Marg Helgenberger is calling it quits on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” after a 12 year stretch on the popular CBS crime drama. The 53-year-old actress will leave CSI in a two-part episode airing Wednesday, Jan. 18 and Jan. 25 at 10 p.m. EDT.
In a recent interview, Helgenberger, who called her role as Catherine Willows “one of the best roles” she’s ever had, said she is looking forward to the time off. Helgenberger also talked about hiking with her dog, looking for new work and her desire to do Broadway.
Despite her departure from CSI, Helgenberger discussed the possibility of returning for a special episode or two in the future.
“Oh, absolutely, in fact that was one of the reasons why it was a little easier for me to leave the show because the producers said to me practically every day the door is wide open. …If I’m available and I’m up for it you betcha.” Marg is proud the show has inspired some people to become criminalists and expressed to fans: “You haven’t seen the last of me.”
Helgenberger received both Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations for her work on CSI and will get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Jan. 23. She’ll also have the inside scoop on what’s happening behind-the-scenes because her son Hugh currently works as a production assistant on the show.
CSI is known as the most watched show in the world and has received the International Television Audience Award at the Monte Carlo TV Festival. Marg Helgenberger began to understand firsthand the huge following the show has garnered, when she was mobbed in a museum during a trip to Paris traveling abroad.
“… I got kind of swarmed by people which was so strange to me because just in these galleries housed Van Gogh’s and Monet’s and Manet’s and Toulouse-Lautrec and I just thought ‘Wait a second this is so strange!’ but anyway, nonetheless, it was flattering and I was just kind of taken aback by it.”
