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Petersen and several of the members of his cast, such as Marg Helgenberger and Gary Dourdan, have been openly critical of the two CSI spinoffs, saying they dilute the brand. Matters got worse when two of the original CSI actors, Jorja Fox and George Eads, were fired (and then rehired) by CBS boss Les Moonves for making excessive wage demands. Hostility heightened between the show’s financiers (CBS and Toronto-based co-producer Alliance Atlantis) and its cast, half of whom got raises while the remainder did not, leaving more than a few bruised egos.

“I don’t think the spinoffs hurt our show,” said Fox, who didn’t get a raise after the contract dispute and earns a reported $100,000 per show. “But I think that they were certainly motivated by a certain level of greed. And they weren’t anybody’s creative brainchild.

They came out of a way to make as much money as quickly as possible.” Fox, who plays the alcoholic Sara Sidle, added the pay imbalance has embittered some staff.

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Fox says she hasn’t been fully briefed on what will occur, but she doesn’t think it involves the fatal axing of one of the show’s lead characters (all of the original CSI cast members still have a few years left on their contracts).

“I don’t anticipate that will happen,” said Fox, sipping thoughtfully on a Starbucks coffee, laced with soy milk. “But all bets are off at this point. I don’t think any of us felt we could get fired, and that happened. So who knows?”

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Jorja Fox, who along with co-star George Eads on the original CSI was fired and then rehired: “I don’t think the spinoffs have hurt our show, but I think that they were certainly motivated by a certain level of greed. And they weren’t anybody’s creative brainchild. They came out of a way to make as much money as quickly as possible,” Fox says. “Right now we have a situation with the show where half the cast got big raises at the beginning of the season, and half the cast is working without a raise. And I don’t think that is necessarily healthy for a group of people either. You know, it’s an ensemble cast, and that creates a weird kind of scales and balances.”

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