At the end of an episode of a show, usually on a Cliffhanger ending, a narrator poses a few questions and promises alert viewers that the answers will be revealed in the next exciting episode.
May or may not be placed at the end of an On the Next trailer.
See also To Be Continued. Contrast To Be Continued... Right Now.
Examples:
- The Funimation (in house) dub of Dragon Ball Z always ended its next episode previews with "Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z!"
- Naturally in the Abridged Series, this is parodied:
Narrator: A new evil has revealed its face. Who are these mysterious enemies? And do Gohan and Krillin stand a chance? The answers to these questions will be be revealed... right now: Zarbon, Dodoria, Freeza and Oh. My. No!
Krillin: Wait, wha- [end tune]
- Naturally in the Abridged Series, this is parodied:
- A handful of Tintin comics ended like this. One of them ended with Tintin himself telling the readers to buy his next comic and discover the resolution.
- In the Star Trek parody radio play The Overlord by Jim and Melody Rondeau (1974), Captain Kirk muses "So... is this going to be the end of us? Our fate? To die — at the hands of evil mutants, on primitive Earth?"
Chekov. Tune in next week —Kirk. Enough!!!
- Happens at the end of every chapter of Captain Proton and the Planet of Lesbians
, to parody the film serials The Adventures of Captain Proton was inspired by.
WHAT DIRE DESTINY AWAITS CONSTANCE GOODHEART AT THE DREADED DILDO OF HER ROYAL DYKENESS? WILL CAPTAIN PROTON FINALLY MEET HIS DOOM AT THE TERRIBLE TEETH OF THE TOOTHED TWAT? WILL BUSTER BE SUCKED DRY BY THE SINISTER SUCCUBUS...AND DOES HE CARE? DON'T MISS THE NEXT ACTION-PACKED EPISODE OF...THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN PROTON! - Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space had this trope when it was first posted a chapter at a time in the forums. It also appears at the end of the completed story, which has a cliffhanger for a non-existent next adventure after the Great Calculator goes insane.
(Can Proton defeat a deranged digital deity? Will this tale end in a deus ex machina? Don't miss our next exciting adventure: I.T. Conquered The World!)
- As The Killer Dame is a Parody Fic of a Two-Part Episode in Star Trek: Voyager, we get one of these halfway through the story.
Can Janeway survive without coffee long enough to retake Voyager? What horrible things will Neelix do to Ensign Kim with his sausage? What is the Doctor's mysterious secret weapon? And will Seven and B'Elanna ever learn to stop squabbling and adjust each other's suspenders? To find out, tune in next week for the final thrilling episode of...THE KILLER DAME!
Film
- The Phantom (1943): Each episode of the serial (except the last) ends with a narration of this form: Will the Phantom survive [current cliffhanger]? How will he handle [new plot development to be introduced in the next chapter]? Find out in the next episode of The Phantom, in this theatre next week! 1940 film serial Terry and the Pirates also ended every episode in this way. In fact this was standard format for all Columbia Film Serials of the era.
- Older Than Print, as it's one of the tropes that makes the 14th century novel Water Margin feel like a 1930s action serial. Every chapter has a brief, teasing On the Next and ends with "Read our next chapter if you would know."
- Journey to the West, another of the Four Great Classical Chinese Novels, also does the same thing.
- Soap had its narrator, Rod Roddy, do this at the end of every episode.
- How will Batman survive? Find out tomorrow, same bat-time, same bat-channel!
- "Will The Lone Ranger triumph as he fights on for justice, law and order? Find out next week as General Mills brings you another episode of The Lone Ranger!" was in the early TV episodes.
- The Electric Company (1971): "And what about Naomi?" That was the final question – after a series of questions relevant to the simple situation presented – posed in the "Love of Chair" segments, with (following a non sequitur question posed by one of the castmates) announcer Ken Roberts telling viewers to tune in next time. (Of course, this was a parody as none of the episodes straddled.)
- Parodied in The Julekalender, where the list of questions often ends in Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking fashion and the narrator occasionally tells the viewers to make up more questions themselves.
- The Mexican sitcom El Chavo del ocho had several two part episodes, and at the end of the first part, a character would face the camera and say something like: "if you want to see [how this situation is resolved], don't forget to tune in next week, same channel, and same time."
- The "Pigs in Space" and "Veterinarians Hospital" skits on The Muppet Show always ended with the narrator saying "Tune in next week when X says...", which is just an excuse for one more joke before the sketch ends. Defied on the Diana Ross episode.
Narrator: Is this the end of Pigs in Space?
Audience: Yes!
Narrator: Tune in next week, when...
Audience: NO!
Narrator: Alright then, don't. See if I care. - Powerless (2017): Parodied. After informing the cast that they've been sold to Lexcorp, Chairman West turns to the audience to tell them to find out next week to find out of the gang is fired or not. Van and Emily look to where he's looking to see who he's talking to, and everyone else looks at each other in confusion. He does it again at the end of the episode, except he's also shown from behind addressing a potted plant, and it occurs to Emily that he might be senile and Bruce Wayne hasn't actually sold them after all.
- Dimension X: After the Signing-Off Catchphrase, the narrator would summarize next week's episode, usually written with a Title Drop involved to hint at what could happen. As this series is a Genre Anthology, such episodes were only connected by this forewarning of what was scheduled. When the episode was a rebroadcast of a previous episode, this ending was changed to reflect what the actual next episode would be. The exception is for the last episode, which announces that the series is over, but to check newspapers and radios for when new episodes would begin.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978) affected this.
Will our heroes survive this terrible ordeal? Can they win through with their integrity unscathed? Can they escape without completely compromising their honour and artistic judgment? Tune in next week for the next exciting installment of The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
- X Minus One: The earliest episodes would give a short summary of the next week's story. After the series got partnered with Galaxy, it would sometimes describe one of the recent stories from the magazine, even when said story wasn't the basis of next week's episode. More of a "find out right now!" advertising of their print-medium partner.
- Starting in episode 4, Ambition teases the players with hints as to what the next episode contains. This is subverted in episode 9, as it says that the player will advise Rolf Klink as he negotiates with "pure evil". This is not at all what happens in episode 10.
- Lampshaded in this Adventurers! strip:
Karn: Will our heroes be able to save the world against these impossible odds?
Ardam: Will you ever shut up?
Karn: Will I ever shut up?
- The Rocky and Bullwinkle narrator did this for every Cliffhanger, with joke next-episode titles. Sometimes played with:
Narrator: Will Bullwinkle be able to extricate himself?
Bullwinkle: I will as soon as I get loose! - Spoofed on the Looney Tunes short "Hare Trigger". The cartoon ends with Bugs Bunny tied and suspended over a bridge as Yosemite Sam cuts the rope.
Narrator: Is this the end of Bugs Bunny? Will he be dashed to bits on the jagged rocks below?!?
Bugs Bunny: [dragging a hogtied Sam behind him] Is he doomed to utter destruction? Will he be rendered non compos mentis? Eh, he don't know me very well, do he? - The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "I See A Funny Cartoon In Your Future," being a spoof of Rocky and Bullwinkle, effects this halfway into the episode.
Will the girls escape this literal cliffhanger? Will the Mayor get back into Townsville? Will Madame Argentina share her gumdrops?
- Here's a list of South Park examples:
- The first season ended with Dr. Mephisto about to reveal who Eric Cartman's father was, with an announcer recapping the suspects and telling the viewers the answer would come in four weeks, to Cartman's chagrin. The following episode aired four weeks later as promised... only for it to turn out to be an irrelevant April Fool's Day episode. During the closing credits of that episode, the announcer speaks up again, this time saying the identity of Eric Cartman's father will really be revealed in just a few weeks. The subsequent episode made a Running Gag out of the announcer suddenly making cliffhanger questions at inappropriate moments, asking "Who shot Mephesto?"note , "Who will they kill next?"note , "Who will the director cast first?"note , "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?"note , "Who the hell made Jimbo boss?"note , "Who is screwing with the lights?"note , and "Who built the pyramids?"note At the end of the episode, the question of who Cartman's father was is finally resolved, but now Cartman wants to know who his MOTHER is. At this point, the voiceover speaks up one more time for a proper cliffhanger, but after it lists Mrs. Crabtree, Sheila Broflovski, and the Mayor as possible suspects, Cartman finally reaches his breaking point and exclaims, "AW, FORGET IT!"
- The season six episode "Professor Chaos" revolves around the boys rejecting Butters as Kenny's replacement and looking for a new member for their group, while Butters takes up a supervillain identity and attempts to destroy the world. At the end of the episode, an announcer asks who the new friend the boys selected is and if Professor Chaos' latest plot (destroying the ozone layer with spray cans) would actually succeed, then out-of-nowhere asks, "And which of these six South Park residents (Chefnote , Mr. Garrison, Jimbo, Officer Barbrady, Ms. Choksondik, and the Mayor) was killed, and will never be seen again?" In "To Be Continued... Right Now" fashion, the announcer quickly answered the questions as soon as they were asked: Butters' plot was too ineffectual to work, the boys chose Tweek as their new friend, and Ms. Choksondik died (though her death does not actually occur until the next episode).
