Transnational Audiences of Forensic Science Drama

Abstract

As the previous chapter has shown, genres are formed through transnational encounters and solidified in marketing and distribution which draw on the transnational in their discursive practices. This chapter continues the project of investigating the transnational realm of genres by focusing on reception processes of one genre that has received some critical and academic attention as a result of the explosion of similar dramas in the 1990s and 2000s: crime drama using forensic methodology for investigation purposes. This genre has proved to be tremendously successful all over the world — CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (from now on referred to as CSI) and particularly its spinoff CSI: Miami belong to the most-watched programmes around the world, attracting millions of viewers worldwide, including on its homechannel, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), where it has been a regular staple since 2000. But UK examples, too, particularly the longrunning Silent Witness (British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) since 1996) and Waking the Dead (BBC, 2000–2011) have done remarkably well in international sales and attracting loyal fan bases that meant that Silent Witness was able to survive the departure of its leading actress Amanda Burton, whilst Waking the Dead resulted in a spin-off, The Body Farm (BBC, since 2011), based on the forensic pathologist, played by Tara Fitzgerald (Brown 2011).