CBS: Crime Shows Are Still 'In'

With the creation of CSI and its two spin-offs, critics recently began to wonder how long before the audience grew bored with such shows (news). But according to various network executives, crime shows are here to say.

"So far, there's no end in sight for the audience's appetite for these shows," said CBS scheduling chief Kelly Kahl. "It's hard to argue with where these shows rank."

The beginning of this trend can arguably be credited to a three-letter show. "With the introduction of CSI, here was a whole new way to look at a procedural crime drama, and that opened the door for other devices and other ways of telling crime stories," Kahl added. "That's part of the reason we don't think we're overdoing it. Each of our shows has a different twist."

CBS isn't the only one benefiting from the crime show trend. ABC will debut two crime shows this upcoming season: The Evidence and In Justice, while Fox recently picked out the Josh Berman show The Gate, about a team of investigators in San Francisco dedicated to hunt down the city's most aberrant killers. The network will also add Bones to their lineup; the show will revolve around the life of a forensic anthropologist.

"Pick up a newspaper. Pick up a magazine. The radio. Local news. Television is just one of the mediums that tend to gravitate toward the world of crime," said Craig Erwich, Fox's executive vice president of programming. "People have an interest in it, whether it's wondering what makes people do it to wondering about their own safety. There's probably something very primal about it."

Miami front-runner Ann Donahue explained that the key to the shows' success is simple. "The easy answer is women love mysteries and men love maggots," she said. "Most shows you get one or the other. We have it all."

Head over to the Boston Globe to read the rest of the story.

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