CROSSOVER OF THE WEEK! (PART TWO)

For the second "winner" of the Crossover of the Week, one just had to flip over to CBS and watch 'CSI: Miami'. But the crossover didn't happen during the episode; instead, it happened after the show ended.

AND it didn't even happen on TV at all!

'CSI: MIAMI'
&
CBS.COM

Promoted as an extending ending to the episode, viewers were urged to visit CBS.com and click on the link to a scene between reporter Erica Sikes and new CSI team member Ryan Wolfe.

Granted, it was mainly a showcase for the new Hummer, (which got better close-ups than the actors!), but TV has always been about selling cars. That's why there's such a thing as the Fall TV season anyway - it was set in September to help usher in the new line of cars.

But the scene was vital to the forward motion of the plot. Erica clued Ryan in that somebody on the team was badmouthing the department to the press - and maybe even culpable for something worse.

We also learned that Horatio Caine was aware of her information... information... information...... So that would mean Ryan and Horatio weren't under suspicion. Doesn't it? Her wording was slightly vague, and she might have been leading Ryan on in order to trip him up or get him to relax his guard while she continued her investigative reporting.

Then again, there has been a simmering relationship building between the characters over three episodes of this season, so it could be she was genuinely concerned that he should know the truth.

At least as much as she could reveal.

It was an important scene that will have ramifications and reverberations right through to the end of the season, so it can't be shrugged off as just a publicity stunt.

It wasn't the first time that Toobworld interfaced with "Cyberia". That honor is held by 'Homicide: Life On The Street' which had a running storyline online about the second shift at that Baltimore precinct, starring character actor Joe Grifasi. Finally members of both teams met up during the episode "Homicide.com" with an appropriate case - a serial killer who streamed his murders online.

And in addition to happening during November Sweeps, this extended scene for 'CSI: Miami' occurred at a very propitious TV time. Just a week before, the news was full of stories about TV shows being available for sale on iPod and other MP3 devices. So the Eye was dipping its toe into exploring new frontiers of Television.

'Medium' looked back and 'CSI: Miami' looked forward with novel experiments, and that's why the duo have been chosen to share the "honors" of Crossover Of The Week.

BCnU!
Tele-Toby

"Television is a passing fancy.
The last time I turned it on,
I was confronted by a singing, dancing seltzer pill named Speedy."
Major Charles Emerson Winchester
'M*A*S*H'