Melina Kanakaredes Leaves CSI: NY

Sinise's contract is not up for another year as far as I've heard. I wonder if they would, otherwise, have renewed the contracts at all.

He might have. It looks like his contract expires new year though.
CSI: NY fans can expect Mac Taylor to carry on his detective duties until 2011. His portrayer, Gary Sinise, has just struck a new deal with CBS/Paramount which extends his contract with the crime-solving series for a couple more seasons. In line with the negotiation, the 52-year-old actor will also be getting a raise.

The network previously had chosen to lock Sinise to CSI: NY through spring 2010 but has decided to add another year to that option. In exchange for extending his contract, the studio has increased Sinise's salary to around $5 million per year, translating into a little more than $200,000 per episode. The deal with Sinise comes despite the fact that CBS has not renewed CSI: NY beyond the current season.

Sinise joined the CSI spin-off in 2004 to play a 1st Grade Head Investigator Detective, a role previously turned down by Andy Garcia (The Godfather III, When a Man Loves a Woman, Ocean's Eleven) and Ray Liotta (Field of Dreams, Goodfellas).

On CSI: NY, he leads the NYPD CSI team, consisting of Stella Bonasera, played by Melina Kanakaredes, Danny Messer, played by Carmine Giovinazzo, Dr. Sheldon Hawkes, played by Hill Harper, Donald Flack, Jr., played by Eddie Cahill, Lindsay Monroe, played by Anna Belknap, Adam Ross, played by A.J. Buckley, and Dr. Sid Hammerback, played by Robert Joy. Sinise, whose credits include Forrest Gump, The Human Stain, Mission to Mars and Ransom, has not only received upbeat reviews for portraying the lead on CBS series but for producing at least 37 episodes of CSI: NY as well.

Apart from Sinise, costar Melina Kanakaredes is also in the midst of negations. However, no deal has officially been set. Kanakaredes currently plays Mac Taylor's second-in-command and right-hand woman in the New York Police Department's crime lab.

Fans can catch a new episode of CSI: NY season 4 every Wednesday at 10pm ET/PT on CBS.


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: EW
 
Goodbye to the lovely lady Stella Bonasera and her equally lovely alter-ego Melina Kanakaredes... I think I am officially through with CSI NY now, but I will treasure the first six seasons... I loved Melina. She's the reason I started watching the show, and the only reason I kept up with it.
 
I am sorry my previous post caused offence and I am starting to see the other side to this and I did phase my sentence wrong. I meant to say I think it's stupid if people don't TRY to watch the show. I can't imagin CSI:NY without Gary but I would still try to watch it. And after season six a lot of people may have been thinking of leaving anyway and this was the last straw for them. Again, my apoligies to anyone I offended, and I hope many people TRY the new season even if it's just for 10 minutes. Without Melina it will be hard to make it good again but it could happen and becuase of the great first five seasons I think CSI:NY deserves a chance. :)

P.S Is it certain Melina isn't doing a final episode?
 
Loosing Melina it's definitely a big blow but I'll keep watching the show passionately.I love CSI:NY and I won't stop watching even in 10 years(I know it will be off air by then but...... you know what I mean :rommie:

Yesterday I was pretty devastated and unhappy with the news but now I'm thinking positive about the new season looking forward to explore the show's new character!:lol:
 
I gave the show a final chance last season, and apart from a few story's, I was dissapointed ... again. This news makes it final for me, I'm out. I'm might watch the premiere to see how the Shane Casey story line plays out and then I'm done for good.

Maybe with the whole CSI franchise. I dropped Miami a few years back already and I'm not liking Liz Vassey leaving CSI either. Still in doubts if I have to continue with that show (since last year was not that bad).
 
I have to say, I truly feel this year will be the swan song for a couple of the CSI shows.
No offense to Sela Ward, but she won't be able to save the show. It's too much of a major cast change for many of us. Throw in the fact the storylines on CSI NY aren't what they used to be... I WILL watch it and give it a shot...but I really don't have hopes.
 
I am truly in a deep funk (TV-wise of course) over Melina's departure and to see Stella just disappear from the show altogether just makes me upset like few other things. Not even Sara Sidle's temporary departure upset me like this one.

As much as I give props to Sela Ward and the promise she may bring, I just don't think that anyone can save this show (to me anyways) and that combined with moving to Friday nights, spells the final chapter to the series.

Generally speaking, to me, at least canon-wise, CSI:NY is now a closed chapter and a new era of TV-Shows may arise from the ashes of this. But until then, it's a massive cleaning out the TV closet for me.

To me, Stella could very well instead end up trapped in a Q-Bert game from this point onwards.

Goodbye CSI Stella: Hello Stella in Q-Bert. Kaa takes the place of coils. The red spheres are replaced by Steeler Logos (Sorry Browns fan) and Obama Logos take the place of the anti-gravity objects that go diagonally or against gravity.



Here is the end result:



I was played Q-Bert as part of coping with the TV-sadness over Melina's departure that I just HAD to draw this. :D I hope you all like it. Maybe we should create this game for us Stella fans to enjoy in the post-CSI era.
 
I was shocked when I read of Melina's sudden departure! It seems to be part and parcel in the way broadcast television in general, and CBS in particular, has been practicing its business as of late. She will be sorely missed by me and millions of others.

I strongly suspect that this upcoming season will be the last for CSI:NY. The move to Friday night seems to be the "Kiss of Death" for shows on CBS. I'm not sure that Jennifer Love Hewitt or the cast of "Numb3rs" could have predicted they'd be "axed" if the question was posed last September, given they still had pretty decent ratings.

With this in mind, let's see if we could come up with a happy ending for the 7th season finale and maybe some new spinoffs!

Flack gets promoted and now supervises new cops "The NY Rookies". We get to met his father (Brian Dennehy) and sister (Kathleen Munroe) on a regular basis.

Sheldon and Sid start new careers at the CDC in "CDC - The Field Cases"

Adam and the new Sela Ward character go off to fight Cybercrime on the new series "Homeland Security".

Danny and Lindsey become forest rangers in "Montana Bound"

In a very special guest role, Melina makes a return appearance ...Mac and Stella wake up in bed together.

Mac: "I had the weirdest dream, Stella."

Stella: Me too! But it was a nightmare .... Season 8 and bad scripts."

Mac: "Thank God it's over!"

They kiss!

Shades of Bob Newhart and the late, great Suzanne Pleshette! ;)
 
Danny and Lindsey become forest rangers in "Montana Bound"

:guffaw: Forest rangers. hahaha.


Lindsay can be a forest ranger. Danny can stay in NY with Flack. He'd get eaten by a bear if he tried to be a forest ranger.

ETA: Lucy can spend the school year in Montana with Lindsay when she's not in the busy season of forest rangering and then spend the summer with Danny in NY.

ETA2: Or if Danny and Lindsay must be together they can be P.I.s together during the off season and during the busy season she can be the ranger and he can be a stay at home dad. Because, seriously, he'd so get eaten by a bear if he tried to be a forest ranger.
 
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I recently rekindled an old forgotten interest I had from back in 2002 - watching the anime show Detective Conan. There, I realized that unlike shows involving on-screen actors/actresses, the voice actors/actresses don't have to take their characters with them when they leave. Hence, on DC, when the longtime voice actor of one of the main characters announced his retirement last September, they simply replaced him with another voice actor, while keeping the character intact. Now, with shows like CSI:NY (or even CSI:Miami or the original CSI), actors and actresses who leave have to take their characters out with them. This is one of the "advantages" of characters in anime shows compared to shows with on-screen actors/actresses.
 
In a very special guest role, Melina makes a return appearance ...Mac and Stella wake up in bed together.

Mac: "I had the weirdest dream, Stella."

Stella: Me too! But it was a nightmare .... Season 8 and bad scripts."

Mac: "Thank God it's over!"

They kiss!

Shades of Bob Newhart and the late, great Suzanne Pleshette! ;)

Hahahaha, I'm rooting for this one just for the laughs. :guffaw:
 
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