second season. The clips made it abundantly clear it would be [[spoiler: Jenny Calendar]].

* ''Series/{{Bones}}'': Featured the murder of a minor regular ([[spoiler:at the hands of the sniper the team is currently hunting]]). The build-up made a point of intercutting the killer with all regulars to make them look threatened. However, the actual victim is foreshadowed by the episode title. which is an allusion to the episode in which [[spoiler: Zach left the show]].
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'': Pulls this for its third-season finale. The promo specifically has Castle saying "Someone is gonna die." The producers promised that it wouldn't be a background character. [[spoiler:True to the formula, the line is actually only tangential, but the promise was kept: Captain Montgomery died while getting the bad guy. [[WhamEpisode And then...]]]]
* ''Series/TheSopranos'': Though not explicitly promised, this show had established a tradition of suddenly killing off a major character at the end of each season. Then along comes the series finale, and... [[spoiler: SmashToBlack in mid-scene]].
* ''Series/{{Merlin}}'': Set this up with Arthur in one episode. Being [[StatusQuoIsGod the kind of show it is]], nobody really fell for it. [[spoiler: It's Lancelot.]] Welcome to [[AnyoneCanDie Series 4]], folks.

* A memorable example was in the second season of ''BeverlyHills90210'' when we were told an original character would be killed off, and of course it turned out to be David Silver's friend Scott Scanlon.
* The second season finale of ''{{NCIS}}'' featured a plethora of tropes associated with Tonight Someone Dies, almost to the point of subversion. Ads for the show featured the requisite montage of major characters and promised one would not survive the finale. Throughout the episode, characters narrowly survived snakes, bombs, and gunfire, and kept talking and dreaming about each other's deaths. In the final minutes, Kate took a bullet but was revealed to be wearing a bulletproof vest (DisneyDeath) only to be shot between the eyes in the final seconds (KilledOffForReal). As this was precipitated by Sasha Alexander's decision to leave the show, it seemed to be an instance of DroppedABridgeOnHim (although she appeared for most of the third season premiere as a ghost/hallucination).

* Parodied in ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment''. Before the opening credits, [[RonHoward the Narrator]] announces that "one of these characters will die," while every main character flashes on screen, as well as an old lady who is unique to the episode. However, about halfway through the episode, the Narrator [[OhAndXDies simply tells the audience]] that she is the one who's going to die.

* In an advertising variant of BeamMeUpScotty, ''Series/{{Lost}}'' has become timelessly associated with this trope despite only using it twice--in season 1 when [[spoiler:Boone]] died, and in season 2 when [[spoiler:Shannon]] died. In fact, ''Lost'' has a better reputation for suddenly killing off beloved main characters with no advertising fanfare whatsoever.

* In one episode of ''All Saints'', a few close-ups of stern faces were all that were needed to completely fool the audience into believing that "One of these women will leave the show... FOREVER" meant that one of the two feuding female characters would die, only for one of them to leave the show quietly, and furthermore, temporarily.
* One episode of ''{{The 4400}}'' advertised itself in this manner, and the death in the end turned out to be a character who was not only minor, but also evil, and had a completely different personality to that he had had in the previous series, for no explained reason.

* Used to promote an episode of ''Dawson's Creek'' in which minor character Abby died.
* ''Series/{{ER}}'' pulled this with Robert Romano. However, since he was the DrJerk, nobody inside the hospital noticed until the cops told them.

* While not exactly outright said, it might a well have been advertised with how blatant it was: British soap ''Emmerdale'' killed off the character Tom King after just about everyone mentioned wanting him dead ("You do realise that at this precise moment, Dad's worth more to us dead than he is alive." "If you had died instead of Mum, we'd be a lot happier."). He even mentions it himself ("If I were to go now, I'd die a happy man.").
* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' did this very cleverly. After being told that someone would die, [[spoiler: we saw Claire's mom collapse to the ground. After the commercial, we're now in the hospital with the possibility of brain cancer. Had this character died, it would have been quite dramatically valid. Then she got discharged, just in time for Isaac to accidentally shoot Simone dead.]]

* Subverted so many times with ''BreakoutKings'' that it became annoying. When the commercials for Season 2 began to air, this was the ''only'' thing they talked about. But the creators threw a curve ball and actually ''did'' kill off one of the main characters, proving to everyone that they do have the balls to have someone KilledOffForReal.
* The supermarket episode of season 3 of ''DesperateHousewives''.
* Leading up to the two-part finale of Season 6 of ''Series/{{CSI}}: Crime Scene Investigation'', it was heavily advertised that someone would be shot, and thus implied that a main character would die. In the end, the victim was Jim Brass, an oft-recurring but non-central character. And he survived.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' hyped it in a commercial for the episode featuring [[spoiler: Harry Kim]]'s DisneyDeath, though in a somewhat broken manner, seeing as [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil they showed the death scene itself in the commercial]].

* Possibly justified in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode ''No Rest For The Wicked''. It's the finale and Dean's year was up; how else do you expect them to advertise it?

* This trope was used by ''GreysAnatomy'', when, following the second part of a three part arc, the audience was told that someone would die. Considering the title character was lying on a hospital bed not breathing at this point, this was a fairly serious claim. Naturally, however, the minor recurring character died.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' set up the finale for series 2 with a trailer showing Rose saying "This is the story of the day I died", and making much of the fact that actress Billie Piper would not be returning. Of course, she only died ''metaphorically'', being sent to a parallel universe and thus separated from the Doctor.

* The season one finale of the CW series ''Series/{{Reaper}}'' was heavily promoted as, "Someone Will Die". However, [[spoiler:it seems that this death is the main character's (Sam's) dad, buried alive and presumed dead by the characters. In the last few minutes Sam's mom seems to have dug the still-alive man out of the ground. In a later episode, it was relieved that the commercials were technically correct. Sam's dad is no longer alive. Apparently ExactWords matter when making a DealWithTheDevil.]]
* The Australian Network 10 announced on every add in the 3 weeks before the finale of ''Series/TheOC'''s season 3, "[[spoiler:Marissa]] is going to DIE." Yes, everyone knew [[spoiler: Mischa Barton]] was leaving the show, but this advertising strategy completely undid the finale's setting up of [[spoiler: Marissa going to live with her dad]], a plausible explanation for the departing actor which would have made the death something of a shock.

* After playing it straight through many previous deaths of major and minor characters, the New Zealand soap opera ''ShortlandStreet'' subverted the trope in 2008 when one episode ended with several of the characters seemingly falling victim to a shootout in the {{Cliffhanger}}. The OnTheNext promo immediately following the episode announced that there would be three casualties. Naturally many fans assumed that there would be three deaths, until the actual definition of casualties was pointed out. Sure enough nobody died.
* Blue Heelers had a run with Gary Sweet playing a gangster. One promo hyped how there would be three shots fired in the next episode (actually five, four of them being used to execute two crooks), with the final shot being the most shocking. The final shot? A hit on Sweet's character.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' had a major WhamEpisode in which a popular main character dies unexpectedly at the end of a comedic filler episode. This would have been a huge shock, except the promos for the episode played up the Tonight Someone Dies angle (which spoiled the fact that someone was going to die), gave away ''which'' character was going to die, and even ''showed the first few moments'' of their death. To top it off, while the character ''did'' manage to stay dead for a couple seasons, he eventually came back as a clone.

* Episode 7 of season one of ''AshesToAshes'' had this. The Clown announces towards the beginning of the episode that "Something dreadful is going to happen. I'm going to take someone." This comes into play when [[spoiler: Shaz is stabbed and is technically dead, before Alex revives her.]]
** This becomes rather ridiculous in hindsight after [[spoiler: seeing the end of the series when it is revealed everyone including Alex had been DeadAllAlong and existing in police purgatory. The only way the Clown makes sense now is as an alternate form taken by [[DevilInPlainSight DCI Keats]], both characters having tried to "take the soul" of one of the dead characters - Keats having succeeded.]].
* Used in a promo during the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' second season. The clips made it abundantly clear it would be [[spoiler: Jenny Calendar]].
* Used at the end of ''Warehouse 13'' Season 1, It was [[spoiler: Artie]]. [[spoiler: He]] got better thanks to an artifact.)

* ''Series/{{Bones}}'' featured the murder of a minor regular ([[spoiler:at the hands of the sniper the team is currently hunting]]). The build-up made a point of intercutting the killer with all regulars to make them look threatened. However, the actual victim is foreshadowed by the episode title. which is an allusion to the episode in which [[spoiler: Zach left the show]].
* ''Series/{{Castle}}'' pulls this for its third-season finale. The promo specifically has Castle saying "Someone is gonna die." The producers promised that it wouldn't be a background character. [[spoiler:True to the formula, the line is actually only tangential, but the promise was kept: Captain Montgomery died while getting the bad guy. [[WhamEpisode And then...]]]]
* Though not explicitly promised, ''Series/TheSopranos'' had established a tradition of suddenly killing off a major character at the end of each season. Then along comes the series finale, and... [[spoiler: SmashToBlack in mid-scene]].
* ''{{Series/Merlin}}'' set this up with Arthur in one episode. Being [[StatusQuoIsGod the kind of show it is]], nobody really fell for it. [[spoiler: It's Lancelot.]] Welcome to [[AnyoneCanDie Series 4]], folks.