'CSI' original star to exit after 14 seasons

CSI will lose one of its original stars, Paul Guilfoyle, by the end of the current season, EW has confirmed. The actor, who has played Captain Jim Brass since the CBS show debuted in 2000, is only one of two original stars left on the show; George Eads, who plays Nick Stokes, will be the lone remaining original actor when season 15 kicks off in the fall.

“Paul made Capt. Brass a standout character,” CSI exec producers Carol Mendelsohn and Don McGill said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news. “He is not just an original cast member, he is an original. In a show about forensics, fans always looked forward to the handcuffs coming out, and Capt. Brass putting his spin on the crime of the week, just as Paul Guilfoyle put his indelible stamp on the character and the show. He will be missed.”

Some of the other original CSI stars who have exited the show over the past 14 years include Marg Helgenberger in 2012, William Petersen in 2009, and Gary Dourdan in 2008.

CSI airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.