Marg Helgenberger leaves CSI at the end of the season

Marg Helgenberger has been regular with CSI for 11 years.

[googlead tip=”lista_medie” aliniat=”stanga”] Marg Helgenberger, who has been regular with “CSI – Crime Scene Investigation” since it began 11 years ago, has announced she’ll be leaving the forensics drama at the end of this season.

Marg Helgenberger, 52, who has portrayed investigator Catherine Willows on the show, told reporters gathered in California for the annual fall TV previews she plans to leave at the end of the upcoming 12th season of what CBS is calling the most watched TV series in the world.

“I was planning on leaving after last season,”

Marg Helgenberger said, adding that producers asked her into staying for the next season so they could better script her exit.

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Ted Danson will taker over from Laurence Fishburne.

Marg Helgenberger exit comes just as former “Cheers” actor and co-star of HBO’s “Bored to Death” Ted Danson joins the cast. Ted Danson, who replaces Laurence Fishburne, will play CSI supervisor DB Russell. Beloved TV star Ted Danson will take over from him when the popular drama returns later this year. Laurence Fishburne, who replaced CSI producer and star William Petersen, quit the show in May.

Executive producer Don McGill says Russell is a family man who grew up in a commune with folk-singing parents.

Ted Danson, 63, said he enjoys working on a crime drama, but joked – “they still won’t give me a gun.”

Marg Helgenberger started her cast as Catherine Willows, a blood spatter analyst in 2000 in “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and in this series, she won a Screen Actor Guild Award as The Cast of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (CSI), two People’s Choice Award as a Favorite Female TV Star (CSI) and as The Cast of Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (CSI) all in the year of 2005. The awards are of course the results of her hard work. She went so far as to learn the real things to do and even witnessed autopsies that were being performed at the time.

 [googlead tip=”patrat_mare”] Due to her achievements, her hometown of North Bend, Nebraska, renamed the street of her childhood home to “Helgenberger Avenue” in mid 2006.

Marg Helgenberger was married to Alan Rosenberg in 1989 and gave birth to Hugh Howard Rosenberg who was named after her late father.

Due to Marg’s mother’s struggle against breast cancer for the last 27 years and her survival, she and Alan decided to get involved in the fight against breast cancer and started an annual “Marg and Alan’s Celebrity Weekend” in Omaha, Nebraska in 1997. The event is held for 3 days per each year and usually includes a two-day celebrity golf tournament at Dodge Riverside Golf Club and a cancer-survivor celebration at Harrah’s Casino.

Her marriage to Alan did not last forever. They separated in 2008 and finally divorced in 2010.