Ted Danson has joined the cast of CSI it has been reported.

The former Cheers actor, who recently enjoyed a sting on hit drama Damages alongside Glenn Close, will replace Laurence Fishburne on the crime drama, after it was revealed he was leaving last month.

Danson will take on the role of a new grave shift supervisor who leaves the Portland crime lab and moves to Las Vegas.

The CSI team will reportedly be “still grappling with the professional and personal fallout from last season’s take-down of serial killer, Nate Haskell (Bill Irwin).”

Executive producer Carol Mendelsohn says that Ted’s character will be more easygoing than Laurence’s Ray Langston, explaining:

“You can create a new character on the page, but until the perfect actor comes along and breathes life into it, it’s just words,”

Fellow exec producer Don McGill went on to praise the veteran actor, saying he was a great fit for the role. He gushed:

“From the moment we all started talking about the role, it was clear he couldn’t be more perfect. Intelligence, wit, warmth, depth of character and emotion, he brings it all. And now he’ll have to bring latex gloves, too.”

CSI was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The series follows Las Vegas criminalists as they use physical evidence to solve grisly murders in this unusually graphic drama, which has inspired a host of other cop-show “procedurals”.