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The 'CSI' series (though, not so much 'CSI: Miami' is highly ranked because it reaches out to every demographic.
The blue-staters love the edgy scripts, good acting, decent writing (for network TV); red-staters love the judgemental hammer of God it brings down on victims and criminals alike.
If you watch any of the CSIs (specifically Vegas), you'll notice that most of the victims basically have it coming to them: the normal lady who wants to try out stripping ends up being killed by a hobo; the Sherlock Holmes imitator is a heroin junkie; the movie actor accidentally hangs himself while masturbating.
So, it allows the viewer to tut-tut judgementally about lifestyle choices that they, of course, would never choose. It's a perfect recipe for ratings, because nobody wants to watch a show (like 'ER' is now) where good people die for no good reason.
What keeps people coming back to CSI, is that deviants get what's coming to them. Pat Robertson couldn't preach it better.
