‘CSI’ season 16: On renewal odds, hopes for Ted Danson series

Tonight, the end of the road is here for “CSI” season 15, and it is only understandable to wonder whether or not this also means the end of the road for the entire series.

So what is the current state of the renewal? Right now, we’d say that this is almost a complete toss-up. The ratings for this season have not been stellar. However, at the same time this is a season that has been up against all sorts of roadblocks. There have been many different occasions in which the show was delayed for one reason or another. For example, during the NFL season, we twice saw the show end up not airing a new episode, mostly due to the sole fact that a football game ran late. There were many other weeks where at least half of it aired outside of primetime. How many shows would actually do well when you consider all of that?

One other reason to have hope here is that they are clearly selling tonight’s finale as a tribute of sorts to George Eads, but not an end to the series. Does CBS really want to give this historic show an unfit exit? They already did that with “CSI: Miami,” and given their recent desire to give proper endings to “How I Met Your Mother,” “Two and a Half Men,” and “The Mentalist,” it only seems appropriate that the same exact thing happens here.

If the show is renewed (which we hope that it will), our expectation is a 13-episode final season in the fall. That way, CBS isn’t sticking another show in that terrible timeslot.