Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Ratings Rampage

A new episode of CSI: Miami failed to win its timeslot, but Taylor Swift's appearance on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation beat the competition.

On Monday, CSI: Miami came in second behind the first part of The Bachelor: After the Final Rose, which pulled in 17.47 million viewers and a 6.7 rating/16 share in the prized 18-49 demographic. Miami had 13.31 million viewers and 3.8/9. Medium came in third with 7.28 million viewers and 2.5/6 in the key demo.

CSI: New York aired a repeat on Wednesday, but it earned the top spot with 11.39 million viewers and 2.7/8 in the 18-49 demo. A repeat of Law and Order shared second-place honors with Life on Mars. Law had higher viewers with 5.78 million to Mars' 5.65 million. In the 18-49 demographic, Mars pulled in 2.1/6, which was enough to beat Law's 1.6/5.

Swift's episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation earned 20.80 million viewers on Thursday, taking the top spot at 9:00pm. Hell's Kitchen was second with an approximate 10.64 million viewers (the numbers are approximate because American Idol ran over a few minutes).

NBC had the third place in overall viewers with its combination of The Office (8.63 million) and 30 Rock (7.35 million). A repeat of Grey's Anatomy came in fourth with 5.68 million viewers, and a repeat of Supernatural rounded out the hour with 1.93 million.

In the 18-49 demo, CSI dominated with 5.3/13, followed by Kitchen (4.6/12), the combo of Office (4.5/11) and Rock (3.8/9), Grey's (1.6/4) and Supernatural (0.7/2).

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Fishburne to Join CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in the Show's 9th Season

Laurence Fishburne, most notable in his role of Morpheus in The Matrix, will be joining the show as a new character to the series. He will be playing the role of Dr. Raymond Langston.

Langston will be portrayed as " a guy who is brilliant to the world" and the show will dwell on his past as a research pathologist and a professor of criminology. Of note, he will be a character permanently and will be portrayed as a rookie to the show.


Fishburn had the following to say about the role and how it is different from movies in not knowing where the character will go:


"The fact that I don't know where Langston is headed isn't a problem. Sometimes I feel I have a handle on him, sometimes I feel like I don't know what the (heck) I'm doing. But that's like life, isn't it? If I start looking for the last page, I'll make myself craaazy!" (http://www.csifiles.com/)


CSI is once again pulling out more stops in order to add new flair and diversity to the show. With the loss of William Petersen in the early going of the season, they have added a completely different chacacter instead of replacing Gil Grissom. The addition of Fishburne as Dr. Raymond Langston will be a chance for renewed interest and continued success for the already popular show. In a way, this is a huge appointment as Laurence Fishburne is a much bigger star than people on the cast now. He may add that next dimension or a new era for the show. Will it be successful and should we expect more turnover and additions? I don't think so. If there any Matrix fans, this will give them a great opportunity to see Fishburne in what I'm sure will be an award-style role.



Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Zuiker Takes CSI-Esque Style Theme to the Bookshelves

Last summer, CSI Files reported that CSI franchise creator Anthony Zuiker was going to produce crime novels with a twist. These "digi-novels" combine traditional reading with multimedia elements. Every five chapters, readers will be given a code to access online content. It has been announced that Zuiker is partnering with the social entertainment company EQAL to create http://www.darkchronicles.com/.


Dark Chronicles, the first of Zuiker's digi-novels, will be published September 8, 2009. The book will consist of 100 chapters, prompting readers to view a total of 20 online "cyber bridges". The cyber bridges include videos, audio files and pictures that can be viewed once a reader registers and enters the code provided. All of the cyber bridges were written, produced and directed by Zuiker. EQAL will run http://www.darkchronicles.com/ and update the site daily with novel information, behind-the-scenes footage and bonus material for Dark Chronicles. The social network on the site will allow fans to interact with one another.


"We're very excited about our partnership with Anthony," EQAL CEO and co-founder Miles Beckett said in a press release. "A Web site dedicated to Dark Chronicles is a great way to further engage readers by offering additional content and an interactive experience. EQAL is thrilled to be working with Anthony to expand his fan base online." Zuiker said, "EQAL is the ideal partner for the debut of the 'digi-novel'. Our collective passion to tell stories on multiple platforms will honor the authenticity of community while at the same time appeal to the commercial masses."


The original press release is from PR Newswire. The website http://www.darkchronicles.com/ will launch in July, and the cyber bridges will go live September 8, when Dark Chronicles is released.





My Thoughts....



One would suggest that the CSI franchise advertising, marketing, and financial teams have been brainstorming together. The already popular series, especially its flagship of the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, seems to think that it needs just a little more, which is never a bad thing. As we saw, for sweeps, the emergence of news that P. Diddy would make an appearance on CSI: Miami, Katharine McPhee on CSI: NY, and even though sweep shas passed, Taylor Swift will live out what she is calling a "dream come true" as she makes her debut appearance on CSI this week. The show obviously knows how to attract viewership as numbers have gone even higher due to these announcements and I'm sure CSI will jump spots tonight because o fthe popularity of country rock star Taylor Swift. Now, we see Anthony Zuiker coming out with The Dark Chronicles series on-line which was spawned from a CSI type of idea. All I can say is kudos to this very active production team, show staff, and marketers. Oh, did I mention, you can't go 15 minutes on CBS or A&E without seeing a commerical for a CSI show. Talk about a long grip on your market and station, eh!?!?

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Taylor Swift Living Out Dream; To Appear on CSI this Week

Some dreams never die--and some dreams do.

As CSI Files previously reported, this week's episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation will include a guest appearance by Taylor Swift. "My dream is to die on CSI," the young singer said recently in an interview with Katie Couric from CBS. In "Turn, Turn, Turn", Swift's dream becomes reality.

"I've always wanted to be one of the characters on there, that they're trying to figure out what happened to," she explained.

In her first primetime acting gig, Swift plays Haley Jones, a young girl whose parents own a seedy motel. Nick Stokes (George Eads) investigated several cases there over the course of the year leading up to Haley's death.

"It's his storyline," Swift said, "basically, he's the one investigating my murder."

The episode starts on Nick's birthday, according to Ausiello, and flashes back to the previous cases.

"I'm obsessed with crime shows. I love them so much. CSI Las Vegas is my favorite," Swift shared. "It kind of pairs up all of the things that I'm obsessed with other than music. I love video editing, so when I see really cool editing and really cool effects, I admire it, and I go back and watch it again."

She then added, "But I also love the whole crime scene aspect of it, of figuring things out and analyzing."

Parts of Swift's interview with Couric can be seen below, along with clips from "Turn, Turn, Turn". Other information is courtesy of Ausiello.

For a look at an interview with Taylor Swift, visit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1J226jHAXU


Great Rating All Around

The CSI family of showsn earned the top spot in overall viewers this past week.

A repeat of CSI: Miami came in first place in overall viewers with 10.06 million, edging out Medium (8.43 million) and the season finale of True Beauty (7.43 million). In the 18-49 demographic prized by advertisers, True Beauty came out on top with a 3.2 rating/9 share, followed by Medium (2.6/7) and CSI: Miami (2.3/6).

CSI: New York won it's timeslot on Wednesday with 12.56 million overall viewers and 3.1/8 in the key demo. A repeat of Law and Order (5.77 million, 1.7/5) and Life on Mars (4.88 million, 1.7/5) rounded out the hour.

On Thursday, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation won the hour with 17.72 million viewers and 4.3/11 in the 18-49 demographic. Hell's Kitchen came in second with 9.85 million and 4.3/11. A repeat of Grey's Anatomy (6.80 million, 2.2/6) beat out NBC's repeat of The Office (5.29 million, 2.4/6) combined with a new episode of 30 Rock (6.36 million, 2.9/7) in overall viewers, but not in the key demo. A Supernatural repeat came in fifth with 1.94 million viewers and 0.8/2 in the 18-49 demo.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Katharine McPhee Books a Guest Spot on CSI:NY

According to TV Guide,

"American Idol runner-up-turned-actress Katharine McPhee won't have to stretch too much in her TV acting debut: She'll play... wait for it... a singer.

McPhee, who co-starred in the Anna Faris comedy The House Bunny, has been tapped for a visit to the recently guest star-happy CSI: NY, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Her first appearance on a scripted series came in 2007, when the singer appeared as herself on ABC's Ugly Betty. She also recently signed on for the romantic comedy Wedlocked opposite Brothers & Sisters star Dave Annable.

Do you think McPhee will hit the right notes on the CBS cop drama?"

Thanks to TV Guide for keeping us posted to another stunting attempt by the CSI family to help its shows. Besides this news, P. Diddy will make a guest appearance on CSI: Miami later in the season.

RATINGS BACK UP FOR CSI; down for Miami

Vieweres must have simply been confused the week of Feb. 2nd. CSI returned fo rthe wek of Feb. 9 to the No. 5 spot for the week in its Broadcast TV Ratings. It finished in a sound No. 5 ahead of its 9:00pm Thursday, ABC counterpart Greys Anatomy and just behind the very popular NCIS. Of note, CSI:Miami took a slight tumble that week, maybe because people found out that P. Diddy wasn't on that night, who knows. But no worry, CBS, your beloved CSI returned.

An interesting tidbit I picked up on is whether or not CSI will be back for a tenth season. When I went to the main CSI homepage, and viewed the characters, they all had their dates of being in the show end with the number 2009.

This is big because as of two weeks ago, everyone was listed as 200?-Present. Is this the end of making shows and on to syndication or repeats? Or is this just CBS uncertainty of the shows future. Who knows, but I hope it is just because they are leading us on!