47 Fun Facts About CSI

On which network did CSI: Crime Scene Investigation air for 15 seasons?

CBS: ABC and other networks had passed on the script, yet CSI became CBS's most successful series at the time.

Who created the CSI franchise?

Anthony Zuiker was working as a tram operator at the Mirage in Las Vegas just a few years before CSI became TV's most-watched show.

Which blockbuster film producer's television company produced CSI?

His company produced it with CBS Productions, later CBS Paramount Television and then CBS Television Studios.

Who plays Gil Grissom on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation?

William Petersen left the role in 2009 to return to stage acting.

Which actress plays Catherine Willows, Grissom's second-in-command on CSI?

Marg Helgenberger: she left the regular cast in 2012 hoping to work on stage, yet came back as Catherine in the revival CSI: Vegas.

On CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Gil Grissom is an expert in which forensic science?

Forensic entomology: Grissom's knowledge of insects runs through his cases, and after leaving the lab he ends up at sea, working to protect sharks.

What is Catherine Willows's forensic specialty on CSI?

Blood-spatter analysis: Catherine had worked as an exotic dancer until a detective she befriended at the club encouraged her into police work.

Which agency does Catherine Willows join after leaving CSI's Las Vegas crime lab?

The FBI: Catherine was demoted after a scandal in the lab and left Las Vegas for the Bureau, before returning for the 2015 finale.

Which band performs the theme songs for every series in the CSI franchise?

The Who: singer Roger Daltrey even guest-starred in a season-seven episode packed with references to the band's songs.

Which song is the theme of the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation?

Who Are You was partly inspired by a night its writer spent drinking with two Sex Pistols, which ended in a Soho doorway, where a policeman let him go if he could walk away.

Which song is the theme of CSI: Miami?

Won't Get Fooled Again: it kicks in right after Horatio Caine's deadpan pre-credits one-liners, a habit critics both loved and mocked.

What was the title of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's feature-length 2015 finale?

Immortality: a bombing at Catherine's casino reunites the old team, and D.B. Russell leaves at the end to join CSI: Cyber.

Which show was CSI's Friday-night lead-in when it premiered in 2000?

The pilot pulled 17 million viewers and a 5.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

Which Canadian company stepped in as co-producer of CSI after Disney's Touchstone pulled out?

Alliance Atlantis: besides co-producing, it took on distributing CSI to broadcasters around the world.

When Grissom quits CSI's crime lab in season nine, where does he fly to reunite with Sara?

Costa Rica: Grissom leaves to join Sara there, and the two later marry and sail off together in the series finale.

On CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Grissom's team works which shift in the Las Vegas crime lab?

The graveyard shift: Grissom's night team handles the show's cases, and when he left in season nine, Catherine took charge of it.

On CSI, which rookie's murder on her first day costs Jim Brass his supervisor job?

Holly Gribbs: after her death, Grissom recruited Sara Sidle to Las Vegas as her replacement.

Who plays Captain Jim Brass on CSI?

Paul Guilfoyle: his Brass eventually retires from the police to focus on his daughter, and later resurfaces on CSI: Vegas.

In CSI's 2015 finale, Jim Brass works security at which casino owned by Catherine Willows?

The Eclipse: Catherine inherited a share of it from her casino-owning father, and the finale opens with a bomb going off inside.

Which actor plays Nick Stokes on CSI?

George Eads played Nick for all 15 regular seasons, but Nick is absent from the 2015 finale movie.

Which city's crime lab does Nick Stokes leave CSI's Las Vegas team to direct?

San Diego: Nick had been demoted when D.B. Russell took over, and he left Las Vegas in the penultimate episode to run the San Diego police lab.

On CSI, Sara Sidle majored in physics at which university?

Harvard: Sara transferred to Las Vegas from San Francisco at Grissom's request, and she later married him.

Who plays Sara Sidle on CSI?

Jorja Fox: after divorcing Grissom, Sara rose to lab director, then gave up the job to sail off with him in the series finale.

On CSI, Gary Dourdan's Warrick Brown struggles with which addiction?

Gambling: Warrick grew up in Las Vegas, and he is later shot dead in his car by a corrupt undersheriff.

On CSI, Greg Sanders starts the series working in which part of the lab?

DNA: Greg later moves into the field, and in one episode he is badly beaten after stepping in to save a tourist from a gang.

On CSI, chief medical examiner Al Robbins has what physical trait?

Prosthetic legs: Robbins lost his legs to a drunk driver, mirroring a real accident that cost actor Robert David Hall his own legs.

On CSI, trace technician David Hodges has which uncanny ability?

A nose that identifies chemicals: Hodges can name compounds by scent alone, and he even designs a murder-mystery board game starring his lab co-workers.

Which actor joined CSI in season nine as Dr. Raymond Langston?

Laurence Fishburne: his Langston fears he inherited his father's violence, and he ends up killing a serial killer while rescuing his ex-wife.

Who plays D.B. Russell, the botanist who runs CSI's lab from season 12?

Ted Danson: his Russell ran the Las Vegas lab until the 2015 finale, when he left to join the spin-off CSI: Cyber.

On CSI, Elisabeth Shue's Julie Finlay is recruited from which city's crime lab?

Seattle: Finlay had worked under Russell there, and she later dies after being attacked by the Gig Harbor killer.

On CSI, Morgan Brody is the estranged daughter of which character?

Conrad Ecklie: Morgan came to the Las Vegas lab from the LAPD in the wake of the Nate Haskell scandal.

Which film director directed CSI's fifth-season finale, 'Grave Danger'?

Quentin Tarantino also wrote the story, and guest star Frank Gorshin died two days before it aired, so the episode was dedicated to him.

In CSI's 'Grave Danger', a kidnapped Nick Stokes is held where?

In a Plexiglas coffin: the kidnapper then blew himself up without revealing where Nick was buried, so the team had to find him from the evidence.

In CSI's 'Grave Danger', who supplies Nick Stokes's ransom?

Sam Braun: when the city refused to pay, Catherine turned to her casino-mogul father, who handed over the $1 million.

Which recurring character is a professional dominatrix played by Melinda Clarke?

Her story arc leaned heavily on music by Rammstein and Linkin Park.

Which Gary Jules cover, first recorded for Donnie Darko, was used in the CSI pilot?

The Tears for Fears cover returned for three season-six episodes.

The "CSI effect" refers to the show allegedly raising whose expectations of forensics?

Jury members: a Los Angeles prosecutor blamed the CSI effect for actor Robert Blake's 2005 murder acquittal, despite witnesses against him.

Which actor plays Eric Delko, Calleigh Duquesne's partner on CSI: Miami?

Adam Rodriguez: Delko's sister Marisol married his boss, Horatio Caine, only to be killed soon after by a gang sniper.

Who plays Lieutenant Horatio Caine on CSI: Miami?

David Caruso: he had quit NYPD Blue early in its second season to star in films, but they flopped, and CSI: Miami became his TV comeback.

On CSI: Miami, what was Horatio Caine's specialty before he led the crime lab?

Bomb disposal: Caine later learned that his brother Raymond, presumed dead, had faked his own death while working undercover.

Which actress plays ballistics expert Calleigh Duquesne on CSI: Miami?

Emily Procter: her Calleigh briefly quit ballistics after a colleague's suicide in her lab, then came back when her replacement kept making mistakes.

Which actress played Detective Stella Bonasera on CSI: NY?

Melina Kanakaredes: her Stella shot her ex-boyfriend Frankie Mala in self-defence after he broke into her apartment and tied her up.

Who plays Detective Mac Taylor, head of the NYPD crime lab on CSI: NY?

Gary Sinise: his Mac Taylor plays bass in a jazz club, and off screen Sinise co-founded the Lt. Dan Band, which plays concerts for troops.

Stella Bonasera leaves CSI: NY to head a crime lab in which city?

New Orleans: Stella, the half-Greek, half-Italian detective who helped Mac through his wife's death, left to run the NOPD crime lab.

CSI: NY's Lindsay Monroe worked as a CSI in which state before New York?

Montana: Lindsay left a CSI job in Montana for her dream of a big city, and later married fellow CSI Danny Messer.

Who stars as FBI deputy director Avery Ryan on CSI: Cyber?

Patricia Arquette: her Avery Ryan turned to fighting cybercrime after hackers broke into her psychology practice and her daughter died.

Who plays Maxine Roby, head of the Las Vegas crime lab in CSI: Vegas?

Paula Newsome: her Roby's lab faces an existential threat when lab veteran David Hodges is framed, which brings Grissom and Sara back to clear him.