Laurence Fishburne to Lead CSI

LOS ANGELES, August 19: The
Matrix actor Laurence Fishburne is
taking on a lead role on CBS’s hit series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, replacing William Petersen, who announced his
exit from the procedural crime drama earlier this summer.

Fishburne’s character
joins the Las Vegas Crime Lab as a level one crime scene investigator after
assisting in a murder case. He will make his debut when the series’ ninth
season premieres in October in the U.S.

His debut in the U.K. is
expected to be seen next year on Five, which holds the British terrestrial
rights, and then on LIVING, which shares the multichannel rights.

Petersen, though no longer
taking an on-screen role, will remain an executive producer, alongside fellow CSI
executive producers Carol
Mendelsohn and Naren Shankar.

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski