CBS Cancels âCSI: Crime Scene Investigation'; Will Not Return For Season 16
CBS is planning to replace the series with a run of episodes of their new spin-off program, âCSI: Cyberâ starring Patricia Arquette and Luke Perry at some point in early 2015. Prior to the reported cancellation, âCSIâ was to return later in 2015 to complete the order of eighteen episodes. It not yet known if the alleged cancellation will result in a larger order of episodes of the new spinoff. Many fans of the show have claimed over the troubled November and December run of the series to have seen the cancellation coming. âFirst you dump the show on Sundays so itâs always starting late or not airing at all because of football,â explained CSI fan Kent Morgan on a public post from late October on the showâs official Facebook page. âThen you guys cut it to 18 episodes. Weâre not dumb. If youâre going to cancel it, at least give your fans the decency to say something about this being the final season. Jerking us around like this is not cool.â Other fans have noticed a parallel to what happened to the popular âCSI: Miamiâ spin-off in 2012 when it was also cancelled by the network. âYouâre doing the same thing to CSI Vegas that you did to CSI Miami when you cancelled that one. Donât Cancel CSI!!!â, said concerned fan Debbie Oliver in the comments of anÂ October 26th post by the showâs official Facebook page. TheÂ fan speculation does makeÂ a great deal of sense. Typically shows that a network wants to keep around donât get preempted or shuffled from their time slots. Putting âCSIâ in direct competition against AMCâs âThe Walking Deadâ and Foxâs âFamily Guyâ did not make sense to most fans of the show and many feel it was set up to fail. Also choosing to air the programÂ in a time slot routinely interrupted by sports would not bode well for ratings success. The October 26th attempt to air the episode, âGirls Gone Wilderâ, failed after the preceding NFL game ran over on the East Coast. CBS showed West Coast viewers a repeat episode of the crime drama instead of the intended new episode. However, a second attempt to air the same episode on November 2nd, also failed, again due to a NFL game running long. The episode was reportedly shown to viewers on the West Coast but the East Coast and Central time broadcast was postponed for the second week in a row. As of November 3rd, an internet search has not turned up any fan petitions to attempt to âsaveâ the show, but many will likely surface in the coming days. There were severalÂ existing petitions asking for CBS to move CSI to a different time slot.Â Previous fan attempts to get âCSI: Miamiâ and âCSI: NYâ saved from cancellation fell upon deaf ears at CBS. It is assumed similar attempts to convince CBS executives to grant a reprieve to âCSIâ will also be ignored. âOnce theyâve made up their mind, youâre not going to convince them,â said industry expert Dorothy Miller. âThey let this one run fourteen and a half seasons. They cancelled âMiamiâ after ten and âNew Yorkâ after nine. With hardly any of the original cast even still on the show it seems market research reflectedÂ that the majority of viewers have moved on. Sure, like any show that has been around a few years, there is a vocal minority of fans that will speak up on social media, but I seriously doubt that will matter much to CBSâs bottom line.â On November 24th, 2014 CSI star George Eads, who plays Nick Stokes, confirmed he would be leaving the show. Eadsâ departure would leave the series with only Jorja Fox as the remaining original cast member. Considering the networkÂ has only aired one episode so far in 2015, it seems even more likely that there will not be a season 16 of the show.