CSI New York is a Go...and Sinese will Star
According to CNN: After weeks of on-again, off-again talks, Gary Sinise has signed on to star in CBS' "CSI: New York," his first foray into series television. Sinise will play a crime-scene investigator who leads a team of crime scene investigators in the Big Apple. Sources said the Emmy-winning actor will be paid $120,000-$150,000 per episode. (By contrast, Ray Romano is reportedly the highest-paid TV actor, earning between $1.7 million and $2 million for each episode of CBS' "Everybody Loves Raymond.") "We're thrilled to get an actor like Gary Sinise, who is someone we've been chasing for many years," CBS chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves said. "What especially makes it great is to get an actor who will give such distinction to the third 'CSI' and really distinguish it from the other two shows. He's just a great get for us." The characters from "CSI: New York" will be introduced in an episode of "CSI: Miami" in May that will see Lt. Horatio Caine (David Caruso) go to New York as part of a murder investigation. That will bring Caruso back on the New York crime scene 10 years after he emerged in the spotlight as the star of ABC's "NYPD Blue." "I think for the viewing public to have an amazing actor like David Caruso to step foot back on New York soil, knowing the ties he had with his previous show, is tremendously exciting," said "CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker, who will make his debut as showrunner on the new series. Sinise won an Emmy for the 1997 telefilm "George Wallace" and earned an Oscar nomination for 1994's "Forrest Gump."