Petersen Concerned About Network Shenanigans

The firing of two cast members and the addition of a third spinoff series angered and upset other regulars on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, the actors have admitted.

In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly published for subscribers on the web site, William Petersen (Grissom) compared the workings of CBS executives to the Bush Administration while George Eads (Stokes) complained that he believed he was treated unfairly for a mistake. "This show's doing pretty darn good," Eads explained. "I don't know - I don't feel like [we were] rewarded for it."

Eads and Jorja Fox (Sidle) have explained that both were fired due to misunderstandings: Fox because her letter accepting CBS' new contract offer did not reach the network by the date on which it was due, Eads because he overslept on the day he was due back at the studio. But Viacom co-president Les Moonves believed that the two stars were engaged in a holdout for higher salaries, since the entire cast had asked for a salary hike. "If you'd heard what these supporting players were asking, you would have laughed," Moonves told EW.

Petersen angrily reported that he learned of the firings in Variety, and "I certainly wasn't going to go to work without George and Jorja, so then it was up to [CBS] to figure it out." Co-star Gary Dourdan (Brown) called Moonves to ask whether the situation could not be worked out.

EW noted that Petersen had already received a new contract, while Marg Helgenberger (Willows), who currently earns $200K per episode - twice the salary of Dourdan - is still negotiating. "If your team comes home with the winning ring five years in a row, you take care of them," Dourdan insisted. "You look after your original team, you don't go buy a new one."

"Our season was predicated on having the entire team back," said executive producer Carol Mendelsohn. She had written a season opener which touched upon sevral of the series' ongoing issues, such as Fox's alcoholism and Willows' past as a stripper. "Everybody had a part in it, but nobody carried the episode." She expressed sympathy for the actors in their concerns that the series risks recycling its own material and that, with two spin-offs, new ideas may be spread too thin. One possible storyline involves Grissom falling in love with a dead woman.

Both Petersen and Helgenberger expressed the hope that their characters would finally be developed as the series approaches its 100th episode. "I try and stay awake, and for me, that's fresh at this point," said Petersen. He would like to break the series' formula, perhaps by telling a story from the point of view of a killer or a victim. "There's a million different things. You can always turn the screw."

Entertainment Weekly features CSI on the cover of its October 1st issue. These excerpts are from an online report exclusively for subscribers here. Thanks go out to Al Forno for this!

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