What Caused The 'CSI' Ratings To Fall?

[PerfectAnomaly]

I think the ratings for all shows dipped a little after the writers strike and its just that not all shows have recovered fully yet. IMO, Blood Moon was the best ep of CSI so far this season. I'm really surprised that it got less ratings. Probably has to do in large part with the fact that a lot of people are just plain sick of vamp/werewolf related stuff. I'm not a Twilight/Vampire Diaries fan, but I still watch Buffy repeats whenever I catch them on and I'm a fan of True Blood as well.

To be honest, I didn't watch Blood Moon because the promo made it look like just a cheesy Halloween episode. I don't know if that's what it was, but the promo totally turned me off watching the episode. I loved Buffy and Angel when they were on, but most other vampire/werewolf stuff just turns me off. An exception was NY's "Sanguine Love." That handled vampirism in a interesting, intelligent way.

 

[ladyhunter]

I guess it's still very interesting to me that an episode that had a pretty intimate sex scene in it lost ratings. I'm going with the Vampire/Werewolf theory as well. I'm not a fan of Twilight but I did want to see how CSI did do another vampire story.

What I will say about the episode is it did seem pretty formulaic. Cath/Vartann worked the case along with Nick and Ray. Sara, Greg and Hodges were in the background. There have been several cases where Nick and Ray worked together. Perhaps the audience just got bored with the constant pairing of Nick and Ray.

Another thought was that CSI has been diving into more personal territory the past few years. Yea, an insight now and again is nice to see, but maybe people don't want to see Catherine making out with the detective???

These are all my thoughts of course.

 

[bill_az]

I don't see any crime dramas on Thursday night that would compete with CSILV. On the other hand, the number of crime shows, both documentary and scripted dramas, has increased threefold since the show first premiered. There is so much to choose from now, viewers will gravitate to the sub-genre that CSI may not fulfill completely.

True, Grissom's departure probably lost some viewers, but they probably also gained new viewers with an actor of Fishburne's abilities.

And you need to think that any show on for eleven years is going to ease off somewhat. Seinfeld (9 seasons) took a bit of a dive in the last season after Larry David left as a writer. The final season of the Sopranos (7 seasons) was mainly a wrapping-up of the previous six seasons.

Other shows of similar length: Law & Order SVU, M*A*S*H, Carol Burnett Show, Happy Days, The Jeffersons, 90210, etc. You get more than 15 years out, the shows are all news shows, sports series, and soap operas.

 

[SKYLAR522]

While I wouldn't call early CSI The Grissom Show, I do agree the focus on the various characters has been lopsided over the years. In the earliest seasons focus was on the 5 original CSIs and Brass. Then in season 3 when they started to move Greg to the field, brought in Hodges as the new comic relief and began to move up the presence of Doc, focus on Warrick and Nick fell except for a few focus episodes. In many episodes Nick or Warrick wouldn't appear at all or be in just one scene.

The team split in season 5 meant Grissom hardly was seen with Warrick, Nick and Catherine anymore. Season 7 and making GSR canon meant at least one scene per show had to be just Grissom and Sara. They were isolated from the rest of the characters except Greg, so of course when first Jorja and then Billy left, it created a huge void and the writers had little confidence in the remaining original stars to carry the show.

The lead writers thought they'd just drop in a lead movie actor in Billy's place, but the mistake there was setting Ray up as a novice CSI who somehow managed to take over the team. It's not Laurence Fishburne who rankles, it's the number of times he does all the thinking with the others standing around looking like idiots after all their years of experience.

Yes, it's an aged show and I'm sure the ratings would be down if all of the original 6 were still on the show and Grissom wasn't exclusively with Sara. However all of the above has served to drive different camps of fans away each season. From what I've seen more fans have left for SuperNatural than any other show. It's not a front runner but it must give these former CSI fans something they weren't getting from CSI.

Coincidentally, CSI doesn't even make the top 10 in Canada. A few years ago it was the #1 show here.

 

[myfuturecsi]

While I wouldn't call early CSI The Grissom Show, I do agree the focus on the various characters has been lopsided over the years. In the earliest seasons focus was on the 5 original CSIs and Brass. Then in season 3 when they started to move Greg to the field, brought in Hodges as the new comic relief and began to move up the presence of Doc, focus on Warrick and Nick fell except for a few focus episodes. In many episodes Nick or Warrick wouldn't appear at all or be in just one scene.

I think the lopsidedness of the show drew some fans away. I know several Nick fans who just got tired of seeing him shoved to the side and left. There was very little development of the character until it was too late.

Season 7 and making GSR canon meant at least one scene per show had to be just Grissom and Sara. They were isolated from the rest of the characters except Greg, so of course when first Jorja and then Billy left, it created a huge void and the writers had little confidence in the remaining original stars to carry the show.

Yep, that was very short-sighted of the writers, particularly David Rambo and Sarah Goldfinger...who were more interested in writing GSR because their fans sent them chocolates and awards and stuff like that. I know a lot of people who walked away after GSR became canon.

Coincidentally, CSI doesn't even make the top 10 in Canada. A few years ago it was the #1 show here.

I don't know what region you live in , but where I live the show comes on at 7:00 p.m., so I don't watch it then because my daughter is still up and it's not a show I let her watch (with the exception of of the ep Justin Bieber was in) so I watch it when it comes on 9:00 p.m. on CBS which we get up here.

 

[Speedystokesgirl]

Season 7 and making GSR canon meant at least one scene per show had to be just Grissom and Sara. They were isolated from the rest of the characters except Greg, so of course when first Jorja and then Billy left, it created a huge void and the writers had little confidence in the remaining original stars to carry the show.

Exactly, Grissom pretty much worked with Sara exclusively that season and that was a major turn off. Showing their relationship here and there (like the did with Catherine's) would have been fine, but it had to be in every damn episode.

It's not Laurence Fishburne who rankles, it's the number of times he does all the thinking with the others standing around looking like idiots after all their years of experience.

.

EXACTLY! That still pisses me off. Stop making him a know it all, when Catherine, Nick, Sara, and Greg know what the hell their doing. He doesn't have to solve every case they do. He even solves the cases he wasn't assigned to. Enough already.

Other have mentioned it too. Every show has not recovered from the writer's strike. Viewership has been down since then.