It's the end of one chapter and the start of another.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation's leading man William Petersen (Gil Grissom) will be leaving the show early next year. His final episode has been filmed and will air in January. "I was supposed to have finished up with CSI in May, but we were hit by the writers' strike, and I wanted to wait and take my character out in the right way," Petersen told the Chicago Sun-Times. "So I ended up wrapping the last episode on a Friday this fall, [and] heading back to Chicago to start rehearsals on a Monday. No break, but I'm having a great time."

The rehearsals were for Dublin Carol, the play Petersen is currently performing at the Steppenwolf Upstairs Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. The actor won't stop with Carol--he is set to star in Blackbird next summer at Victory Gardens Theatre. "Working in the theater just requires so many different muscles," Petersen explained. "It's like being a marathon runner as opposed to using those fast-twitch muscles of the 100-yard dash you can use [on] TV. Aside from becoming familiar with some of the medical terms or Latin words, I wouldn't even learn my lines for the show. I could just depend on my short term memory. That is not the case with a play."

Even though Petersen is leaving CSI, that doesn't mean he's gone for good. "I've spent more time being that man than I have myself for the past nine years," the actor said. "And I left because I thought I had nothing left to bring to him. In fact, I stayed on the show two years longer than I thought I would. I still like the producing end of things — the micro-managing. And I might be back when [film director] William Friedkin returns to direct our 200th episode."

In an unscientific, unofficial poll done by AOL television, 37% of viewers said they would stop watching CSI after Petersen left. Another 41% of those polled said they would wait to see how Laurence Fishburne (Dr Raymond Langston) fared as Petersen's replacement before they would decide whether or not to stop watching the show. The AOL poll included 600,000 votes and ran from October 29-November 13. (Please note that this is a web poll and its results only reflect the views of those who participated.)

The original article about Petersen is from the Chicago Sun-Times. Information about the AOL poll can be found here.

Discuss this news item at Talk CSI!
 Add CSI Files RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a Desperate Housewives fan? Then visit GetDesperate.com!