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Mel Rodriguez exits CSI: Vegas as a series regular ahead of second season

Mel Rodriguez exits CSI: Vegas as a series regular ahead of second season

CSI: Vegas' resident medical examiner is hanging up his gloves.

Mel Rodriguez, who portrayed chief medical examiner Hugo Ramirez in the debut season of the sequel series, will exit the CBS drama as a series regular ahead of the forthcoming second season.

Rodriguez's departure comes a few days after his costars (and franchise veterans) Jorja Fox and William Petersen announced their exits earlier this week.

CSI: VEGAS
CSI: VEGAS

Robert Voets/CBS Mel Rodriguez in 'CSI: Vegas'

Fox shared the news of her departure on Twitter Tuesday, citing the exit of Petersen, who previously shared that he only signed on for the first season's 10 episodes. (Petersen will remain on the series as an executive producer.)

"After much deliberating, I have decided not to 'Sidle up' for CSI Vegas," Fox shared on social media. "For me CSI has always been a love story. The story that people can find love in the darkest of places and times."

She continued, "And the story that love, even in the darkest of places and times, can expand and grow roots and endure. I personally just can't split Sara and Grissom up again. So goes Grissom…..So goes Sara. Wherever they go, they belong together."

Fox and Petersen reprised their beloved CSI: Crime Scene Investigation characters Sara Sidle and Gil Grissom, respectively, in the first season of CSI: Vegas, a new iteration set in Sin City. Following its finale last December, CBS renewed the procedural drama for a second season.

TVLine first reported the news of Rodriguez's departure.

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