50 Fun Facts About CSI: Miami

On which network did CSI: Miami air from 2002 to 2012?

CBS gave the show much of the credit for its own success: on ending the run after ten seasons, the network called it 'a key player in CBS's rise to the top over the past decade'.

What police rank does Horatio Caine hold on CSI: Miami?

Lieutenant Caine got the crime lab when its previous head, Megan Donner, took leave after her husband was killed; she came back to find the job was now his.

Which make of vehicle do the CSI: Miami investigators drive to their crime scenes?

Hummers are the team's ride, and one episode turns on that: Calleigh's is forced off the road into a canal, and the evidence she had just collected goes down with it.

Which actor plays Mac Taylor, the out-of-state detective Horatio Caine teams up with in a 2004 CSI: Miami episode?

Gary Sinise's Mac Taylor meets Horatio when a double murder sends the Miami man after a killer who flew in from another city; the two leads share the screen again in later crossovers.

In season four of CSI: Miami, Ryan Wolfe is shot in the eye with which tool?

A nail gun, the murder weapon in the case he was working: he is attacked when he goes back to the scene, and for episodes afterwards his failing eyesight puts his job in doubt.

In 2024 the CSI: Miami name returned to television for what kind of series?

A true-crime documentary: 'The Real CSI: Miami' swapped fiction for real-life cases and the forensic science that solved them, with the creators of the original drama producing.

To which country do Horatio and Delko travel in CSI: Miami's fifth season premiere to hunt a gang boss?

Brazil is where the gang leader Antonio Riaz had been deported under a plea bargain; the two men track him to Rio, where he dies in a knife fight with them.

What was Horatio Caine's specialty before he took charge of the crime lab on CSI: Miami?

Bomb disposal is where he learned his trade, and the show's second episode makes it personal: his bomb-squad mentor is killed trying to disarm a device fastened around another man's neck.

What is Calleigh Duquesne's forensic specialty on CSI: Miami?

Ballistics is her field, and suspects who take the small, sunny Southerner for a pushover find out too late that she has read them from the start.

On CSI: Miami, Eric Delko is the team's specialist in recovering evidence from where?

Underwater recovery is his specialty, though he began as a tow-truck driver: he met Horatio on a job, and Horatio talked him into joining the police.

Who plays Eric Delko on CSI: Miami?

Adam Rodriguez stepped back during season eight and Eddie Cibrian was hired as a new lead, yet a year on it was Rodriguez who was back full-time and Cibrian who had been let go.

Which CSI: Miami character is a DNA specialist with ties to the FBI?

Natalia Boa Vista arrived on a federal grant that confined her to cold cases, but that was cover: she was reporting on the lab to the FBI, and her colleagues shunned her when it came out.

How does Horatio Caine outwit an arms dealer between the sixth and seventh seasons of CSI: Miami?

He fakes his own death: season six ends with Horatio apparently shot dead on an airport tarmac, and the next premiere reveals it was staged, with Ryan Wolfe in on the plan.

Who is CSI: Miami's original medical examiner?

Alexx Woods, played by Khandi Alexander, talks to the dead like a mother, calling the bodies on her table 'sweetie' and 'baby'; in the end she quits to spend more time with the living.

How is Detective Yelina Salas related to Horatio Caine on CSI: Miami?

His sister-in-law: Yelina married Horatio's younger brother, later left the force for a new life abroad with her family, and came back to Miami as a private investigator.

Which Internal Affairs officer hounds Horatio's team for years before being arrested himself in season eight?

Rick Stetler turns out to be the thief in his own evidence inquiry: he stole the diamonds, tried to pin it on Ryan Wolfe, and it is Wolfe who gets to arrest him.

What was CSI: Miami's original working title?

CSI: Miami-Dade was the name floated when the spin-off was ordered in April 2002; its creator promised a Miami beyond the cliche, a show 'not about women walking around in bikinis' but 'about science'.

How was CSI: Miami launched?

As an episode of the original CSI: in 'Cross Jurisdictions' two Las Vegas investigators follow a kidnapped girl's trail to Florida and work the case with Horatio Caine's team.

Which star of the original CSI said its makers 'should have waited five years' before launching a spin-off?

William Petersen, star and producer of the original, said it before the spin-off had aired, and added that he would have nothing to do with the new show.

What does Calleigh Duquesne do in CSI: Miami's final season that changes her home life?

Adopts two children: she meets Austin and Patty North through the hunt for their fugitive father, and ends the series as their mother.

Who plays Calleigh Duquesne on CSI: Miami?

Emily Procter first appeared on screen as a weather presenter at a local North Carolina station while studying journalism and dance, then moved to Los Angeles and started as an extra.

Which Scooby-Doo character did the actress behind CSI: Miami's Calleigh say she liked to pretend to be?

Velma was her model for a character she called 'a weird girl', 'bright and very nerdy', dressed in boot-cut corduroys and turquoise necklaces.

Which actress turned down the role of Megan Donner in CSI: Miami's first season?

Sela Ward said no to keep time for her children, the same reason she gave for passing on Desperate Housewives; eight years later she did join the franchise, on a sister show.

Which NYPD Blue star left CSI: Miami after only ten episodes as Megan Donner?

Kim Delaney was hired to give the show a strong female lead, but she and its star never clicked; the network said her character had become 'less integral', and she was written out.

Who plays Horatio Caine, the head of the crime lab on CSI: Miami?

David Caruso made Horatio his last role: when the show ended in 2012 he stopped acting altogether, and is reported to have moved into the art business.

CSI: Miami is set in Florida, but in which state was it mostly filmed?

California: interiors were shot at a studio in Manhattan Beach, and Long Beach, which a producer called 'Miami of the West', supplied the palms and waterfront 2,300 miles from Florida.

CSI: Miami's first regular episode sends the team into the Everglades to investigate what?

A jet crash opens the series; the puzzle is a woman's body lying five miles from the wreckage, which makes Horatio doubt the lone survivor's story.

Why can't Horatio's team arrest the killer Clavo Cruz at first in season two?

He has diplomatic immunity as the son of a foreign general turned ambassador; a season later Horatio finds a way to strip the protection away and makes the arrest.

What is CSI: Miami's theme song?

Won't Get Fooled Again supplies the show's most famous sound: each cold open cuts to the song's scream of 'Yeah!' as the titles begin, a moment that became an internet joke.

What nearly kills Eric Delko in season five of CSI: Miami?

A gunshot to the head, taken in a parking-garage ambush while he and Horatio are trying to rescue a kidnapped woman; he pulls through and returns to the team.

What does Horatio Caine put on as he delivers his one-liner before CSI: Miami's opening titles?

Sunglasses, slipped on mid-sentence: the pause, the quip and the shades were mocked and loved in equal measure, and became the show's signature.

When did the network cancel CSI: Miami, leaving its cast no chance to film a goodbye?

Weeks after its finale aired: the last episode went out in April 2012 and the axe fell in May, so, as Eva LaRue put it, the cast never got to say goodbye to the fans or to each other.

Which CSI spin-off survived the 2012 cancellation duel with Miami?

Nina Tassler said the numbers were 'indiscernible' and New York City simply fit a Friday schedule better.

On CSI: Miami, what kills Horatio's wife Marisol, already ill with cancer, at the end of season four?

A sniper's bullet from a gang hit wounds her fatally just after she marries Horatio; he and her brother Delko then set out to avenge her.

What caused Tim Speedle's death on CSI: Miami?

His unclean weapon misfiring left him defenseless in a jewelry-store shootout in the season three premiere; careless gun maintenance had been his standing flaw.

On CSI: Miami, which condition is Ryan Wolfe hinted to have?

OCD is the show's reason for the spotless sidearm that won him the job; his new colleagues, Delko above all, froze him out at first before warming to him.

On CSI: Miami, Frank Tripp, played by Rex Linn, hails from which state?

Texas is home for Tripp and for the actor, who was born there; on screen the sarcastic detective makes sergeant and briefly finds himself back in uniform.

On CSI: Miami, what did medical examiner Tara Price steal from a victim in the morgue?

Oxycodone went missing from a car-crash victim and others were suspected first; then Ryan Wolfe confronted her over the pills in her locker, and she was arrested and dismissed.

How does Jesse Cardoza die on CSI: Miami?

In a halon attack on the lab: a killer pumps the gas through the air conditioning and the whole team collapses, but only Jesse cannot be revived, because he struck his head as he fell.

On CSI: Miami, Walter Simmons, played by Omar Miller, specializes in what?

Art theft is his field: Walter Simmons arrives from the lab's night shift as a guest character, and within a few episodes the part has become a regular one.

Which recurring DNA technician on CSI: Miami has a habit of taking shortcuts with evidence?

Maxine Valera's corner-cutting caught up with her: she was suspended in season three for errors in the DNA lab, and fell under suspicion again when the FBI investigated.

What gets Ryan Wolfe fired from the CSI: Miami crime lab in season five?

Hiding a link to a suspect in a fatal house fire did it: once the concealment came out, Horatio had no choice but to dismiss him.

Which Saved by the Bell star played Julia Winston, Horatio's troubled ex, on CSI: Miami?

Elizabeth Berkley's Julia returns as the widow in a murder case, marries the arms dealer Ron Saris and then double-crosses him to help Horatio.

Which CSI star's character travels through all three shows in the 2009 'CSI: Trilogy' crossover?

Laurence Fishburne's Raymond Langston follows one case from Las Vegas to Miami and on to the third show, meeting each team's lead in turn.

On which night did CSI: Miami air for its first eight seasons?

Monday at 10 was its home for eight seasons; the move to Sunday nights for the last two did it no favors, and the show was cancelled while struggling there.

On CSI: Miami, Horatio's brother Raymond, believed dead for years, turns out to have been doing what?

Working undercover: Raymond had let his family believe he was dead while on a narcotics assignment, and he only surfaces when his son is kidnapped and he needs his brother's help.

Who kidnaps and tortures Ryan Wolfe in season seven of CSI: Miami to make him tamper with a case?

The Russian mob breaks him not with the beating but by threatening a young boy's life; Wolfe compromises the evidence, and Horatio has to find the child to end the hold on him.

In the season six premiere of CSI: Miami, what does Horatio discover he has?

A teenage son: Kyle Harmon, the child of a brief romance years earlier, first crosses Horatio's path as a suspect in a probation officer's murder.

Which comedian impersonated Horatio Caine on Letterman in 2007?

Jim Carrey declared himself a fan of the show before launching into the impression, which the actor he was sending up later called 'amazing, astonishing'.

Which NBC drama did Calleigh's actress leave to join CSI: Miami?

The West Wing gave her two seasons as the Republican lawyer Ainsley Hayes, but the new show offered a commitment: she likened it to picking the man who says 'I love you' over a casual boyfriend.