Perhaps it's safe to say that not a lot of people were happy about the way
CSI got rid of
Gary Dourdan's character on the CBS show. And since it was mostly personal stuff that caused Dourdan's exit,
CSI fans thought it was probably better if his character was just sidelined until the problem was solved, instead of just totally killing him off.
TV Guide's Matt Roush has this to counter this accusation: “I felt the producers gave him (Dourdan) some great material as Warrick struggled with personal demons and, as he reached a moment of triumph, was shockingly felled by someone within the department."
This is only one of the major shifts on
CSI as it prepares to debut its ninth season on October 9. In fact, the season premiere is called “For Warrick” and both he and
Jorja Fox, who plays Sara Sidle, will also be back for the first episode. Both formally agreed to leave the show last season.
On
CSI's third episode, Lauren Lee Smith will start playing Riley Adams, while most notable of all will be Laurence Fishburne entering in episode ten just as
William Petersen (Gil Grissom) bids his farewell. For his part, Petersen is one with the show's producers in justifying all these changes.
"We need to have new life, new blood," said Petersen. "It will be good for the show, and good for the writers, to have new characters. And that will be good for the audience."
"It's natural for shows to go through change," executive producer Shankar concurred. "The beauty of CSI is that internally, it's very strong. We'd like to think that as much as the cast has created wonderful characters, the show is the star too. People tune in to mysteries, complex characterizations, plot twists, and great crime solving. That will continue.”
-Glenn L. Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source:
CSI Files,
TV Guide
(Image Courtesy of CBS)