CSI: Crime Scene Investigation executive producer Carol Mendelsohn knows that the CSI shows aren't the only crime dramas on the block.

The popularity of the CSI franchise has led to a number of other television series with similar ideas. "There are lots of clones," Mendelsohn told The Chronicle Herald. She said that the "visual look" of the shows has been imitated. "Suddenly everybody was going into the body on shots. You watch House and they go into the body. It’s not like we have a trademark, but everybody was copying us," she said.

In the case of shows emulating the CSIs, "whether that makes good business sense to the networks they’re on, who’s to say?" Mendelsohn said. Despite the competition, the CSI franchise is still on top. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is the number one show in America, and CSI: Miami is the number one show in the world. Mendelsohn shared a story about visiting a Maori village in New Zealand. The woman elder who was showing her around "was a huge CSI fan, in love with David Caruso. And then I met her daughter, who wanted to sleep with him."

Mendelsohn said that the success of the shows has to do with the fact that a crime drama is "a search for the truth," which is appealing to viewers who are "uncertain" about the world. "A lot of crime dramas are black and white: good guy-bad guy, he did it-she did it," she said. "I think that is satisfying, and we’re all reaching out for something we can believe in, even if it is for an hour."

The original article is from The Chronicle Herald.

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