CSI Dropping Off Their Chief Character

Evidently it’s all gotten to be a bit much for Crime Scene Investigator Gil Grissom. Or, it will.

Addressing it an de facto signoff instead of yet another sabbatical, EW.com reports that William Petersen will be exiting CSI sometime midseason.

“Billy is leaving,” series administrator producer Carol Mendelsohn stated. “But he will remain throughout the run of the series an executive producer. And he will, whenever CBS asks, come back. I don’t think you’ve seen the last of Gil Grissom.”

“My biggest problem with leaving the show at any point isn’t leaving Grissom,” said Petersen, whose preceding leave came up when he took five weeks off-duty to do theater in Rhode Island. “I’m an actor, it’s time to do other things. “[The hard part will be saying goodbye] to the cast and crew. [So] I’m going to stay as involved as I’m allowed to be throughout the remainder of this show. Until they turn off all the lights.”

Petersen’s departure will mark the ripest blow to the procedural’s primary principal lineup, which lost Jorja Fox and Gary Dourdan last season—although both will be making appearances in coming installments (one later than the other).
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