HOLLYWOOD -- Did David Caruso really have Kim Delaney fired from CSI: Miami?

"I mean, just the concept that I would be considered or consulted with a decision of that magnitude was kind of amazing to me," Caruso told critics Tuesday from the set of his series. "I think we all want to believe that somehow we're important to a show, but I can assure you I'm not being consulted on anything important."

The red-haired actor can't seem to shake his troublemaker rep. Ten years ago, he quit NYPD Blue for a film career that never materialized. Now he seems to be blamed by some fans and scribes for the sudden departure of Delaney, a last-minute addition to the series.

Executive producer Jonathan Littman insisted that Delaney's departure was simply a matter of "a character that didn't work out as well as we had hoped and was probably more hastily put together than is your desire for a television show."

Even stars from the original CSI were drawn into the muck. A day earlier at the CSI session, Marg Helgenberger was asked to comment on Delaney's departure. "With all due respect to Kim -- she's an acquaintance of mine -- all I can really say is it's not for everybody. Not every actor can pull it off. And that goes across the board for all the shows that are on right now that have to do with procedural kinds of things."

The casting controversy hasn't seemed to hurt the series. CSI: Miami is the top-rated new series this season and ranks eighth overall.

The No. 1 show, of course, is CSI. William Petersen seems to be over his initial concerns that the new show might cannibalize the old one. "There's a lot of room for a lot of stuff on TV," he said, "and obviously this is doing really well."

So he can live with CSI: Miami. "It's always nice to be the only guys on the block. There's just a lot more guys on the block now."

Critics spoke with Caruso and co-stars Emily Procter, Adam Rodriguez, Khandi Alexander and Rory Cochrane on the set of CSI: Miami. Both shows feature impressive sets loaded with state-of-the-art forensic lab equipment. "Most crime labs simply don't have the resources to pursue and analyze evidence like we do," said Helgenberger. "They simply can't afford it." Added Petersen, "we have way more equipment and more resources ... at our studio than 75% of the crime labs in the U.S.

Technical consultant and co-producer Elizabeth Devine, a 15-year veteran of the L.A. Sheriff's DNA Unit and Crime Scene Unit, walked critics through the DNA and Trace Labs and other fully realized rooms in the squeaky-clean CSI: Miami set.

Dazzling new iMacs and hi-tech microscopes, stainless steel autopsy tables and other cool forensic goodies were neatly placed throughout. Most of it is product placed, and provided for free just to get exposure on the hit shows. "The effort is made to get everything that is state of the art and current," says no-nonsense Devine, who admits that this gig pays way better than her old one.

Devine earns every cent. It drives her nuts when crime shows resort to cliches like chalk outlines. Nobody chalks bodies," she says. "I mean, I don't know who started that."

Those crowded murder scenes with dozens of cops are also to laugh, she says. "It's a very lonely place. I'm in there alone with a dead guy," she says.

Finally, don't use the term slugs to describe spent bullets. It's projectiles and cartridge casings. "Slugs are something that are in the garden and gray," she says.