Donahue Petitioned For Delko’s Return

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15 years ago Rachel

Contract negotiations nearly left Adam Rodriguez (Eric Delko) in the lurch on CSI: Miami. (Spoilers after the jump.)

In the season seven finale, “Seeing Red”, Delko went missing in the Florida Everglades. The character nearly came out in a body bag when Rodriguez and CBS failed to come to terms with a new contract. The network recommended that producers kill off the character. “But I wasn’t comfortable with that,” Rodriguez said. “And I spoke to [executive producer] Ann Donahue and she wasn’t comfortable about this either.”

“[W]e really wanted to make sure that the character had a proper sendoff,” Rodriguez continued. Donahue petitioned CBS “to make this work”, the actor explained. The result is that Rodriguez will appear in ten episodes over the course of the season.

Rodriguez’s final episodes on the show will be a period of transition for his character. Delko will change professions and examine his relationship with Calleigh Duquesne (Emily Procter). Of the romance between the two CSIs, Rodriguez said, “Like any great love story, I don’t know that the books will ever be closed on them.”