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IS IT JUST ME THAT FINDS THIS STORY ABOUT CSI REMARKABLY FUNNY?

"CSI": Another Day, Another Dead Body
Sep 18, 2006, 10:35 AM PT

Either the TV gods are playing a very sick joke on CBS and the makers of its mega-popular TV franchise--or its just a bizarre coincidence--but for the second time in a week, a real corpse has turned up near the set of a CSI series.
A network rep confirmed that the body of an unidentified man washed ashore close to a helicopter landing area in Miami's Biscayne Bay at Bicentennial Park, where a second unit crew for CSI: Miami was shooting pickups and aerial shots early Friday morning. No cast members were on set at the time
A spokesman for the Miami Police Department said that a homeless man had discovered the remains and contacted an off-duty cop who was working as a security guard on the set. The body showed no evidence of trauma and investigators did not consider the death suspicious. An autopsy is pending.
"Unfortunately, it's not unusual during certain times of the year that people who have fallen in the bay, either homeless or people who were asleep or in some cases boaters who had a mishap, fall into the bay and turn up days later," Detective Delrish Moss told the Associated Press.
Friday's find came just five days after a building engineer stumbled upon a mummified body in a Los Angeles building where CSI: New York was filming scenes for an upcoming episode. The preserved corpse belonged to a tenant who was determined to have died of natural causes some weeks before.
The latter discovery followed work on an episode in which star Gary Sinise and his crack crime squad had to use their forensics know-how to solve the mystery of a mummified body.
Meanwhile, the Friday's body beaching in Florida was announced just in time for CSI: Miami's season premiere tonight, prompting a few online conspiracy theorists to wonder in show message boards whether the discovery was a network publicity stunt--a notion shot down by Miami cops.
Not that the show needs any help.
According to the Los Angeles Times, CSI: Miami is now the top-rated U.S. television program in the world. A global audience estimated at 50 million, including more than 18.1 million Americans, tuned in to watch Lieutenant Horatio Cane (David Caruso) and his Miami-Dade forensics team solve seemingly unsolvable cases last season.
While CSI: Miami is the ninth-highest rated show in the U.S., worldwide it ranks ahead of such hit series as Lost, Desperate Housewives and the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in terms of viewership. In fact, the spinoff has gained such an international following that producers decided to set tonight's fifth-season opener in Rio de Janeiro.


ALSO STARK REALITY ABOUT TV.

TV presenter critical after crash

The presenter is being treated at Leeds General InfirmaryTop Gear presenter Richard Hammond is in a critical condition in hospital after a crash in a jet-powered car while filming for the programme.
The presenter, 36, was taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary which has a special neurological unit.
A North Yorkshire Ambulance Service spokesman said he was unconscious when they got to the scene and a hospital spokesman described him as "critical".
The BBC confirmed the presenter had been injured during a Top Gear shoot.
Inspector Mike Thompson, of North Yorkshire Police, said officers were dealing with the incident at Elvington airfield, a former RAF base, in North Yorkshire.
He said: "At 5.45pm this evening we received a report via the fire service of a male person trapped in what was described as an overturned jet car which had been driven on the airfield.
"The male occupant has received serious injuries and has been airlifted to hospital at Leeds."
The presenter was born in Birmingham, educated in Yorkshire and lives near Cheltenham.
In addition to presenting Top Gear for the BBC, he also fronted Brainiac on Sky One until recently.