“CSI” Returns to Its Roots

Twenty-one years after the then-ground-breaking forensics crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation debuted on CBS-TV, that same network plans a sequel. Writes Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva:

Paula Newsome, Matt Lauria and Mel Rodriguez have been cast as leads in CSI: Vegas, which is nearing a formal straight-to-series order at CBS, I have learned.

I hear William Petersen and Jorja Fox are finalizing their deals to star in CSI: Vegas, ... reprising their roles as Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle, respectively. While billed as an event series, I hear CSI: Vegas, from writer Jason Tracey (Elementary), CBS Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer TV, could become an ongoing series running for multiple seasons.

With CSI: Vegas, the most-watched drama series of the 21st century, CSI, opens a new chapter in Las Vegas, the city where it all began. Facing an existential threat that could bring down the Crime Lab, a brilliant team of forensic investigators must welcome back old friends and deploy new techniques to preserve and serve justice in Sin City.

Andreeva adds that “the original idea was for the event series to debut in October 2020, marking the 20th anniversary of the mothership series’ premiere. That plan was thwarted by the coronavirus pandemic-related production shutdown.”

The original CSI premiered in October 2000, and went off the air in 2015, after spawning three sequels: CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, and CSI: Cyber. The last of those was also the final installment of the CSI TV franchise to disappear from the boob tube, in March 2016.

(Hat tip to In Reference to Murder.)