CBS Greenlights “CSI: CSI” for Fall TV Lineup
Los Angeles, CA – Looking to cash in further on the success of its “CSI” franchise, CBS announced today at its Fall Programming Gala that they have greenlighted “CSI: CSI”, a new show that will center on the investigation of murders that occur inside other CSI labs.
Les Moonves, the president of CBS, was on-hand and could barely contain his excitement after the announcement was made. He followed by saying, “The ratings have shown that the American people are clamoring for more CSI in their lives, and given the success of ‘CSI: Crime Scene Investigation’, ‘CSI: Miami’, and ‘CSI: New York’, I fully expect ‘CSI: CSI’ to be a top 10 show in the ratings.”
While executives are still undecided on the time slot, its placement will undoubtedly have an impact on the scheduling of other networks’ shows, as they never like to go head-to-head with a ratings beast like the CSI franchise.
Some critics have been quick to jump on CBS’ decision, saying they’re going to over-saturate the market and that investigating murders inside another crime investigation laboratory could never be a sustainable platform from which to launch a new spin-off.
Moonves however, disputes these criticisms. He pointed out that, “If Americans have shown us anything over the past five years, it’s that they can’t get enough CSI. Shit, we almost made an entire CSI channel, but the government asked us not to for fear that Americans would quit going to work. As for the second criticism, everyone knows that any murder within another crime investigation laboratory is going to damage and break equipment. Plus, equipment at the scene of the crime immediately becomes evidence and therefore can’t be used to solve the crime whose evidence is splattered all over it. As a result, you need a secondary laboratory that can analyze all the evidence and help bring the killer to justice.”
As soon as the announcement was made, speculation about who was going to play the lead role was abundant. Names like: Tony Danza, Bill Bellamy, Daniel Baldwin, David Hasselhoff, and Al Pacino were tossed around. Though the decision doesn’t appear to be final, a high-level CBS employee who asked to remain nameless said that the network really wants Danza for the role.
CSI: CSI will be the third spin-off from the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigators, which is about to start its ninth season. Like the original, CSI: CSI will also be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television, which by name, promises to deliver state of the art special effects and plot-lines that a chimp could follow.
