Inside the Criminal Minds

This week, there's a real buzz on the set and it has nothing to do with the upcoming episode or last week's ratings. This weekend members of our cast and crew are getting their Lance Armstrong on. Saturday is the 2007 Start to Finish MS Bike Tour. Twenty-three members of the Criminal Minds staff are getting up early and biking up the California coast to benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. They've been looking forward to this for a long time.

Last year 12 of our crew members pedaled, and this year the number has doubled. The 12 riders from last year did not take very much time off before getting back to training and are taking it very seriously. The newcomers all have a varied range of experience and ability but have been riding every weekend. Every Monday tales of training mishaps and misadventures make their way to set.

However, the most important part of this ride has nothing to do with the performance of the cyclists. It's all to benefit NMSS. So in addition to those riding, many from the show are going to show their support. The ride is very personal to the cast and crew because it affects a member of our cast directly. Shemar Moore's mother (Morgan) was diagnosed with MS eight years ago. It was his idea to get Criminal Minds involved in the event. Many of the crew members were already involved in cycling, so it was a natural fit.

Some of the members are completing a 75-mile tour, others the 100-mile version. But, to show that we're embarking on this together, everyone is going to meet up at a mile marker 10 miles from the finish, after the last big climb, and ride to the finish line as a unified group. Kirsten (Garcia) and Paget (Prentiss) have even decided to show their support by buying bikes just to ride the last 5 miles with the group. We're also taking a couple vans full of supporters and our own staff photographers to document the whole event (hopefully I'll be able to post some of the photos here next week).

If you want to learn more about the event, the Criminal Minds group, or how to donate to our team, check out this link:
www.msevents.com/criminalminds

In other show-related news, Paget made a great appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Monday night. Obviously our show is a drama, so Paget hasn't had many opportunities to showcase a lighter side since joining the cast. But she has a comedy background, having worked on sitcoms before, and she even started out with her own comedic cable access show in San Francisco. Her appearance on Conan is a good representation of the high-energy, humorous personality we get to see on set every day. She had many distractions, including a fire alarm that went off in the middle of her interview, which she handled with her usual aplomb. Now, I'm never sure about the legality of clips on YouTube, especially those from non-Viacom-owned networks, so I'm not going to advocate anything. But I imagine if you were to type the words Conan, O'Brien, and Paget into the search bar on YouTube, it would be the only clip that shows up.

If there's anything you'd like to know about the process of making the show, an individual department, or the color of our lobby, let me know and I'll try to address it in future blogs.

Til next week, happy profiling....

Whenever I bring guests to set, there is always one thing that amazes them more than anything else: the food. Scratch that. Two things. First, they comment on how the ladies of the show are even more striking in person... then they comment on the food. There's lots of food on set.

Every day, there are two meals prepared by catering. For breakfast, our caterer Hannah makes made-to-order plates from the catering truck as well as an omelet bar, some sort of hot entrée, and an assortment of rolls, cereals, etc;. Even while the crew eats breakfast, they are already working toward the lunch that will be served seven hours later. Lunch is cafeteria-style with different meat options, a fish, sides, pastas and salad bars.

In addition, two "snacks" are served. There is one between breakfast and lunch, and one five hours after lunch (the crew works very long days on set). The crew works 14 hour days — and sometimes much more. It's necessary to keep them fueled. I however work at a desk in the office and luckily only get to take advantage of this when they shoot here on the set, not when they're out on location. If it were a daily option, they would wheel me out of here at the end of the season. In all honesty I do gain a sweet 10 to 15 pounds over the season and then lose it over hiatus when I'm back to trying to feed myself on an assistant's salary.

How the cast members eat is unique to each of them. Matthew Gubler always has a random smattering of items that he picks at with his left-handed grip. Very artistic. Also, he's a big fan of Jell-o. A.J. Cook is a light eater, tends to stick with salads. Thomas Gibson, an off-season resident of San Antonio, seems to enjoy when we have our Mexican fiesta days. Last time, he put in a plea for verde enchiladas (I second that). Paget Brewster is a mystery to me. That's a nice way of saying that I sit across the room from her during our lunch table-reads and have never noticed what she eats.

As a true do-gooder, Kirsten Vangsness brings her own tray to lunch every day. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Also, she's kind to the animals of the world as she is a vegetarian. On the opposite end of the spectrum would be Joe Mantegna. For Joe, salad is something that comes before the meal. In fact, he even owns a Chicago-style restaurant in Burbank that caters on set from time to time. Their deep-dish pizza is the real deal and doesn't skimp on the meat and cheese. According to Joe and our executive producer Ed Bernero, there are no vegetables in the greater Chicago area unless you count pickles. That of course leaves Shemar Moore who I'm sure is fed some sort of tablet from a lab in Sweden that insures soft skin and zero body fat. I wonder if it's the same one I use.

Couple random notes to hold you over til next week:

• Last week Criminal Minds finished No. 1 on the night in total viewers. Quite a jump from last week. However, if you read my last blog, I think you saw it coming. Everyone here is very happy with the news. Someone from the network actually called over a few minutes ago to tell us we finished No. 10 on the week. Hey, we're a Top 10 Hit! In the day and age of so much reality TV, it feels like quite an accomplishment.

• A little tease for things to come: I saw some of the dailies today for the episode we are currently shooting. You may have heard that Frankie Muniz was cast in this episode. Well, it looks like it's going to be a great episode. Whenever I hear a celebrity is going to be a guest star on a procedural show, it's always a little bit of a letdown because you instantly assume he or she is going to be the guilty party in the end, ruining the discovery. Well, this one is different and full of great surprises. Not to be missed.

• Speaking of not-to-be-missed, this weeks episode is titled "Scared to Death." It's written by the writing team of Deb Fisher and Erica Messer. If you saw them on the street, you'd think they were a couple sweet women with nothing bad up their sleeves. Wrong. They consistently write scary, twisted episodes. Seriously, the fact that it comes from them scares me even more. It's just not right. This episode's no different as it preys on fears we all have. Try to keep your eyes open.

'Til next week, keep profiling....

CBS' Criminal Minds airs Wednesdays at 9 pm/ET.

And we're off! Season 3 has officially started. The start of the season is always a very interesting time. As I stated in my first blog, in our minds we're in the middle of the season. Just yesterday, an outline came down for the 14th episode. And we're currently filming Episode 9.

In the first few weeks of the season, it seems everyone is very interested in the ratings. There are preliminary numbers waiting for us when we arrive the morning after our airing, and then final numbers come down at lunch. It's almost like aliens landing on earth and looking into a time capsule. We get to see what America thought of an episode we shot many months ago. We have a white board up in the office and the writers' PA Mark has them all up and waiting for us.

One of the reasons the first week is so weird is that we see how many people tune in for new shows. So many factors come into play. Obviously a big factor is promotion. No one has seen the new shows and have only small minute-long promotions to determine if they will watch or not. Now we get to see who will return to watch these programs this week. Our season premiere finished fourth on the night behind CSI: NY and two new shows. We were very happy with this finish. Despite all the new, flashy options, our core following was still there. We will build upon this.

When we started two years ago, we were not heavily promoted. We built our viewership on intriguing episodes and a strong show identity. Our first episode was unique for us in that it had a classic Criminal Minds case as well as a lot of twists and turns in our characters' lives. This week everyone will be very excited to see how the team rallies. Gideon [played by Mandy Patinkin] has distanced himself from the team, but for whom has he left his letter? Is Hotch's job on the line? And what is Prentiss' role in all this? Week 2 answered these questions.

I went on a few Web boards to see how fans reacted to the episode (yeah! it was all favorable!). It was funny because I had to really search for these forums as it is something the writing staff doesn't typically read. We're in our own little world. I was shocked to read the comments. Many of them sounded like they were right out of the Writers Room. I realized that is what makes this show so great. The writers and the fans both care about the characters and the integrity of the show more than anything else. Just as the viewers tune in each week to enter the world of the BAU, our writers enter that world each time they pen an episode. They filter out their lives and enter the world of the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit.

In writing for network television, there is a pressure to make episodes that seem shocking — stunts that pull in new viewers. But often in our office, the main concern is keeping the integrity of the show. What makes our show great? What makes every episode of Criminal Minds strong? What do our fans, the Criminal Minds viewers, tune in to see? When ideas come up that run contrary to this, you hear writers say things like, "That's not our show." I think back to the beginning of the summer when the writers returned from vacation. They sat down and looked back at the last season. They picked their favorite episodes and discussed what made them so great. They discussed the unsubs and the psychology behind the profiling. They talked about the members of the BAU and getting deeper into their lives. They spoke to real FBI agents about story ideas and the lives of profilers.

The BAU is a family. They spend so much of their lives with each other. Their relationships resemble those of siblings, parents, friends. Right now, the family is in a state of unrest. One patriarch is close to the edge. The other is being pushed out of the unit. The "children" are going to have to work without much of the leadership we've seen over the last two seasons. With that comes new understanding, new responsibilities... new family members. It is only going to make them stronger. But as always, for the BAU to thrive, they must work as a team. And they are about to come together over some of the most interesting cases you've ever seen.

On that summer day a few months ago, after the writers discussed last season at length, they redirected their gaze to this season. There was no pause. They were off and running. Each writer came to the table excited. Their ideas filled many of the white boards that line the walls of the Writers Room. Much like the fans that filled the forums I read today, they were excited for the possibilities of another year in the BAU with all new dynamics. The cases are more complex. The team members are going to have to deal with each other in all new ways. But the heart of the show is very much intact. It's all about to take off this season. The only question whether if you're ready....

Criminal Minds is back! Well, at least in the homes of America it is. It's been back for us since the start of June. While you guys were busy watching shows that judged whether people could dance, sing, spell and lose weight, we've been coming up with new ways to terrify America and rescue those in fictional peril.

Currently we're shooting our eighth episode and have writers working on up to the 12th episode. So, in our minds it's the middle of the season. I had to think back a little to remember this season's first episode. Sitting in the writers' room and reading all the drafts, it's funny to realize how much has happened to our characters since we last left off. Oh America, are you in for a treat! A lovely, frightful treat!

Not to give away too much information, but by the fifth episode every cast member will be replaced by a child and they will have to form their own society. Seems weird, but it's not. You'll love it. (Just kidding, that's the premise of our new lead-in Kid Nation — Wednesdays on CBS!).

In all seriousness, this season is shaping up to be our most exciting yet. It seemed like it would be pretty easy going when we started. We moved our offices from Culver City to Glendale. Our new digs are spaced out more and a little snazzier. And I learned that Glendale is conveniently located next to the sun's surface. Who knew? We also introduced three new writers — Charles Murray, Jay Beattie and Dan Dworkin (technically it's two new writers as Jay and Dan work as a writing team — it can get weird, as they have to share a bunk in the writers' dorm). And we welcomed a few new faces to the crew.

That reminds me, I should really talk about the staff and crew. There are a lot of procedural dramas on the air. And a lot of shows come and go every year. I've learned a lot of amazing lessons since I started working here, but possibly the most important is how to run a successful show (it's kind of funny that that's what I've learned, like a waiter learning how to franchise restaurants. Well, hopefully it will come in useful some day. Dare to dream readers!).

Well, here at Criminal Minds we have a very simple secret: family. This show is very much run like a family. It starts at the top with the executive producer Ed Bernero (and above him as well; we're lucky to have a great production company). He is very personable and expects to be treated the way he treats us. I think at some shows if you treated some of the top dogs the way they treated you, you'd be cashing unemployment faster than Shemar Moore can break down a door. In the first season it helped us pull together as underdogs when no one thought we'd last. In the second season it was about getting respect. If there were any worries heading into this season, I think it would be the potential for resting on our laurels.

Luckily for us, we weren't able to stay comfortable for too long. Mandy Patinkin left the show just before the first episode, and that obviously affected many of the episodes and storylines. There were lots of articles written about it and people were always asking for the "scoop." But the crazy thing was that there wasn't much of a scoop. No one ever sweated it here. If anything, it made everyone pull together. The actors were great, making light of it in the read-throughs and really handling all the last-second changes gracefully. The crew busted their butts and put in some long days. And the writers used the challenge to add lots of story to the episodes. In a lot of ways, it really made everyone raise their game. And the viewers are going to benefit. There are some great episodes coming up. Including the introduction of our newest cast member!

Joe Mantegna is one of those guys that gives a show instant cred. You know him, you love him. I see Joe Mantegna's face and I want to watch him solve a crime. And he's from Chicago so Ed is pumped. (Ed's a big Chi-town guy — it's in everyone's best interest when the Bears win.) He has fit in great so far but he's not quite initiated yet. Cast members really aren't cast members until they've had a practical joke played on them (Last season a crew member dressed as Bigfoot rushed out of the woods at Shemar midshot and scared the s--t out of him) or appeared in one of Matthew Gubler's Unauthorized Documentaries (check YouTube). I'm sure Joe's moment will come.

The new season of Criminal Minds premieres Wednesday at 9 pm/ET. Check out clips from the show in our Online Video Guide.