"CSI" Shockers! CBS' Nina Tassler Reveals Details at TCA -- Ed Martin Live from TCA

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Cover image for  article: "CSI" Shockers! CBS' Nina Tassler Reveals Details at TCA -- Ed Martin Live from TCA

CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler had a lot to say about the many new series coming to her network in the fall, but the top topic during her press conference at the Summer 2008 Television Critics Association tour was the returning drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, still the network's No. 1 show.

Critics have been buzzing about CSI ever since the news last week that star William Peterson, who is also one of its executive producers, would be leaving this fall after the first 10 episodes of the series' 10th season.

"It is certainly not the last time we'll see him," Tassler told TCA members. Then she revealed details about what she calls "the DVR-proof season of CSI" to come. Executive producers Carol Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar, she assured critics, "are at the top of their game" and have "an unbelievable season planned."

Those plans include the resolution of last year's cliffhanger (the violent murder of Warrick Brown), the return of Jorja Fox as Sara Sidle for the first three episodes, and the addition of two new characters, one a CSI played by Lauren Lee Smith, the other a doctor who does not join the storyline as a CSI but will indeed become the leader of the unit when Peterson's Gil Grissom makes his exit later in the fall.

In a fascinating bit of back-story, this new character will have a genetic profile that commonly occurs in serial killers, Tassler teased. He knows this about himself but has not shared this information with anyone, she added. Nor has he ever presented any of the early behaviors of serial killers, such as killing animals or setting fires. As he learns about being a CSI he'll also try to learn as much as he can about himself.

"The new character's issues will 'inform' his attitude and his behavior," Tassler said, but they "may not necessarily inform the text" of the show.

The renewed interest in CSI that swept the TCA was just one development in a day that went very well for Tassler in particular and for CBS overall. For example, the network was applauded at the start of the day for having delivered several pilots to the press well in advance of the tour. TCA members burst into applause when reminded of this at the start of CBS' presentation. You could feel the love in the room. We critics rarely betray such boisterous expressions of affection, but we're feeling rather pilot-deprived these days. That's because with the exception of Fox (which screened an early cut of J.J. Abrams' Fringe on close-circuit here at the Hilton and sent out the new sitcom Do Not Disturb just before the start of the tour) the other broadcasters (ABC, NBC and The CW) have yet to provide finished pilots of their new series to the press.

It is kind of odd that one network would be so far out ahead of all the others in this regard. And it is still in the lead: Tassler told me Friday night that CBS has already completed another round of agency meetings for 2009 program development.

Pilot-starved critics were so pleased with CBS they even gave the network a pass for deciding not to have a press conference about the new Jay Mohr comedy Gary Unmarried (the pilot for which was one of the batch CBS sent to critics last month). Tassler explained that Mohr is busy this week re-taking his wedding vows "on the other side of the world someplace." (Mohr, she added, had made this plan long ago and had flown many family members there, wherever there is, to participate.) There was no word on why the producers of Gary and Mohr's co-stars weren't able to attend TCA and sell their stuff.

The whole absence-of-pilots thing really hit home on Saturday during sessions for The CW's 90210 and Privileged, two series about wealthy young people. Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah, the executive producers of 90210, aggravated many reporters in the room when they refused to provide detailed answers to questions about storylines in the pilot, which has completed filming but could not be clipped in time for TCA. (Guys, if this were a year like any other year, everyone at TCA would have already seen the pilot before your session. Producers never want to reveal information about upcoming episodes and storylines but they always go into deep detail about pilots. That's how it's done.)

Critics seem to be very interested in three of CBS' new series: The comedy Worst Week, which is based on a short-run British series about a man who can't do anything right when he gets near his pregnant fiancé's family; the procedural crime drama The Mentalist, about a crime-unit consultant with extreme skills of observation, and the quirky comedy-drama The Ex-List, about a single thirty-something woman who learns from a psychic that one of the many men whom she has dated in her life will become her husband and the two will live happily ever after, if she can find him within the next year. If she doesn't find him during that time she'll be alone forever. No pressure.

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