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THE award-winning crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which returns this week with a movie-length premiere, has developed a huge following with millions of viewers around the world tuning in to follow the investigators whose job it is to determine what happened at the scene of each of the horrific crimes.

Last year, creator Anthony Zuiker introduced the spin-off series CSI: Miami, which also became hugely popular. It was recently announced that Zuiker and executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer have decided to go ahead with a second spin-off series, CSI: New York. There is no word on who its stars will be, but there are rumours circulating that the new show will introduce a twist to the forensic format.

The popularity of CSI has surprised even its cast, which includes William Petersen and Emmy Award winner Marg Helgenberger.

Petersen had 20 years of acting experience and had featured in many well-known movies, including the critically acclaimed To Live and Die in LA, before beginning work on CSI, but had never had any problems being recognised on the street. All that has changed thanks to his lead role in CSI. “That’s the way I liked it,” he says. “I’ve never been in the business for the recognition or the awards. I just want to do good work, grab a decent pay cheque and move on to the next job.

“Now, because of this show, I’m screwed. Now, I’m seen by more people in one episode than I was in 20 years of theatre and movies. It’s gratifying to have an impact on 25 million people a night, but I can say goodbye to my lunch-pail life as a working actor. I’m scared I might be a celebrity.”

Petersen says he was caught up in the idea of a show that moved away from the traditional police show from the moment he read the first script, so much so that he signed on not only as the lead actor, but also as an executive producer.

“There has never been a show that has followed the criminalist,” he says. “Most shows follow the cops who are chasing after the lies. But the criminalists work from a different angle, using irrefutable evidence to pinpoint the truth. I would never have done this show if it had just been another cop pushing bad guys up against the wall show.”

Instead, Petersen has become a celebrity by being the cop who chases murderers by gleefully plowing through piles of rotting excrement, decomposing body parts and nasty pools of human fluids.

“There are scientists and nerds,” he says of the show’s Forensic Investigation Unit. “But with dna and other scientific investigation techniques, they’re like Sherlock Holmes for the new millennium.”

In the movie-length premiere of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, when a spate of murders involving couples is discovered, the team suspects a pair of serial killers are on the loose. The case is complicated by leaks to the press and a judge reluctant to issue a warrant. Meanwhile, Catherine (Helgenberger) gets some troubling news about her father’s murder trial, and she and Sara (Jorja Fox) investigate the death of a college football fan. *

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Copyright © 2004 Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved.