I have ranked the top 68 television shows of the '00s, and will be presenting them, one-by-one, starting with 68 and working down. The rankings are more or less based on the show's popularity, it's cult status, it's critical acclaim, and my personal liking of it, with a heavy dose of arbitrariness added in. If a show was a big enough phenomena, I'll keep it on the list - but if I don't like it, I may drop it some spots. One other caveat - these are primetime shows (I apologize if I put a cable show that wasn't, I thought they were all primetime shows - the main point of this is just that no talk shows, no Colbert and Daily show that would be on otherwise).

35: CSI Miami

Actually not the only spinoff on this list (Law & Order SVU and Boston Legal), it's so similar to its to its progenitor that I dread writing about it, but I felt it would be unfair to not include a show that has just about (maybe just a little short) equaled the popularity of the original CSI domestically an possibly eclipsed it internationally - having made the top 10 viewing charts in more countries than any other show some arbitrary survey named it the most popular show in the world.

I've seen a handful of CSI Miami episodes, and frankly there's not all that much to talk about, and almost anything I would has to be saved for the original CSI article, so we'll talk about the people involved in the most successful spin-off of a show to date (that I can think of quickly).

This discussion starts and ends (well, not really ends because I want to talk about other people) with David Caruso. Caruso's career has an arc just like so many classic movies, many of which Caruso wishes he could have been in, or a great sports tale (Zach Grienke anyone?). After plugging away in supporting roles throughout the '80s and early '90s, he got his big break with NYPD Blue and earned rave reviews. It all went to his head, however, as he got cocky, and left after just one season to pursue a career in film. The epic failures of his two big starring roles in Jade and Kiss of Death derailed his leading man career before he could really get started - Jade apparently is so forgettable that one of the few facts mentioned above the contents on the wikipedia page is that the movie is known for killing Caruso's career. He returned to TV in the one-season classic Michael Hayes where he played a New York prosecutor - the series' best distinction may be that it was the first show on the three major networks to have a first run episode finish 6th in the nightly Nielsen ratings (Somehow both leads landed on their feet - Caruso's co-star Ruben Santiago-Hudson is now appearing as the boss in Castle).

Caruso's film career didn't improve much from here - he appeared in Proof of Life and a movie called Body Count which doesn't even have a wikipedia entry (trumped by the Ice T band, an independent movie made with Ice-T, and an early '90s video game Operation: Body Count), and those are seriously the highlights. Yet, somehow, all-knowing Jerry Bruckheimer (or more likely someone else) saw his former talent and decided to rescue him from the scrap heap, installing him as Lt. Horatio Kane on CSI: Miami, and a legend was born.

Caruso is the heart and soul of the show - him and Emily Proctor are just about the only two to remain the whole time. Caruso's character has become best known for his one-liners, often strategically timed with putting on his sunglasses and the subject of many an amusing youtube clip (They're really just getting funnier and funnier as I watch - my favorite being "The verdict is in, Frank...but the jury is out" - I don't have a clue what the context of that could be).

The rest of the cast is stocked with regulars of the tube. Kim Delaney, from NYPD Blue and the short lived Philly, stuck around just for a season. Emily Proctor was best known for her role as Republican white house counsel for the Bartlett administration. Medical Examiner Khandi Alexander was on Newsradio, ER and the The Corner.

(just a brief interlude here to make it known just I just watched that "Verdict is in" clip another three times - it's really that good.)

Honestly, I could keep going on with cast members - it has Rory Cochrane of Dazed and Confused fame who after barely drawing a regular paycheck for years somehow decided to leave the show after two seasons - but really, you should just spend what extra 30 seconds you might have spent browsing the rest of the article just watching some of those clips again. And that's why CSI Miami is on the list if for no other reason.


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