Anna Daniels
This particular episode of Criminal Intent began to air internationally in the summer of 2009, which included being shown in Brazil, mere months before its capital, Rio de Janeiro, would make its final case before the IOC — the Olympic city selection committee — to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. The victim in the episode was being blackmailed into casting her vote for Rio so the murderer would win a hefty security contract from the city; you can probably see why the fictional intimation that Rio’s government would even indirectly accept bribery in order to become the Olympic host city might ruffle a few feathers in Brazil.
Rio’s mayor at that time, Eduardo Paes, had some choice words for O Globo, a Brazilian news agency. “It is disrespectful to IOC members. The committee’s work is absolutely transparent regarding the election,” he said (translated from Portugese). “I imagine it may even hinder the American candidacy by insinuating that there could be corruption in the electoral process. It is ridiculous and pathetic, and will even help to strengthen our candidacy.”
As you might recall, Rio did indeed win that bid, and hosted the 2016 Summer Olympics to much fanfare. The public and international dust-up has kept NBC from consenting to the Criminal Intent episode’s syndication or home video release since; season 8 didn’t even have a home video release until three years later, after the show had been canceled. Time did not heal that injury, and it apparently never will.
That might have been the end of the story, but… it was not.
Written by: Looper
