Castle Information

Castle is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced jointly by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. Created by Andrew W. Marlowe, it primarily traces the lives of Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion), a best-selling mystery novelist, and NYPD Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) as they solve various unusual crimes in New York City. Detective Beckett is initially infuriated at the thought of working with a writer and goes to great lengths to keep him out of her way. However, the two soon start developing feelings for each other. The show focuses on the romantic tension between the two lead characters, and also on the unsolved homicide of Beckett's mother.

Season four premiered on September 19, 2011. On January 12, 2012 the series won two awards at the People's Choice Awards, including Favorite TV Crime Drama and Favorite TV Drama Actor (Fillion). Again on January 9, 2013 the series won two awards at the People's Choice Awards, including Favorite TV Crime Drama and Favorite TV Drama Actor (Fillion). The show has also won three awards in TV Guide Magazine's Fan Favorite Awards, including Favorite Drama Series and also Award for Favorite Couple two years in a row. The show has had a gradual increase in ratings and its pilot episode was watched by an estimated 10.76 million viewers. On May 10, 2012, Castle was renewed for a fifth season by ABC, which started on Monday September 24, 2012. Two additional episodes were ordered on October 19, 2012 and February 5, 2013, respectively. This brings season 5 up to a total of 24 episodes.

Premise

Castle follows Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle, a famous mystery novelist who has killed off the main character in his book series and has writer's block. He is brought in by the NYPD for questioning regarding a copy-cat murder based on one of his novels. He is intrigued by this new window into crime and murder, and uses his connection with the Mayor to charm his way into shadowing the captivating Detective Kate Beckett, played by Stana Katic. Castle decides to use Beckett as the model for the main character of his next book series starring "Nikki Heat". Beckett, an avid reader of Castle's books, initially disapproves of having Castle shadow her on her cases, but later warms up and recognizes Castle as a useful resource in her team's investigations.

Cast

Main cast

• Nathan Fillion as Richard Edgar "Rick" Castle: Castle is a best-selling mystery writer. Born Richard Alexander Rodgers, he adopted the middle name Edgar in honor of Edgar Allan Poe. Castle was plagued with writer's block after killing off his popular lead character, Derrick Storm, whom he no longer found inspiring. He then found himself involved in the case of a copy-cat killer recreating murder scenes from his novels, investigated by NYPD Detective Kate Beckett. Castle discovers a new source of inspiration in her and soon uses his friendship with the mayor of New York to become involved in her investigations, affording him the opportunity to use his knowledge and skills to help solve murders. He was divorced twice and shares an apartment with his daughter and his mother. Earlier seasons of the show depict him as an immature womanizer; however, later seasons show a more mature and sensible side of him. His close working relationship with Beckett results in him falling in love with her.
• Stana Katic as Detective Katherine Houghton "Kate" Beckett: Beckett, a homicide detective with the NYPD, is a first-class investigator who has gained a reputation for being intrigued by unusual cases. She joined the force after her mother was murdered in an unsolved case. After meeting Beckett, Castle is inspired to begin a new series of novels about a female NYPD detective named Nikki Heat, clearly based on Beckett. Initially cold and hard towards Castle, she soon warms up to him. In the season 4 finale, Beckett resigns from the NYPD after she and Det. Esposito hide from Captain Gates vital information regarding a case, but later reneges on this and is allowed to return after she serves her suspension. In the first two episodes of season 5, it is clear that Kate and Castle are now in an intimate relationship, which started at the end of the season 4 finale.
• Jon Huertas as Detective Javier "Javi"/"Espo" Esposito: A former Army Special Forces sniper, Esposito works in the homicide division as part of Beckett's team. He is always ready with a sardonic comment to keep Beckett on her toes and enjoys the way Castle riles her. He and Kevin Ryan are close friends, even though they constantly argue about obscure facts. He had a brief relationship with Dr. Lanie Parish in the third season, which ended with things being awkward between them making them unable to work around each other for some time. He is suspended from the NYPD for hiding vital information from Captain Gates. In that case, he felt betrayed by his partner, Det. Kevin Ryan.
• Seamus Dever as Detective Kevin Ryan: Ryan also works as part of Beckett's team. He and Esposito regularly tease Beckett, but they are also protective of her. The character was a late addition to the show as the original presentation pilot was only 37 minutes long. Ryan married his girlfriend, Jenny O'Malley, in season four. In the final episode of season four, Ryan fails to support Beckett and his partner Esposito, which jeapordizes his partnership with the two of them.
• Tamala Jones as Dr. Lanie Parish: Parish, a medical examiner with an upbeat outlook, is also a friend of Beckett, one of the few people Beckett can talk to easily and without reservation. Parish notices the personal connection between Beckett and Castle and urges her to act on it. In the third season, Lanie and Esposito began a relationship they believed was secret, though the other main characters were aware of it. They later broke up, making it awkward for them to be in each other's presence.
• Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Captain Roy Montgomery (Season 1"3): Montgomery, Beckett's boss, appreciates her determination and diligence but maintains a close watch to make sure the investigations go smoothly. He is amused by how much Castle annoys Beckett but also appreciates how effectively the two work together. At the end of season 3 he is killed after staging a trap to capture a hired killer involved in the conspiracy that killed Beckett's mother.
• Molly Quinn as Alexis Castle: Alexis, Castle's teenage daughter by his first wife Meredith, is unusually intelligent for her age, and is often more mature and responsible than her father. She is very bright and enjoys school. A running gag in the series has her begging Castle to force her to study and do her homework instead of "fun" activities like parties and overnight trips. Her social and interpersonal issues often parallel some aspect of the case Castle and Beckett are investigating, and Castle sometimes asks her opinion on a killer's motivation.
• Susan Sullivan as Martha Rodgers: Rodgers, an actress on and off Broadway, is Castle's mother and lives with him and Alexis. She helps her son through the difficulties of raising a teenage girl (even one as mature as Alexis) but also has an active social life of her own. She lives with Castle partly because a previous husband absconded with all her savings. She is free-spirited and often gives Castle valuable advice regarding Beckett.
• Penny Johnson Jerald as Captain Victoria Gates (Season 4"): Captain Montgomery's replacement. Formerly with Internal Affairs, Captain Gates (referred to by some as "Iron Gates") is more interested in career advancement, and takes a dimmer view than her predecessor of the Beckett-Castle dynamic. Strict and unforgiving, she loathes Castle's presence at the precinct regarding him as an unprofessional, distracting and juvenile presence who interferes with the way she would prefer to run things. As the series progresses she comes to tolerate Castle, and even grudgingly accept that he is useful for solving cases. Though her outright hostility fades, she is nonetheless strictly by the book, and still willing to beat Castle with it when needed.

Recurring characters

• Arye Gross as Dr. Sidney Perlmutter: a medical examiner who assists on some of Beckett's cases.
• Juliana Dever as Jenny O'Malley: Ryan's fiancée and later his wife.
• Michael Trucco as Detective Tom Demming: a handsome robbery detective with whom Beckett briefly becomes involved.
• Monet Mazur as Gina Cowell: Castle's publisher and second ex-wife.
• Victor Webster as Dr. Josh Davidson: Beckett's mysterious motorcycle-riding, cardiac surgeon boyfriend.
• Ken Baumann as Ashley: Alexis' steady boyfriend. Alexis broke up with Ashley after her father and grandmother were involved in a hostage situation and Ashley was nowhere to be found to help her through it.
• Scott Paulin as Jim Beckett: Beckett's father.
• Bailey Chase as Will Sorenson: FBI agent and Beckett's ex-boyfriend.
• Jason Beghe as Mike Royce: Beckett's former training officer.
• Michael Dorn as Dr. Carver Burke: Beckett's psychiatrist who helps her overcome her shooting and also deal with her various hidden emotions.
• Geoff Pierson as Mr. Smith: a friend of Captain Montgomery holding evidence that keeps the murderer of Beckett's mother away from Beckett; Smith occasionally acts through Castle to protect Beckett. He is killed in "After the Storm".
• Michael Mosley as Jerry Tyson: a serial killer who returns to New York every few years to terrorize the city. After being identified by Castle, Tyson turns his attentions on the 12th Precinct, variously targeting members of Beckett's team. He is shot and presumed to be dead in "Probable Cause", though Castle expresses doubts about it.

Real-life writers Stephen J. Cannell, James Patterson, Dennis Lehane, and Michael Connelly appear as themselves during periodic games of poker at Castle's apartment. Typically, they discuss Castle and Beckett's current case and tease Castle about his involvement with Beckett. On September 30, 2010, author Stephen J. Cannell died in real life. The characters keep an empty chair at the poker table in his honor, stating they will do so for a year.

Broadcast history

Castle premiered as a midseason replacement on ABC on March 9, 2009. ABC renewed Castle for a second season with an initial order of 13 episodes; ABC later extended the order to 22, then 24 episodes. The second season premiered on Monday, September 21, 2009. In March 2010, ABC renewed Castle for a third, 22 episode season, which began on September 20, 2010. On November 11, 2010, ABC extended the episode order to 24. On January 10, 2011, ABC announced Castle had been renewed for a fourth season for 22 episodes. The season four premiere aired on Monday, September 19, 2011 at 10 pm on ABC. On December 8, 2011, ABC ordered an additional episode bringing season 4 up to 23 episodes. On May 11, 2012, ABC renewed the show for a fifth season. On July 26, 2012, ABC revealed its Fall 2012 premiere dates and Castle's fifth season premiered on September 24, 2012. On February 5, 2013, ABC ordered an extra episode of Castle bringing season 5 up to 24 episodes.

U.S. Nielsen ratings

Season	Time slot (ET)	# Ep.	Premiered		Ended		TV Season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
			Date	Premiere Viewers (in millions)	Date	Finale Viewers (in millions)
1	Monday 10:00 pm	10	March 9, 2009	10.76	May 11, 2009	9.96	2009	#41	10.19
2		24	September 21, 2009	9.26	May 17, 2010	10.07	2009"2010	#30	10.25
3		24	September 20, 2010	10.70	May 16, 2011	12.93	2010"2011	#30	11.44
4		23	September 19, 2011	13.28	May 7, 2012	12.36	2011"2012	#22	12.18
5		24	September 24, 2012	10.45	Summer, 2013	TBA	2012"2013	TBA	TBA

The Season 2 episode "Boom!" (the finale of a two-part episode featuring Dana Delany) not only attracted the highest audience of the show's run (14.5 million viewers), but was also the highest rated show on ABC in its time slot in 14 years.

DVD releases

DVD Name	Region 1 release date	Region 2 release date	Region 4 release date	Ep #	Discs	Additional information
Season 1	September 22, 2009	May 6, 2010 (German) November 21, 2011 (UK)	March 10, 2010	10	3	Misdemeanors: Bloopers & Outtakes, Whodunit: The Genesis of Castle, Castle's Godfather, exclusive audio commentaries and Write-Along with Nathan Fillion
Season 2	September 21, 2010	March 24, 2011 (German) April 16, 2012 (UK)	December 1, 2010	24	5	ABC Starter Kit, On Set with Seamus and Jon, On Location with Nathan, Manhattan's Most Unusual Murders, Misdemeanors: Bloopers & Outtakes, deleted scenes and music videos
Season 3	September 20, 2011	November 24, 2011 (In France) August 6, 2012 (UK)	October 12, 2011	24	5	Deleted Scenes And Bloopers, Murder They Wrote, CASTLE Goes Hollywood, Murder Board 101, Cast And Crew Commentary, Music Video " "Get on the Floor"
Season 4	September 11, 2012	December 5, 2012 (German) March 25, 2013 (UK)	November 14, 2012	23	5	"Nathan & Friends: Castle Goes Radio;" "Anatomy of A Stunt;" audio commentaries, deleted scenes, and bloopers.

Syndication

In June 2011, TNT acquired exclusive cable rights from Disney-ABC Domestic Television to air the first two seasons of Castle beginning in the summer of 2012. In advance of the series' fourth season, TNT broadcast an eight-hour marathon of episodes on September 15, 2011, including five from season 3. Castle began airing on TNT every Wednesday beginning September 26, 2012. Castle also began airing in broadcast syndication on weekends beginning September 29, 2012.

Tie-in works

In the series, Castle writes a novel titled Heat Wave. As a tie-in, ABC and sister publisher Hyperion Books released that novel as a real book (ISBN 978-1-4013-2382-0) with "Richard Castle" as the author. It is entirely in character from the dedication to the acknowledgments, although the latter references the principal cast and the show's creators by name. ABC released the first half of the novel in weekly increments on their website. The complete novel was published in September 2009 as a hardcover, debuting at No. 26 on The New York Times Best Seller list. In its fourth week on the list, Heat Wave broke into the top 10 at #6. Heat Wave was released in paperback (ISBN 978-1-4013-1040-0) on July 27, 2010 and debuted at No. 34 on The New York Times bestseller Paperback Mass-Market list. It once again appeared on The New York Times bestseller list on May 27, 2012 at #19.

Naked Heat (ISBN 978-1-4013-2402-5), the sequel to Heat Wave, was released on September 28, 2010. Naked Heat debuted at No. 7 on the New York Times Best Seller list. As they did with Heat Wave, ABC released a series of the early chapters online as a promotional tool.

A third novel, titled Heat Rises (ISBN 978-1-4013-2443-8), was released on September 20, 2011. It debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list on October 9, 2011 and at No. 5 on the USA TODAY Best-Selling Books list.

The season three finale introduced a graphic novel based on Castle's previous novel character, Derrick Storm. Castle: Richard Castle's Deadly Storm was published by Marvel Comics on September 28, 2011. It debuted at No. 3 on The New York Times bestseller list on October 16, 2011.

A fourth novel, titled Frozen Heat (ISBN 978-1-4013-2444-5), was released on September 11, 2012, and debuted on The New York Times bestseller list at No. 7 on September 23, 2012.

Nikki Heat series

Book	Title	Release date	Debut on New York Times
1	Heat Wave	September 2009	No. 26
2	Naked Heat	September 28, 2010	No. 7
3	Heat Rises	September 20, 2011	No. 1
4	Frozen Heat	September 11, 2012	No. 7
5	Deadly Heat	September 17, 2013

In February 2012, Hyperion announced three e-book novellas to Richard Castle's famous Derrick Storm series. The first novella of the series, A Brewing Storm, was released in digital media on May 1, 2012. It debuted at No. 13 on The New York Times E-Book Fiction bestseller list, as well as No. 18 on the New York Times Combine Prints & E-book Fiction list on May 20, 2012.

On July 3, 2012, the second novella of the new Derrick Storm books, A Raging Storm, was released in e-book format. It landed on The New York Times bestseller e-books list at #19 and at No. 31 for the combined Prints & E-book list, both on July 22, 2012.

The final Derrick Storm novella, A Bloody Storm, was released on August 7, 2012. It debuted on the New York Times bestseller e-books list at #20 and at #34 on the combined Prints & E-book list on August 26, 2012.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipients and nominees	Outcome
2009	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Music Composition for a Series	Castle (for episode "Flowers For Your Grave")
	Satellite Awards	Best Actor in a Series, Drama	Nathan Fillion
		Best Actress in a Series, Drama	Stana Katic
2010	Emmy Awards	Outstanding Hairstyling for a Single Camera Series	Castle (for episode "Vampire Weekend")
		Outstanding Makeup for a Single Camera Series
		Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or a Special
	Golden Reel Award	Best Sound Editing " Short Form Music in Television	Castle (for episode "Famous Last Words")
		Best Sound Editing " Television Episodic	Amber Funk (music editor)
	Shorty Awards	Entertainment	CastleTV
		Entertainment	WriteRCastle
		Celebrity	Nathan Fillion
2011	TV Guide Magazine's Fan Favorites Awards	Favorite Couple Who Should	Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic
		Favorite Drama Series	Castle
	Shorty Awards	Best Actor	Nathan Fillion
		Writer	Richard Castle
		Best Actress	Stana Katic
2012	People's Choice Awards	Favorite TV Crime Drama	Castle
		Favorite TV Drama Actor	Nathan Fillion
	PRISM Award	Performance in a Drama Episode	Stana Katic & Jon Huertas
		Drama Series Episode " Mental Health	Castle (for episode "Kill Shot")
	TV Guide Magazine's Fan Favorites Awards	Favorite Couple	Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic
	Shorty Awards	TV Show	Castle
		Best Actress	Stana Katic
		Best Actor	Nathan Fillion
		Fashion	Luke Reichle
	ALMA Awards	Favorite TV Actor Supporting Role in a Drama	Jon Huertas
2013	People's Choice Awards	Favorite TV Crime Drama	Castle
		Favorite TV Drama Actor	Nathan Fillion
		Favorite TV Drama Actress	Stana Katic