‘CSI’ Movie Confirmed: Will End Successful 15-Season Series Run

A CSI movie has been confirmed by CBS and it will end its successful multi-billion dollar 15-season series run.

This confirms the rumors that the long running show would end with a made for TV movie, after the announcement that the series is finally coming to an end, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“CBS on Wednesday confirmed that the flagship series in its billion-dollar franchise will conclude its run after 15 seasons with a two-hour TV movie. William Petersen, the drama’s original leading man, will return and reprise his nine-season, Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated role as Gil Grissom along with Marg Helgenberger. The movie will air September 27.”

The report indicates that a CSI movie was one of the options the studio had floating around in the lead-up to the series finale. When the network changed the episodes’ airing from Wednesday to Sunday, ratings suffered, after being the most-watched drama series in the world five times.

In January, CSI creator, Anthony Zuiker told THR the successful show should go on for as long as it wants to.

“I would not be satisfied [if season 15 was the end]. I think CSI should go as long as it wants to go. I feel like we have such amazing talent with [stars] Ted Danson and Elisabeth Shue that it hopefully goes for a long, long time.”

“When I first started this, it was my first television script, the goal was to get to 13 [episodes] and then get the back nine. You sit here 15 years later at almost a thousand episodes and you say to yourself, ‘We’re playing with the house’s money at this point. We’re very grateful and blessed to go this far. We do the best we can and we hope that the powers that be say, ‘Hey, come on back.'”

While fans are disappointed that the show is coming to an end after all these years, the CSI movie should be some consolation as it promises to be explosive with the return of original cast members. However, there were tale tell signs that the show would conclude sometime soon such as cutting episodes from 22 to 18 per season and the departure of long standing cast members.

The CSI movie will be a fitting end to one of the best drama series in television history and a testament to the writers who kept bringing viewers back week after week for 15-years, which is something not many TV shows can say. Stay tuned to the Inquisitr for more news on this exciting movie.

[Image via CBS]