Verisimilitude

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 Verisimilitude: The quality or state of being verisimiliar: 1.) having the appearance of truth  2.) depicting realism (as in art or literature)

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Shows like CSI, House, Law & Order, and others; these shows are a type of television show that Nichola Dobson, an independent scholar based in Edinburgh, calls generic verisimilitude. By generic verisimilitude she means that these types of shows spend less time depicting the realism of the text, but rather the text's conformity to the rules of the specific genre.

CSI is a crime investigation show that continues to gain profit by sticking to it's generic conventions. There is a bad guy, there are the investigators, and there are a couple of suspects before the investigators finally catch the bad guy.

CSI continues to gain success by the consistent high ratings it and it's spin-off shows garner. The show ranked number one from 2002-2004 with approximately 25 million viewers. The new season to date has 14 million viewers.