Heading into its seventh season, CSI: NY faces some challenges, first by moving into Friday nights. One of the challenges is Melina Kanakaredes departure, where she used to play the part of Detective Stella Bonasera, right from the premier of the show.

Pam Veasey, the shows executive producer said that they “had written six scripts over the break…stories that were ready to prepare for shooting and all involved Stella.” However, the executive producer claims that after round the clock phone calls CSI: NY was redeemed, after Sela Ward, Golden Globe and Emmy winner was adapted into the show replacing Kanakaredes.

On her part, Ward feels the challenge, claiming, “timing is everything” mostly because she has for some time not been working, taking time to be with her kids. However, since the kids are much older she was ready to get to work, and then she received the defining phone call. She say that since the show was an ensemble one, it was quite attractive to her and she “wasn’t going to be carrying it all on” her shoulders.

The executive producer does feel all is right after Melina’s scare, claiming “you definitely want more time to develop a character…Sela has helped to bring so much to it in the first episode.” With the writers and characters having to work hard this season, Veasey thinks that the characters were themselves having individual pull in the show’s crime story in the new Season of CSI:NY, as the characters lead the audience and crew as compared to the crime in the show.

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