History TonightSomeoneDies / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/TheMentalist'': By the time "Nothing Gold Can Stay" aired, it wouldn't have been hard to figure out that a major character was going to die.

* ''Series/{{Reaper}}'' heavily promoted the season one finale 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.]]

** In the preview for the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Amok Time", they say that [[spoiler:Kirk dies. But he didn't - [=McCoy=] lied to save his butt from Spock gone temporarily mad.]]

** Subverted. The show was promising for the entire second half of Season 6 that somebody important would be killed off in the season finale, the moment of truth is filmed from the victim's point of view. The viewer doesn't find out which character was killed until Season 7. [[spoiler:It was actually two characters: Abraham, who was the one killed at the end of Season 6, and then Glenn, who dies after Daryl lashes out by punching Negan.]]

%%* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'': The supermarket episode of season 3.

* The ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' episode "S.O.B." parodied this. Before the opening credits, [[Creator/RonHoward the Narrator]] announces that "one of these characters will die," while every main character flashes on screen, plus a couple of celebrity guest stars, as well as an old lady who is unique to the episode. (One of those clips has Michael Bluth being physically assaulted -- which is then {{Subverted}} as the assailant tells him that it's just for show, and the two proceed to have a reasonably cordial conversation.) However, about halfway through the episode, the Narrator [[OhAndXDies simply tells the audience]] that she is the one who's going to die:

* ''Series/DesperateHousewives'': The supermarket episode of season 3.

** 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 declared legally dead after disappearing, so as far as the government's considered the claim was true.
** In Series 4, the same trick was used with Donna Noble, who didn't actually die, but the person she had become "died" metaphorically due to LaserGuidedAmnesia.

** 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." Matt Smith's character dies (and doesn't regenerate this time) but as we find out in the Series 6 finale, it wasn't really the Doctor.
** In Series 9, "Face the Raven"'s official summary noted that one of the characters who went into the trap street would not leave it alive. The options were Rigsy, a character who had made one appearance the previous season, Clara Oswald, the current companion, and the Doctor himself. The official trailer and a ''Graham Norton Show'' interview with Peter Capaldi went on to strongly suggest the death would be Clara's, which would mark the first companion getting KilledOffForReal since Adric in 1982's "Earthshock". She did indeed die, but unlike Adric and contrary to Moffat's LyingCreator claims she ''still'' appeared in the final two episodes of the season that followed -- because the Doctor had a '''massive''' SanitySlippage and attempted to defy a fixed point in time to bring her back. In the end, Clara's death still stood, but she became able to have a near-infinite number of new adventures within the very last moment of her life (and a TARDIS of her own) thanks to the Doctor's TragicDream.
** The trailer for the SeasonFinale of Series 9, "Hell Bent", trailer teased a character regenerating, possibly by being forced to. It turned out to be the secondary character the General, after (s)he was shot by the SanitySlippage-stricken Doctor.
** The first standalone Series 10 trailer ended with a clip of the Twelfth Doctor beginning to regenerate. Series 10 had already been confirmed as Twelve's final season, but this clip suggested it happened midway through instead of in either the SeasonFinale or the ChristmasEpisode. Subsequent footage, stills, etc. revealed this event to take place in episode eight, "The Lie of the Land" -- but at the same time promo photos from the SeasonFinale confirmed that Twelve would not actually regenerate into Thirteen mid-season, whereupon speculation switched to how, exactly, he could ''begin'' to regenerate and yet not go through with it completely.

* ''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.

* ''Series/AshesToAshes'':

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'':
** There was 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.
** A similar plot twist occured in the ''Series/StargateSG1 2''-parter "Heroes", with a major character who had been with the show since the very beginning being KilledOffForReal in the middle of what starts out as a comedic filler episode. Although on that occurrence the promos were nice enough ''not'' to spoil the fact that a major character was going to die, although they did hint the episode would be much darker than the initial premise would suggest.

* ''Emmerdale'': While not exactly outright said, it might as well have been advertised with how blatant it was. The character Tom King was killed off 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.").

* In the preview for the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Amok Time", they say that [[spoiler:Kirk dies. But he didn't - [=McCoy=] lied to save his butt from Spock gone temporarily mad.]]

* Promos for the sixth season finale of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' teased that one of the main cast would be [[TonightSomeoneDies killed off]]. It was pretty obvious it would be Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax), as months earlier she announced she would be joining the cast of ''Series/{{Becker}}'', which was debuting later in the year.
* The promos for the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Skin of Evil" promised that one of the characters would "bid a tragic farewell," indicating that it would be either Riker, Troi, or Tasha. Tasha ends up being the one to die.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
** This was hyped 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.]]

* The ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' episode "S.O.B." parodied this. Before the opening credits, [[Creator/RonHoward the Narrator]] announces that "one of these characters will die," while every main character flashes on screen, plus a couple of celebrity guest stars, 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:

* ''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.

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' parodied this. Before the opening credits, [[Creator/RonHoward the Narrator]] announces that "one of these characters will die," while every main character flashes on screen, plus a couple of celebrity guest stars, 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:
-->'''Old woman''': Oh, Gob! You could charm the black off a telegram boy!"\\
'''The Narrator''': [[DeathByRacism OK, we'll just tell you right now - she's the one who dies]].

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' did this in its 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.

** 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." Matt Smith's character dies (and doesn't regenerate this time) but as we find out in the series 6 finale, it wasn't really the Doctor.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' Did this in its 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.

* ''Warehouse 13'':

** Subverted. The show was promising for the entire second half of Season 6 that somebody important would be killed off in the season finale, the moment of truth is filmed from the victim's point of view. The viewer doesn't find out which character was killed until Season 7.

* ''AshesToAshes'':

** 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.]]

* ''DawsonsCreek'' used this to promote one episode in which minor character Abby died.

* ''BeverlyHills90210'' had a memorable example 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.

* ''BreakoutKings'' [[SubvertedTrope subverted this]] 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/ArrestedDevelopment'' parodied this. 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: