‘CSI’ season 15 finale spoilers: Show boss on cliffhanger, series’ future

Is “CSI” ending this season? While we cannot answer that just yet, we at least now right now that Sunday night’s season 15 finale is not intended to be the end. You are going to say goodbye to George Eads as the Nick Stokes character, but the final seconds are designed to get you excited about what the future could be for the series.

Just in case you were super-curious about how all of this came about, it does appear as though this decision was a deliberate one by executive producer Don McGill and his team after speaking with CBS about it. Therefore, this was not a big surprise to the network that they ended it this way. McGill expands on this in an interview with TV Guide:

“We pitched the finale concept with the cliff-hanger to the network and they were very, very supportive of that idea … Obviously, there are lots of discussions about the fate of CSI next year, and from everything we understand, the show ain’t over. We have to work with that in mind and doing a cliff-hanger seemed only natural to us. We don’t know what’s going to happen exactly, but we’re super hopeful that we’re coming back, and, at this point, the network’s given us no indication that that would not be the case. The finale leaves us with some unfinished business that we’re eager to finish next season.”

Ultimately, we do feel like the show should get at least somewhat of a pass, given that it was forced this season to deal with a number of preemptions, burnoffs, and airing against other shows that have enormous ratings. While we’re sure that it cannot be the cheapest product to put on the air a decade and a half in, Eads’ departure should help to save a little money. Also, it would do CBS well to give the series at least one more season, that way they can say that they properly wrapped up the story. We still regret that with “CSI: Miami.”