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The gritty forensic crime drama, which stars Gary Sinise (on our cover) and Melina Kanakaredes as a pair of relentless Manhattan investigators, premiered Sept. 22 to nearly 20 million U.S. viewers.
Another 3 million tuned in to the show in Canada to rank it among the Top 5 shows of the week in both countries, behind only the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami in the U.S. as well as ER and Without a Trace.
The big numbers explain why networks like CBS and NBC are so keen to extend their CSI and Law & Order franchises (or "brands" as Law & Order boss Dick Wolf insists. He says CSI is franchised the same way McDonalds is in different cities. Law & Order is more of a brand because each show is different.)
In a sea of noisy reality fare, new scripted shows are getting harder and harder to launch. Extending a show that is already a hit brings a built-in audience to the new product.
It's why NBC wanted Joey after Friends and also why a fourth Law & Order series will be introduced later this season.
It is also why CSI creator and now CSI: NY showrunner Anthony Zuiker was summoned to lunch a year or so ago by CBS/Viacom co-chairman Les Moonves. He wanted to assemble the CSI brain trust to come up with the next logical spinoff. "Much like the second show, the chairman looked over at me and said, 'We all know why we're here, Anthony.' And I said, 'CSI: NY, sir,' " Zuiker told critics last July in Los Angeles.
Moonves apparently was the one who brought Sinise into the loop. The soft-spoken actor, still best known for his Oscar-nominated performance as a legless war vet in Forrest Gump, was pitched the show and asked to meet with Zuiker. The two hit it off.
"I hadn't been necessarily looking for a series role or anything," he told critics last July, "but when Les Moonves contacted me about it and I sat down with Anthony, it all started to make good sense."
Ironically, Sinise is also pals with CSI star William Petersen. The two go back 20 years to their days in Chicago theatre.
Sinise says he didn't get a chance to speak with Petersen about taking the role but the two did meet briefly backstage in New York at CBS' upfront last May.
"He wished me luck with the show and that was about it," said Sinise.
Also cinching the deal was the decision to shoot the series in Los Angeles. That's close to home and family (including three children) for the 49-year-old actor.
The cast will fly back and forth to New York for some location shots, he says.
The new show has a lot in common with the original, says Sinise. "It's a different city, a different cast, a different look," he told the Sun recently, but it's still CSI.
"They built a very strong blueprint for what we're doing."
Zuiker says CSI: NY will be more character-driven than the other two shows.
"I mean, we are a forensics procedural drama first and foremost," he says.
"What we're having is more character moments and getting to know the people a lot better."
That works for Sinise as well as co-star Kanakaredes, who headlined her last series, Providence.
"I'm a firm believer that you're only as good as the people that you're surrounded by," she says.
Thrilled to be teamed with Sinise (as well as Carmine Giovinazzo, Vanessa Ferlito, Hill Harper and Eddie Cahill), Kanakaredes feels CSI: NY will have no trouble balancing police work with character moments.
"We're going to learn about who these people are," she says.
Her character and Sinise's "Mac" have been teamed for eight years, for example. They have an "unspoken connection where they know when somebody's off-kilter."
Kanakaredes says she prepared for the role by getting to know some real forensic investigators in New York.
An anthropologist she met at the medical examiner's office even had "a head of hair that's bigger than mine," she says.
She also met a Dr. Hirsh who ran the office. "And he said something amazing to me that I'll never forget about forensic pathology," she told reporters. "He said, 'In any crime scene with any death, any murder, there is one unbiased witness, and that's the decedent. And we, as forensic pathologists, have the privilege to interview that witness.' "
"These guys are heroes," she added, "and it's beautiful."