Dourdan’s CSI Case Closed
Crime scene investigation no longer pays for Gary Dourdan.
The CSI star, who has been with the ratings-grabbing CBS franchise since its 2000 debut, has chosen not to renew his contract, paving the way for his character's exit on the upcoming season finale.
According to TV Guide, which first reported the news of Dourdan's departure, it was the star who informed producers that he would be leaving the show rather than the other way around.
No timetable for his exit has been announced, but his contract is set to expire next month, making the show's May 15 finale the likeliest venue for Warrick Brown's final bow.
The network, meanwhile, is refusing to discuss the shake-up.
"We can't confirm or deny this information," a CBS spokesperson told News.
Dourdan's Brown, a recovering gambling-addict-turned-top-CSI-analyst and sometime love interest to Marg Helgenberger's Catherine Willows, ups the show's body count this season.
In November, fellow original castmember Jorja Fox, who played Sara Sidle, left CSI after what could generously be described as rocky contract negotiations with show producers, eventually failing to come to terms on a mutually acceptable salary boost.
William Petersen, aka CSI's stoic ringleader Gil Grissom, fared better earlier this month, when it was announced he had finally signed on to a ninth season, albeit for a reduced number of shows. His deal worked out to an average payday of $600,000 per episode, cementing his status as one of the small screen's highest paid actors.
CBS appears to be wasting no time in replacing Dourdan.
According to TV Guide, producers have already issued a casting notice for a male series regular in his late 20s to early 30s to take on the role of Ray Santoro, a "handsome, smart and athletic" CSI who takes on the graveyard shift at the crime lab.
While fellow original full-timers Helgenberger and George Eads have yet to sign new contracts, both are expected to following Petersen's, rather than Dourdan and Fox's, footsteps and return to the show next fall.
CSI’s Gary Dourdan avoids jail time
On Monday, April 28, CSI star Gary Dourdan was arrested in Palm Springs, California. He was asleep in his car and when a police officer approached, he found Dourdan disoriented. The actor was arrested after the cop found cocaine, heroin, Ecstacy, miscellaneous prescription drugs and paraphernalia in the car. Despite pleading guilty to drug possession today, Dourdan will not have to do any jail time. In fact, in the deal his lawyer struck with prosecutors, Gary will get treatment for his drug problems. Basically, he lucked out.
“Once Gary completes 30 hours of a diversion program, his case will be entirely dismissed,” said his lawyer, Shawn Chapman Holley, in a statement to The Associated Press. Dourdan won’t have to do any time in a drug rehab facility or behind bars, so all things considered, he’s very, very fortunate. He could have faced up to three years or more in jail .
Gary has already departed CSI, and in the season finale, his character was seemingly killed in a point blank shooting. However, when Jorja Fox returns for the fall premiere, Dourdan is reportedly in the show. And not as a ghost. So, now that he won’t be doing time, he’ll have time to film scenes for CSI and, presumably, wrap up the unfinished business of the CSI crew exposing the corrupt under sheriff.
CSI bringing Jorja Fox back for fall premiere
When Sara left CSI, driving out of Las Vegas on her way to who knows what, he left behind a brokenhearted Gil Grissom. The producers of CSI were wise to keep the door open for the character to return, and that’s just what’s happening — at least for one show. According to TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello, Jorja Fox will be in the season premiere of CSI. Oh, and she won’t be the only former cast mate on the show; so will Gary Dourdan as Warrick.
I know, I know — I can hear you now, how is that possible? Didn’t he die in the CSI finale? When we last saw Warrick, he’d been shot twice and left to die in his car. Could the CSI have survived a bullet through the neck? He was slumped over the steering wheel, so he looked dead. And the sheriff shot him a second time — presumably a death shot to the head since it was an execution.
Ausiello’s sources claim that Warrick’s return will not be a flashback. He thinks we’re in for a “gut wrenching death scene.” He could be right, they could go in that direction. However, CSI could think outside the reality box, too. They could go the apparition or ghost route. It wouldn’t be the first time; there was the episode a few seasons back where the corpses talked, telling the story of how they died. That was definitely not real, but this is a fictional show and they can take a leap if they feel like it.
Maybe Warrick will appear to viewers, aware that he’s dead, but unable to cross over or something like that. Maybe he goes to his funeral or helps solve his murder? Any ideas? Tell us about them in the comments.
As for Jorja, there’s no doubt she’ll be back to see Gil. Even after leaving Las Vegas, she was in touch with Grissom. She called him on one episode which put a smile on his face, so we can assume the two are still romantically connected.
CSI: For Gedda (season finale) - VIDEO
(S08E17) Last week’s special episode of CSI, the one written by the Two and a Half Men creators, was fun and light-hearted and filled with inside jokes and gags. Last night’s show was the complete antithesis: brutal, bloody and in the end, shockingly sad. It was Gary Dourdan’s last episode of the series. Warrick is gone and the only way you’ll ever see him on CSI again will be in flashback or we discover a twin brother or lookalike cousin.
The show picked up on the storyline began last season, when Warrick bedded an exotic dancer from Pigalle who wound up dead. He was cleared back then, but never got over her death. We learn that he’s been obsessively stalking Lou Gedda, the club owner whom Warrick believes had her killed. Before you can say, “what the heck is going on with the funeral with the two guys in the coffin,” Warrick is caught seemingly red-handed (literally with blood all over his hands!) in Lou’s office where the hulking body of the gangster has been riddled with bullets in his barber chair.
Warrick called Grissom, but there wasn’t much Gil could do and the CSI team was pretty much told to stay out of the case. Brass was sympathetic, as were the rest, but the evidence was damning and Warrick didn’t help his cause by being unable to remember what happened after he confronted Gedda. Internal affairs took over and ran the show. The funeral case gives Grissom and company a chance to skirt the rules to investigate what happened — and they find a link between when the second body is a P.I. that Warrick was using to follow Gedda.
There was a lot of good character stuff in this show, like Brass and Grissom showing real concern for their colleague — after being pissed off at him initially — and Catherine reaching out to Warrick and then going to get him a change of clothes. It was in that scene that we saw how obsessed he was with Gedda — you know, typical signs of stalker-like behavior, pictures all over the walls, newspaper clippings, et. al. It just made Warrick look more guilty.
When Gil finally figures out what really happened in Gedda’s office, how Warrick was framed, it’s revealed that the crooked club owner had a mole in the sheriff’s office. Warrick was set up because he wouldn’t stop snooping around and he had to be stopped. A low level, beat cop name Pritchard was arrested. When Grissom told him how he was framed, Warrick was stunned that the mole wasn’t higher up — and that was the tip off. Gil told that he would be suspended and demoted for his rogue activities, but he indicated that some time in the future, Warrick would get his job back.
Then came the twist. The CSI night shift goes to a cop hangout, a diner, for breakfast. All’s well that ends well, right? Grissom socializing with the staff, how cool was that? I think he even smiled and laughed. He seemed almost human. As the group departs, Nick offered to hang out with Warrick, but he wanted to go home and put the ordeal behind him and take a shower. As a viewer, you could relate. This was a harrowing time, but there seemed there was a happy ending.
No — uh-uh. No frakking way. Just as Warrick was starting his car, the under sheriff appeared out of nowhere (which is where Warrick had parked the car!), knocking on the window. When he didn’t lift his right hand, I was suspicious. He congratulated Warrick on being exonerated. He told Warrick what a great CSI he is/was, the kind who was tenacious and dogged. Warrick assured the sheriff he would find the real mole, which is when the guy shot him. BAM! Then one more for good measure. The bullet looked like it went through one side of his neck to the other. Warrick looks dead. Deader than Sara last year under the turned-over car in the desert.
Other Points of Interest
– All the elements of Warrick’s arrest and booking had an eerie feel in light of Gary Dourdan’s real-life felony arrest recently.
– We saw a few flashes of Rebecca Buddig as Joanna, the dancer who died after sleeping with Warrick. She’s now back on All My Children as Greenlee.
– There were allusions to Warrick’s gambling problems. While Nick was working on one of the corpses from the funeral case, Warrick remembered that he owed him money. Clearly, Warrick’s addiction problems were not so under control as Grissom thought/hoped.
– Chloroform can effect not only the person who’s directly chloroformed, but anyone exposed and it can cause temporary amnesia.
– Greg told Catherine that he’s finished his mob/Las Vegas history book and is going to L.A. to meet with three publishers.
– When Grissom tells the IA rep and sheriff that Warrick was set up, the IA guy said, “Who better than a CSI to make it look like a frame?” Grissom answered, “He was framed and I’ll prove it.”
– Warrick hugs Grissom to thank him for clearing his name. It was a rare show of emotion, and Dourdan looked teary-eyed.
– At the diner, Catherine kissed him goodbye and reminded him that she’s there for him. After she left, Nick said, “It’s just you and me, Serpico.” These scenes played out like a goodbye — telegraphing the end.
– Before shooting Warrick, the sheriff told him, “Grissom taught you well.” It’s his excellence and unwillingness to give up that’s cost him his life.
– It seems like the whole African-American funeral procession at the opening, with singing, was meant to prefigure Warrick’s death.
– Catherine likes turkey bacon. Also, Hodges was not invited to breakfast — he also was the first to rat out Warrick to IA.
– Why do they use flashlights when they can turn on the lights?
– Proof that CSI is at the top of the Nielsens: commercials for the new Indiana Jones movie and Batman with Heath Ledger as the Joker.