March Madness is Killing Your Remote: No Sheriff Country, Fire Country, or Boston Blue This Week

It's Friday night and you are expecting the rugged jawlines of the Cal Fire crew or the jurisdictional drama of Edgewater’s finest, prepare for a whistle-blown disappointment. Your regularly scheduled programming has been officially benched. In a move that surprises absolutely no one who owns a calendar, March Madness is killing your remote, swapping out scripted heroics for full-court presses and Cinderella stories.

For the next two weeks, the CBS Friday night titan-trio of Sheriff Country, Fire Country, and Boston Blue is taking a forced hiatus. It’s the annual tradition where TV fans are reminded that, in the eyes of network executives, a 19-year-old hitting a buzzer-beater from the logo is more valuable than Danny Reagan’s latest interrogation tactics.

The Friday Night Blackout

The disruption began yesterday and continues through tonight, as the NCAA First Round takes over the airwaves. While we’re happy for the fans of Northern Iowa and Cal Baptist, the sudden absence of Sheriff Mickey Fox feels like a personal attack on our weekend wind-down.

Sheriff Country has been a breakout hit this season, with Morena Baccarin proving that the Fire Country universe has plenty of legs, even if those legs are currently running up and down a basketball court instead of chasing suspects. Likewise, the parent series Fire Country was just heating up its fourth season before the NCAA doused the flames.

Boston Blue: The New Kid on the Bench

The sting is perhaps sharpest for fans of Boston Blue. As the shiny new expansion of the Blue Bloods legacy, the series has been building massive momentum. Watching Donnie Wahlberg trade the NYPD for the streets of Boston has been the highlight of the midseason, but even the Reagan family's legendary influence isn't enough to stop a 64-team bracket.

If you’re looking for a silver lining, there isn't one, unless you really enjoy watching a coach sweat through a polyester suit while his team misses free throws.

When Will Your Favorites Return?

The bad news? This isn't a one-and-done situation. Between the First Round, the Second Round, and next week’s Sweet 16, the CBS procedural block is effectively on ice until early April. While The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will technically remain on the schedule, even that is subject to "basketball time," which, as we all know, means it will probably start somewhere around 1:00 AM if a game goes into double overtime.

Even our daytime favorites, The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful and Beyond the Gates are feeling it.

So, put down the remote and step away from the ledge. Your favorite deputies, firefighters, and detectives will be back soon enough. In the meantime, you might as well fill out a bracket, at least then you’ll have something to yell at the TV for the next few hours.

How are you surviving the March Madness blackout? Head over to our comments and let us know if you're pivoting to streaming or actually—gasp—watching the games.