Weighing in on the cost cutting measures of the nets; I wouldn't be surprised to see some extraneous cast members bite the dust. In CM for instance, there seem to be superfluous cast and I'm sure they could drop a couple without changing the dynamic of the show dramatically. The problem is though with an established show, who do you ditch? You risk alienating the fanbase that way. I wouldn't be surprised to see new shows that have a reduced number of cast members; an ensemble still, but smaller.
Also
Lucia, you asked in an earlier post who Alex's friends could be on CM. I know Simon Mirren would have been one. Perhaps Alex met other people through him last year and was catching up with them when he filmed.
I'm really excited to see his episode. I quite like CM and have watched it on and off since it started. My eldest daughter used to be a fanatical watcher of the show, which kind of puzzles me. I'm not sure how people get so involved when there's so little character growth over the seasons and when the characters are so ordinary (which they are except for Reid and Garcia, and Garcia's usually only in a few scenes anyway).
The only problem I have with the show is the exposition between the profilers which is there for the audience's benefit (to explain motive etc.,) but passes as conversation between the characters. It comes off really clunky and obvious. They stand there and politely listen to each other when in real life they'd go "I know that, what d'ya think I'm an idiot?! I learnt that at the academy in my first week!."
But short of actually talking to the audience directly, I don't know how they could do it differently.
I want him to live!!! Tho he does do a magnificent death scene... as in MB... tho he also did that horrendous death scene in The ManThing... 
And Man-Thing. Shows how much we love our Alex that we suffered through that.
