How is Lawrence Fishburne doing on CSI?
Four months after being introduced on CSI as the new lab head, has Ray Langston, Lawrence Fishburne’s character on CSI, receive the approval of the show’s loyal followers?
The New York Post takes a look at how he is doing after taking over in January…
LAURENCE Fishburne isn’t exactly wowing "CSI" loyalists.
After four months of giving Ray Langston (Fishburne) a chance to win them over, it seems that fans have decided that the cerebral professor is no Gil Grissom (William Petersen). Since quirky lab head Grissom’s farewell episode aired last January — pulling in an impressive 24.2 million viewers — people have slowly drifted away from "CSI," the ratings indicate.
"When a lead actor of [Petersen's] magnitude leaves a series after eight and a half years, it’s hard to replace him and keep the audience completely satisfied," says Marc Berman, an industry analyst for Mediaweek. "Initially, fans were curious, they wanted to check [Fishburne] out. But I don’t think the audience thinks that his character is working." In recent weeks, an average of about 15.3 million people have been tuning into "CSI," about a 17 percent drop since Grissom left the series. "CSI" has been a top five series — and TV’s No. 1 drama — since its second season in 2001.
But, the recent ratings dip has begun to push it down the charts. These days, the show that glamorized forensics is more like the No. 3 or 4 drama — falling behind younger shows like "The Mentalist" and "NCIS." It is not like "CSI" is in jeopardy of being cancelled any time soon. It remains a hugely popular show. Across the board, the ratings for TV are down. Even "American Idol" is reporting smaller viewer numbers as people turn to cable and internet. But the downward trend for "CSI" cannot be explained solely by people abandoning prime time.
To be fair, "CSI’s" ratings slide may not be all Fishburne’s fault. "It wasn’t like he walked in and suddenly everything collapsed," Berman says. "Ratings were already dropping. A lot of the success of these shows has to do with the writing, and I’m hearing complaints that the stories are starting to lag. "Look, they’ve done over 200 episodes: How many murders can there be? After a while, you’ve seen it all, baby. It doesn’t seem as fresh and unique anymore," Berman says.
Plus, there’s the seasonal effect on broadcast TV. "There’s always some decrease in March and May, particularly in the one-hour drama category," says Robert Seidman, editor at ratings blog TVbythenumbers.com. Still, "it’s a reasonable guess to say that people just aren’t as into Laurence Fishburne or ‘CSI’ after Peterson left," Seidman says.
"But who knows, maybe they’ll have an episode that catches fire and the show takes off again — when you see things like what happened with ‘NCIS,’ which is having a ratings renaissance this season, it throws a wrench into the idea that the downward trend is never reversed. "Could ‘CSI’ have a renaissance and start creeping back up? That’s possible, but what it would take for that to happen, I don’t know."
