The curtain will come down soon.

William Petersen (Gil Grissom) is scheduled to make his exit from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation after the tenth episode of the upcoming ninth season. "The hard part is saying goodbye to the cast and crew and writers," Petersen told TV Guide. "It's the people you've been with for nine seasons. It'll be very hard not going in the morning into one of those rooms and seeing them." Marg Helgenberger (Catherine Willows) said she tries not to think about Grissom's final scene. "That's what everyone is feeling right now," she said. "We've had a lot of changes in the show these past years, and this is a big one. Everyone feels on unsteady ground right now."

Grissom's departure from CSI won't be abrupt. "We've been mapping out my last 10 episodes that will take Grissom from one place to another," Petersen explained. "There will be no brain tumor for four episodes. That's the easy way out. We're trying to paint it as we have done with Jorja [Fox (Sara Sidle)] and Gary [Dourdan (Warrick Brown)]. We're trying to make it as real and close to reality as the show has been all along."

"I'm going to come back and see the guys on set doing episodes I'm not in," Petersen said. "And I'm staying on as a producer. The show is important to me, and I'm not abandoning it. I'm coming back on some level. I just don't know what yet." One thing that kept Petersen on the show for so long was the fan base. "They've been fabulous, stuck with us every year," he explained. "But at the same time, I knew I needed to go do something. I don't want to get to the point where I don't feel creative anymore just because it's comfortable and fun to hang out with your friends."

Laurence Fishburne will be joining the cast in Grissom's place. "The writers are trying to wrap their minds around Billy having a graceful exit," Helgenberger explained, "but also creating a graceful entrance for Laurence." Grissom leaving will "open windows" according to Petersen. "Laurence will come in," he said. "Catherine could change her position. It will be interesting and different."

"The fact that we've done this for nine seasons and still like each other, and still want to work with each other, is an amazing thing," Petersen said of working with Helgenberger. The actress got emotional talking about Petersen leaving the show. "I've been very blessed these past eight and a half years not only to have shared in the success of CSI," she explained, "but to have worked with a man who is an actor's actor minus the pretension, an executive producer minus the superiority, and a stud minus the bulls---. I love Billy...he's the bomb! I know that we will work together again, and not just as Grissom and Catherine."

The original interview can be found in its entirety in the October 6 issue of TV Guide.

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