CBS Ends "CSI" Franchise: "CSI: Cyber" Canceled after 2 Seasons
by Nellie Andreeva
5/12/16


This is the end of a billion-dollar franchise. CBS has canceled "CSI: Cyber", the last spinoff from the forensic procedural drama that took television by storm 16 years ago.

"CSI: Cyber" ran for two abbreviated seasons. The series, starring then-newly minted Oscar winner Patricia Arquette, launched in midseason 2015 in the Wednesday time slot where the mothership series had spent three seasons before relocating to Sunday for its final run.

After so-so ratings, "Cyber" got a second-season renewal with "CSI" leading man Ted Danson joining for a season-long arc.





The show struggled on Sunday, where it was often bumped into late-night primetime by football. The network gave it a couple of airings on Wednesday this midseason, where the show did marginally better, to get more feedback before making a renewal decision.

Overall, "CSI: Cyber" was consistent in the ratings, starting its second season with 6.79 million viewers and a 1.0 demo rating in Live+Same Day and ending with 6.32 million a 1.0 rating. By CBS network standards, that is pretty low.

Still, by corporate standards, the show, produced by CBS TV Studios, was a profitable asset which makes a lot of money internationally as an offshoot from the "CSI" franchise, thus making a business case for renewal. That was not enough to save the series, with the network ultimately passing on a third season.





"CSI: Cyber" was the fourth "CSI" series and the first to tackle different area than forensics, focusing on cyber crime.

The mothership series ran for 15 seasons, "CSI: Miami" for 10, and "CSI: NY" for 9.

http://deadline.com/2016/05/csi-cyber-canceled-2-seasons-cbs-1201754436/

The Reason Why CSI: Cyber Was Canceled (https://www.looper.com/1239638/the-reason-why-csi-cyber-was-canceled/)

Looks like keeping CSI: Cyber on the air ... didn't compute

Sadly, there aren't a lot of examples of computer nerds experiencing better lives with the addition of a bunch of football players, and "CSI: Cyber" was no exception. The show struggled to find its footing thanks to constantly being pushed back to accommodate for games, and it wasn't long before the writing was on the wall — so much so that Season 2 headliner Ted Danson had already signed on to "The Good Place" before the death of "CSI: Cyber" had hit the newsstands.

The problem wasn't just the ratings — overall, "CSI: Cyber" did middling, drawing steady viewership in the mid-seven figures. The issue was, in all likelihood, the fact that "middling" isn't the goal when you're producing a bonkers-expensive spin-off of a flagship series. "CSI" reinvigorated CBS when it premiered in 2000, but the returns just wouldn't stop diminishing. "CSI," "CSI: Miami," and "CSI: NY" were all off the air by the time the network pulled the plug on "Cyber." It was the end of an era.

Or more realistically, it was the end of a phase of an era, giving the franchise time to build a chrysalis of nostalgia around itself in the form of a feature-length finale, "Immortality," before emerging six years later as a beautiful reboot butterfly with "CSI: Vegas."