What Caused The 'CSI' Ratings To Fall?

Desertgoblin said:
I'm sure she was popular but not seeng her hasn't changed my opinion of the show. And I think that the chose of LF was one of the best decisions ever made on CSI. I've got some friends, who now watch the show because of him. He's very popular. The only insults I see about him are on here. He's awesome and has brought the show to a higher level of class , style and elegance. A master of all he surveys. To each one's own on who they like or who they don't but if he left then I probably wouldn't watch the show anymore:(
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Your personal viewing habits and your personal opinion of LF doesn't negate the fact that LV leaving and LF joining the cast could have had an impact on the ratings. LF obviously didn't improve the ratings, so it wouldn't surprise me if WP leaving and LF joining would be two factors that figure into the ratings declining. Are they the only reasons? No, but to ignore them as possible factors seems ridiculous to me.
 
Something else to consider..

The writers on CSI have never really tuned into what the audience wanted, nor did they care.

About half the audience, or more than half didn't want GSR and yet they pushed it on a lot of people. That caused quite a ratings drop.

A lot of the audience LOVED the lab rats..but they got rid of them. Again..the writers don't care about what we want.

Nick fans wanted some kind of repercussions after Grave Danger, but the writers chose to ignore it.

If you tick off enough people..eventually they move on..
 
SweeneyTodd said:
Something else to consider..

The writers on CSI have never really tuned into what the audience wanted, nor did they care.

About half the audience, or more than half didn't want GSR and yet they pushed it on a lot of people. That caused quite a ratings drop.

A lot of the audience LOVED the lab rats..but they got rid of them. Again..the writers don't care about what we want.

Nick fans wanted some kind of repercussions after Grave Danger, but the writers chose to ignore it.

If you tick off enough people..eventually they move on..
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Which fans are they supposed to listen to exactly? You can't base what "the fans" like or dislike for a show that has millions of viewers based soley on posts on a message board. The people who are active on the internet are only a very small portion of the audience. Half of the people on this board may have not liked GSR, for example, although I don't think you can accurately make that statement either; but that doesn't equate to half of the entire audience disliking them. I believe there are multiple reasons the ratings are declining, but I don't think you can wrap them up into a neat little package and make a statement that TPTB makes all the wrong decisions and pisses off the fans.
 
SweeneyTodd said:
Something else to consider..

The writers on CSI have never really tuned into what the audience wanted, nor did they care.

About half the audience, or more than half didn't want GSR and yet they pushed it on a lot of people. That caused quite a ratings drop.

A lot of the audience LOVED the lab rats..but they got rid of them. Again..the writers don't care about what we want.

Nick fans wanted some kind of repercussions after Grave Danger, but the writers chose to ignore it.

If you tick off enough people..eventually they move on..
Click to expand...


REALLY VALID AND GOOD POINT, SweeneyTodd that totally makes sense and clarifys it well. My daughters boyfriend is watching all the new shows and is sick of CSI, And last year he was the biggest CSI fan I'd ever talked too. I'll start asking people in my job and see what they say. I do know that some neighbors are watching "The Event", but it's not even on the same night. I think they do have scouts/spys so to speak, spying on what the fans want, and you'd think they'd be listening to what the fans do want, or don't. I did see this. Off topic but Martha Stewart's fan base went so low 200,000 per show that they switched her over to the Hallmark channel. At least CSI is still bringing in 14.8 million a week. That's still pretty high:bolian:
 
Honestly ,I think the show is not doing bad considering this is the 11 th season.Most TV shows do not even go that far.But if I have to choose something would be the age of the show and Grissom leaving.And it will get worse after Marg leaves.:(
 
SweeneyTodd said:
Something else to consider..

The writers on CSI have never really tuned into what the audience wanted, nor did they care.

About half the audience, or more than half didn't want GSR and yet they pushed it on a lot of people. That caused quite a ratings drop.

A lot of the audience LOVED the lab rats..but they got rid of them. Again..the writers don't care about what we want.

Nick fans wanted some kind of repercussions after Grave Danger, but the writers chose to ignore it.

If you tick off enough people..eventually they move on..
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Do you really think ANY show can please ALL the fans ALL the time?

It's funny to me that people still question why, when it's so obviously the cast changes. We have been discussing this now for 2 years, since season 8, when coincidentally the cast changes began, and when the ratings first started to dip. And it was the same excuses: dvr, internet, blah, blah, blah.
When I look at the success of NCIS now, I see CSI 3 years ago. It's the same formula: Gibbs=Grissom, Tony=Nick, Ziva=Sara, McGee=Greg, Abby=Hodges. (Sorry, no Catherine equivalent that I know of). NCIS is as strong as ever, regardless of the competition and the other viewing choices. But, the main cast hasn't changed. It's a formula that worked for CSI, and a formula that is copied by and works for NCIS. Does anyone here that watches NCIS think that the show would be as popular without Gibbs? The other characters may be popular, but he is the one that makes it work for the other characters and makes them better, just like Grissom did. Very similar cast chemisty, IMO.
 
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I have to agree on age and WP leaving. He really was the face of Vegas. And like electra said, when Marg leaves it'll be even worse. CSI NY really lucked out with Sela Ward but it also helps that Gary is still there. In Vegas we'll have both original leads gone and I think it'll be pretty tough to recover from.
 
You can't blame the ratings decline on one particular reason. Period. NCIS hasn't had any cast changes, no. But it also hasn't been on the air as long as CSI, so making the comparison isn't entirely fair. I don't see the cast dynamic as at all similar to CSI so despite them both being crime solving shows I don't really get saying they are essentially the same.
 
I asked my sister if she still watched CSI the other day (she's the one that first tried to get me interested in it), and she said "it's hard to stay up that late, and it's just not the same without Grissom." With DVR and time-shifted cable, it's easy enough to get around the time thing - but I guess combined with the loss of an iconic character like Grissom, it's just not worth the trouble of sitting down to watch it.

CSI has gained new viewers too though (like me :)). Being able to catch up on 10 seasons with DVDs helps that a lot.

I can almost see the parallel with NCIS, but at the same time, I think NCIS (and most of the other shows I watch) has a lighter feel in the character interactions (I can't see Grissom slapping Nick on the back of the head, bringing Hodges his favorite drink every day, or arguing with Sara over who's driving to the scene).

NCIS did lose a lead character after 2 years - but they replaced her with (in my opinion), an even better character. Ziva has a great, complex background - but she's also similar enough to Kate, and came in to a similar position in the team.
 
GreatPumpkin said:
You can't blame the ratings decline on one particular reason. Period. NCIS hasn't had any cast changes, no. But it also hasn't been on the air as long as CSI, so making the comparison isn't entirely fair. I don't see the cast dynamic as at all similar to CSI so despite them both being crime solving shows I don't really get saying they are essentially the same.
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I meant it to the point that it's all about cast chemistry. Yes, the team dynamic, and the tone of the show itself, is different; but, the cast chemistry makes it work. If you were to remove the lead (Harmon) from that cast, I think you would see the same ratings trend as you see now with CSI.

ETA: I'll admit that I'm not a regular viewer of NCIS, so I'm not invested in any particular character. But when I do watch, I see Gibbs as the main character that the others play off of. I just can't see the show in it's present form working without him.
 
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CSI had started as 'The Gil Grissom Show', let's face it. Everything was about Griss, everything was put through Griss, every case, every conversation, every episode revolved around him. Then, when it was announced that William Petersen was leaving, they seemed to devote even MORE screen time and conversation to him, and it backfired on them when he left, because they lost everything they had made CSI about. They've gotten rid of him, Gary Dourdan, Jorja Fox, and now Liz Vassey, and we've experienced a lot of loss in this show. Sure, they brought back Jorja, but that's just because they thought that would appease us.

This show is too old. They're running out of good storylines. Beiber? We ALL know Blood Moon was for the Twilight crowd. Hoarding episode coming up. An episode based off of a book written by Anthony Zuiker? They're running out of ideas, and it's obvious. They're affecting the other two, too.

Sure, I love CSI just as much as anyone else, but as much as I resent saying it, maybe CSI should just be put to rest. WE can all work with the old episodes, the good old times, the good episodes.

Season 1 was a great season, being a first season one in 2000. CSI j=got better form there. Up and up and up...until about Season 8. Then it started on a BIG decline.

It's only time 'till it hits rock bottom.

I'd say it's pretty close.
 
I disagree about it being the Grissom show. Sure, he got loads of storylines, but not much more than anyone else. Naturally all conversation would go through him, seeing as how he was the boss.

Back in the earlier seasons CSI was quite obviously an ensemble cast. Nowadays, not so much. If an ep isn't focused on Nick and Ray then it's on Catherine, Greg's lucky if he gets more than a few minutes, Sara, Brass and Hodges are sort of stuck in the middle, the supporting cast has all but disappeared...possibly the only positive improvement I can see is that Doc and David are getting more development. Losing four cast members (one of which came back again) is going to hit any show hard, but IMO it's lost the 'team' vibe that was so prevalent in earlier seasons. I think that's one of the main reasons why some people have lost interest.
 
What I love about S/11 [and still rockin'] is the fresh new stories, brand new exciting ideas. The first one "Shock Waves" incredible the 2nd one "Pool Shark" so different, again fresh new ideas and the last one "Blood Moon" amazing so exciting, interesting and intriguing but some funny moments as well. TPTB having all the cast work so hand-in-hand on all these cases is electrifying. I love this season.. so far..so fantastic
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Season 11 is good so far though I liked season 10's first few episodes better. But we'll see, we still have about 18 episodes.

As for the ratings decline, I think any reason you can think of has contribution - from cast changes, writing, time slot, competition, age, uneven screentime, to burn-out. Good thing is I don't have any of these reasons yet to leave CSI. I still freaking enjoy the show! :D
 
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.
 
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