CSI Offed by Housewives
The odds have caught up with CSI.
For the first time in five years, the Vegas-set crime show will not finish a season as TV's most-watched scripted show.
The 2007-08 season ends Wednesday night.
Desperate Housewives, much maligned for its own ratings slippage over the past couple of years, should finish the season on top among scripted shows, with 18.2 million viewers.
CSI, which currently holds a slight edge for second place over House, ends its eighth season averaging 16.89 million viewers, its least amount ever. The show's previous "low" was 17.8 million, posted during its first season.
The last time CSI didn't wind up as TV's top scripted show was 2001-02, when the departing Friends ruled.
CSI enjoyed its best season to date in 2002-03, when the CBS series averaged 26.2 million, and bested everything on TV, scripted or no.
Since 2003-04, CSI has been trumped by American Idol for the overall No. 1and sometimes the overall No. 2spot. But up until this season, it was the standard-bearer for scripted shows.
Ratings-wise, CSI has been in decline for more than a year. From the 2005-06 season to the 2006-07 season, the show lost 5.3 million viewers.
CSI opened this past season big and through November was TV's No. 1 show. Then came the writers' strikeand there went 21 percent of its audience. By comparison, Desperate Housewives only lost about 7 percent of its viewers from the start of the strike through the end of the season.
In addition to the strike, CSI went through cast upheaval, with the early season departure of Jorja Fox and the late season word that Gary Dourdan would not be back in the fall.
Desperate Housewives' win, meanwhile, is its first. It takes the scripted crown the old-fashioned wayit actually had more viewers this season than last, adding more than 1 million fans to its ranks.
Overall, Housewives looks to finish sixth, behind various editions of Dancing With the Stars and American Idol, which despite all the hand-wringing over what's wrong with it, should finish the season as TV's No. 1 and No. 2 shows.
Again.
Elsewhere, here are the ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday:
- In the battle of season finales, at least, CSI (fourth place, 18.1 million) killed Desperate Housewives (sixth place, 16.8 million), Grey's Anatomy (seventh place, 15.5 million) and every other scripted show.
- Of course, Housewives did hold the demographic edge over all scripted series. Among young adults, CSI finished behind Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, House and Two and a Half Men.
- Judging by the Idol numbers, it's not that people don't want to hear this season's contestants sing, it's that they don't care as much what fate befalls them. Tuesday's performance show (second place, 24.8 million) was in line with last year's Top Three episode. Wednesday's results show (first place, 24.9 million) wasn'tit was off by more than 3 million.
- CBS' Moonlight (41st place, 7.5 million) went out the way it went in, losing about 1 viewers from Ghost Whisperer (31st place, 8.4 million).
- The Office's season closer was good for Angela and Dwight, but the NBC show has seen bigger climaxes than 8.2 million viewers (35th place).
- Right about now, the canceled Women's Murder Club (36th place, 7.9 million) must be wondering what dirt the renewed According to Jim (80th place, 4.2 million for its first episode; 74th place, 4.5 million for its second) has on ABC execs.
- The win for a "full-figured" gal fattened up CW's America's Next Top Model (69th place, 4.8 million).
- To summarize cable's top prime-time shows: Basketball, basketball, wrestling.
- Sci Fi Channel's Saturday-night offering of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (3.9 million), and Disney Channel's Friday-night revisit to High School Musical 2 (3.8 million) represented for nonprofessional athletes.
- In daytime, Snoop Dogg romanced viewers of One Life to Live, fo' shizzle. A cameo by the gentleman rapper helped the ABC soap pad its young adult women numbers by 4 percent for the week of May 5.
Overall, CBS won the week in viewers (10.3 million), and preemptively declared itself the like winner of the May sweeps. Fox won the week in 18-to-49-year-olds (4.6 million), and did CBS one better, declaring itself the demo winner of sweepsand the season.
Make that, Fox did CBS two better. It also said it would best CBS as the most watched network of 2007-08, the first such victory for Fox.
In cable, basketball-powered TNT averaged the most prime-time viewers (3.1 million), followed by wrestling-powered USA (2.4 million) and basketball-powered ESPN (2.1 million).
Here's a look at the 10 most-watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
- American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 24.9 million viewers
- American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 24.8 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Monday), ABC, 18.5 million viewers
- CSI, CBS, 18.1 million viewers
- Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 17 million viewers
- Desperate Housewives, ABC, 16.8 million viewers
- Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 15.5 million viewers
- House, Fox, 15 million viewers
- NCIS, CBS, 14.9 million viewers
- Without a Trace, CBS, 14.5 million viewers
CSI Finds Fresh Blood
Lauren Lee Smith can see dead people.
At least beginning this fall.
Looking to fill the void left by the departures of Gary Dourdan and Jorja Fox, The L Word veteran is joining CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as a series regular, the network announced today.
The 27-year-old Smith will play Bryce Adams, described as a "smart, flirtatious and witty nonconformist" obsessed with the underbelly of society, who got into police work to rebel against her disapproving psychiatrist father. She joins Gil Grissom's crack squad working the night shift.
The Vancouver-born thesp had a recurring stint on Showtime's The L Word as sous chef Lara Perkins. Her film credits include last month's thriller Pathology, as well Art School Confidential and alongside Casey Affleck and Zach Braff in The Last Kiss. She teams up with Ashley Judd and Goran Visnjic in the drama Helen, due out in October, and will appear in next year's horror anthology Trick or Treat.
Fox and Dourdan both decided not to reup with CSI after failing to hash out new contracts. With Smith in place, producers still must fill the role of Ray Santoro, billed as a "handsome, smart and athletic" CSI who takes on the graveyard shift at the crime lab.
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.
Breaking! Jorja Fox Confirms Her CSI Departure
Well, I suppose this puts the nail in the coffin. Sorry, Sara Sidle fans.
Despite the promo taunting you all with a Gil-Sara marriage proposal, Jorja Fox has confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that she's leaving CSI, saying she will appear in only five episodes this season.
"There are all these things I want to do. Some are personal. Some are professional. And I really need to do some of them before I get too old," explains Fox. "If I thought the show were on its last legs, I would have tried harder to stay the course. But I feel like its going to be around for a while, so if I don’t want some of those dreams to pass me by, I have to get off the ride for a while."
"For a while" makes it sound as though Jorja may be back. So, what do you think? Is the show better off without her, or are you desperately hoping she'll return? Post your opinions below.