William Peterson Leaving “CSI” - CBS Outlines Plans

Entertainment Weekly first reported, and other news agencies have now confirmed, that William Peterson, who plays Gil Grissom on the hit CBS show that started it all CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, will be leaving the show this season - the shows 10th. Fans are already bemoaning the loss.

Although Peterson will be appearing in episodes this season and has agreed to make appearances from time to time as needed, this season will be his last. He will be staying on as an Executive Producer as well which will keep him highly involved in the show. It is expected that his last episode as a regular will appear early in 2009.

“I’m in a great place in terms of knowing that I’ll be more free to make choices. And I’m responsible enough to not do it in a way that would hurt [the show],” added Petersen. “I want it to work for the writers, I want it to work for the cast, and, most importantly, I want it to work for the audience. I don’t want them to abandon the show.”

Peterson is leaving to pursue other interests and insists it has nothing to do with him not being happy or anything like that. He took a leave from the show this past season for four episodes to appear in a play, with Liev Schreiber stepping in as a visiting investigator.

The character of Grissom will apparently be going through some tough times according to the producers. He will be reappraising his life after years of high-tech forensics investigations with the Las Vegas Police Department and after facing personal turmoil which included Sara Sidle leaving last season. Grissom will be facing some deep issues and will be forced to think about the next phase of his life.

Peterson’s exit comes immediately on the heels of the exits of two other long-time cast members, Jorja Fox and Gary Dourdan, both of which left last season. Fox will be returning for episodes this season including the season premiere and her character, Sara Sidle, will play an important role in the development of Peterson’s character and his reasons for leaving CSI.

Meanwhile, it is assumed that Gary Dourdan’s character, Warrick Brown, will be killed off the show. Last season’s finale made it appear as if that were the case. He is scheduled to appear in the season premiere, however, which makes that episode, perhaps, the last time anyone will get to see the full regular cast all in one episode again for the remainder of the show.

CBS hasn’t lost sight of the fact that audiences are likely to take the changes hard. CSI was their top rated series last year, ranking No. 9 among all shows with an average weekly audience of 17 million. Spinoffs CSI: Miami and CSI: New York ranked 16th and 28th, respectively. They can’t afford to take any chances on the show fizzling after so many changes.

Executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar outlined a lot of the steps they are taking to help insure audiences stick around to keep watching the show for the whole tenth season and possibly beyond:

• Jorja Fox will be back for “multiple” episodes including the season premiere.
• Previously-announced addition Lauren Lee Smith (The L Word) joins the cast in the third episode as new CSI Riley Adams. “She will come in to ostensibly replace Sara Sidle,” says Mendelsohn. “She has a very distinct personality… a very wry sense of humor. She doesn’t take herself too seriously.” Since she will be the only CSI who wasn’t mentored or trained by Gil Grissom their relationship (while he’s still there) will probably lend itself to some story lines.
• Current cast members Liz Vassey (lab rat Wendy) and David Berman (coroner David) have been upped to full-fledged series regulars. Wallace Langham’s Hodges, meanwhile, will become more prominent.
• The show’s very popular serial killer, The Miniature Killer, will be coming back for an episode to go up against Grissom yet again.
• The show’s 200th episode will occur this season and will be directed by Peterson’s good friend and acclaimed filmmaker, William Friedkin.
• The biggest news of all is that another male CSI will be brought on to the show, but he won’t be coming on to the show as a CSI to begin with. “He’s a professor with background in pathology. He will appear when Grissom is investigating what will be a two-part case. He will help Grissom and the team bring the perpetrator to justice, and then this character will stay around and ultimately become a CSI,” says Mendelsohn.The new guy will have a rare genetic abnormality of some kind and may not actually replace Grissom as supervisor, but will eventually be seen as Grissom’s replacement because of the caliber of actor the producers are trying to lure in. It is said that their top three choices for the role were Kurt Russel, Laurence Fishburne and John Malkovich. Unfortunately, John Malkovich has already been ruled out due to scheduling conflicts. No word on the other two.

I think the loss of Peterson, on top of the loss of Fox and Dourdan, would be almost catastrophic to the show. I’m not sure how the show can survive the loss of three of the main characters in such a tight knit ensemble cast. However, I do feel that there are some possibilities for keeping it going a bit longer if the producers could actually land a Kurt Russell or Laurence Fishburne in the lead. My vote would go to Russell who’s movie career could use a shot in the arm but who has always been a fine actor. I think Fishburne’s personality might be too overwhelming for such an intimate show.

No matter what happens, Shankar says the focus of the show will remain the same.

“What makes shows go off the rails is they forget who they are. We’re a crime-mystery-forensics drama” with a focus on exceptional cases, Shankar said.

“Whoever comes in and joins the team after Grissom is going to be a different guy. But the nature of the show and what fans get out of it, that’s not going to change,” he said.

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Television
Carol Mendelsohn, csi, David Berman, Gary Dourdan, Gil Grissom, John Malkovich, jorja fox, Kurt Russell, Lauren Lee Smith, Laurence Fishburne, liev schrieber, Liz Vassey, Naren Shankar, Sara Sidle, The Miniature Killer