The CSI program on television is about a previously unknown group of police officers who collect forensic data at crime scenes. Crime Scene Investigation. The TV show on this subject, that ranks at the top of the Neilsen chart week after week, is set in Las Vegas. A similar show with a different cast, not nearly as popular, is set in Miami.
CSI gets Neilsen ratings of 17 to 18, roughly 21 million households watching every show. This rating is one third higher than all other top rated prime time shows, which are in the 12 to 13 range. For every three people who watch other shows a fourth person joins the group to watch CSI.
What has CSI got? It has three elements that I consider additive. Additive meaning each element has an audience and the three audiences get added together to create the larger total audience.
Element one is a traditional murder mystery. The murder comes with an extra bucket of blood and gore, added on the pretense that it helps forensic understanding when the audience can closely view an arm mutilated by a shark, or to see a body that has been decomposed by a week in the water. Element one would get the program up to a a Neilsen rating of 9-10.
Element two is a large dollop of inter-personal friction. This is the usual melodrama and it adds a few Nielsen points. Melodrama would usually also lose points except for the fact that the inter-personal friction is in a white collar office setting, the kind that most working Americans experience everyday. So a surly and distracted boss becomes a subject of interest to most viewers. Realistic white collar office friction is not common on TV. It adds a significant audience, 2-3 Nielsen points. The total points now are in the 13-14 range. Higher than most programs.
Element three is science of the Sherlock Holmes variety. This brings in the educated reading audience. This group rarely watches TV and when they do they don't admit it. The last time this group admitted watching TV was for Jerry Seinfeld. The total viewership gets pushed to 18 with the addition of this final group that seldom watches TV.
Voila, a successful TV show.