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To reward longtime fans, Mendelsohn and fellow exec producer Danny Cannon decided to craft a season-opening homage that would offer a fresh perspective on forensics through techie-turned-CSI Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda) while nodding to some ongoing themes: Gil's tendency to be a hard-ass with his team, Warrick's (Gary Dourdan) past problem with gambling, Sara's (Jorja Fox) battle with booze, and Catherine's (Marg Helgenberger) former life as a stripper. ''Everybody had a part in it, but nobody carried the episode,'' recalls Mendelsohn. ''Our season was predicated on having the entire team back.''

Little did she know that the team was doing some plotting of its own. In late May, all eight stars -- Petersen, Helgenberger, Fox, Eads, Szmanda, Dourdan, Paul Guilfoyle, and Robert David Hall -- asked CBS for raises, even though their contracts weren't set to expire for at least three years. ''If you'd heard what these supporting players were asking, you would have laughed,'' says Moonves, who declined to give specific amounts (as did the actors). The network, already reeling from the costly renegotiation with Everybody Loves Raymond stars Brad Garrett, Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, and Patricia Heaton last season, began preparing for the worst -- especially since Dourdan and Helgenberger are represented by Garrett's bulldog attorney, Michael Gendler.

While securing Petersen with a lucrative new contract that included new producing and syndication fees, CBS offered the others, insiders say, ''fair and equitable raises.'' Then -- to avoid last-minute sick-outs like the ones that happened with the Raymond cast -- the network required many of the supporting actors to promise in writing that they would show up on time when production resumed July 14. Supposedly, everyone signed. But like any good CSI episode, what came next was a plethora of twists and flat-out mysteries. Fox's camp, for example, insists the actress signed and sent in her letter on time (though, unlike her colleagues who faxed them, she opted to snail-mail hers). Insiders say, however, that CBS received the letter late, and at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, July 14, the actress was fired from her $100,000-per-episode job.

Fox was at home when she got the call from her rep. ''I sat on it because I kept thinking there was still talking to be done,'' she remembers. ''I wouldn't say I was in denial, but I thought, 'This can be fixed.' When it hit the press late Thursday, that's when I started to worry it was really happening. I didn't know whether I was supposed to accept the fact I'd lost my job or whether I was supposed to be figuring out a way to get it back. It was all very confusing and fast.''

The firing happened equally fast for Eads, who also earned 100 grand per episode. He was let go almost three hours after he failed to make his 6:30 a.m. call time on July 15 (though he did phone the set at 10:30 a.m. to report he had overslept). ''The morning it happened, I had so many people say [to CBS], 'He's just late!' Well, it was already done,'' says Eads. ''I've never been fired from a job. I always try to treat people with professional courtesy and I try not ever to be late. Sometimes being late just happens.'' But CBS viewed his tardiness -- and Fox's allegedly overdue letter -- as negotiation ploys. ''We were already renegotiating with all of them,'' explains Moonves. ''We were giving them all raises that were fair. We even renegotiated with [CSI: Miami star]David Caruso this year! I'm not opposed to that if it's done within the right parameters.''

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