News Bullets

• For the first time since the show premiered four years ago, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was completely shut out when the Golden Globe nominations were announced last week. Although the show never actually won one of the awards handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, it was nominated three times in the Best Drama TV Series category, while both William Petersen (Gil Grissom) and Marg Helgenberger (Catherine Willows) received acting nominations, the latter twice.

• CSI: New York has a great cast, but they're given far too little to do. That's the conclusion reached by Charlie McCollum in his TV column for The Mercury News, after being asked how he felt the new CSI spin-off measured up against Law & Order. "[CSI: New York] is relentlessly grim. Its visual style is way too dark."

• CSI creator Anthony Zuiker was profiled in an article called "Writer of Wrongs" in the Life supplement of several local newspapers, Elyse reported. In the article, Zuiker describes how he went from being a stockbroker-turned-tram operator to heading TV's most popular drama shows. "One minute, we're eating ketchup sandwiches. The nex tminute, I have three top-10 shows on the air... Having one hit show is amazing. With three, it's definitely goodbye to ketchup sandwiches."

• CSI is one of many television shows that will soon start using something called the Digital Music Assistant (DMA) 2.1 Music Search and Delivery System. The press release from the company behind the DMA makes our head hurt, but we believe it means it will make it easier for the CSI music people to find and incorporate the music tracks they want into the show.

• Carol Azizian at the Flint Journal has posted an article about Jamie Burton-Oare, a twentysomething native of Flint, Michigan, who moved to Los Angeles a few years ago to try her hand at acting. In Flint, Michigan-terms, she's doing pretty well so far, as she recently starred in a short HBO film, and also appeared in Wednesday's CSI: New York episode "Night, Mother" as Angel, a member of a pickpocketing ring.

• The Arizona-based NAU College of Social and Behavioral Science recently held a special CSI night, during which real-life crime scene investigators told an audience of current students and alumni that unlike what TV shows suggest, the world of forensic crime-solving does not usually allow those involved to "wear designer clothes, drive fancy cars and have DNA results within minutes." Sara Kincaid at the Arizona Daily Sun has a report.

• The Washington Post's Peter A. Micheels recently also wrote an article on real-life investigators: in his case, fire investigators in Washington D.C., charged with the job of catching arsonists. In his article, Micheels notes that the job of fire investigators is probably most similar to that of the characters in CSI, as they also have to both collect evidence and interview suspects. In most other criminal investigations, forensic experts just process the scene for evidence, and then let squad detectives follow up with any possible suspects.

• Meanwhile, the Camden Chronice Independent has published an interview with Donna Rudd, a counselor who conducts forensic interviews with abuse victims. She praises the CSI shows for getting across the gist of what happens in actual forensic interviews, but says that in the real world, they always take much more time than on TV. "There are questions on those shows I would never use. I don`t want to use a question that would hurt the case. The shows offer a fantasy of how kids would respond."

• The final article this week comparing the CSI characters with actual officers in the field comes from Mandy Thomason at the Lewisville Leader, who visited the Citizens Police Academy of the Lewisville Police Department, a 13-week course during which citizens learn about the "philosophy, internal values and operations" of the department. In the article, training coordinator Scott Pedigo says the biggest benefit is that citizens learn what they can do to help the police, and they realise "it's not like on TV where people who watch CSI every night and think we can take a flake of skin and tell them who did it right then."

• Although CSI is still usually the top-rated show of the week, many media analysts expect the show to be overtaken by Desperate Housewives by the end of the year. Lynn Elber at the Associated Press talked to some fans about the difference between the two shows. CSI can be "a little bit soulless," says one expert in the article, noting that viewers may like to know more about television characters' personal lives.

• The CSI franchise in general, and CSI: Miami and CSI: New York in particular, have made the "Worst Of 2004" list compiled by MSNBC's Television, Movie and Technology Editors. "While the original CSI still shines each week, its two clones pale in comparison, with David Caruso [Horatio Caine] pulling off his shades and making overdramatic declarations in Miami and Gary Sinise [Mac Taylor] trying to discover if he actually has a personality in New York. [...] Please, Anthony Zuikor, save us from CSI: Cleveland."

• The Village Voice wasn't terribly happy with the way the transgendered community was portrayed in CSI's "Ch-Ch-Changes." "It was clear that producers were trying to be sensitive -- witness brief cameos by well-known transwomen and some thoughtful dialogue -- but this episode, the most watched in the show's history, ultimately portrayed transfolk and their partners as misguided, deceptive, and/or murderous." Thanks go out to Elyse for this!

• Danny Thomas, station manager of Kansas-based CBS affiliate KOAM, claims in the Morning Sun that in his market, Wheel of Fortune is the most-watched show on television, attracting more viewers than CSI. An explanation for what would be, if true, a stunning deviation from national viewing trends, was not provided.

• Miami-Dade County is looking forward to the filming of the movie version of Miami Vice, as the film is expected to spend a sizable share of its $100 million budget in Miami itself. This, Miami Today notes, is a marked difference from CSI: Miami, which except for a few outdoor scenes is shot primarily in Los Angeles.

• The Weekly Standard's David Skinner writes about how CSI has influenced other shows: while Law & Order never used to show the gruesome condition of its murder victims, now it "routinely provides the viewer a lingering camera shot of the point where the deadly bullet tore skin and shattered cranium before plowing into brain matter and exiting the frontal lobe."

• And to finish this week's News Bullets, here's the usual round-up of stories about CSI inspiring students to study forensic science: The Detroit News reports on the popularity of so-called "death studies," saying that applications for forensic university programs have soared as much as 400 percent since CSI debuted; the Mansfield News Journal reports on high school students attending forensics seminars at a local college in Ohio; and the Stanford Advocate has a story on a forensic lab course being taught at Brien McMahon High School in Southern Connecticut.

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