‘CSI: Vegas’ First Look! Plus, Josh’s ‘Difficult Position’ Tests ‘Follow the Evidence’ Credo (PHOTO)

The CSIs may be facing their biggest challenge yet on the CBS sequel series when it returns: figuring out just what happened the night that one of their own, Josh Folsom (Matt Lauria), was arrested for the murder of the man who killed his mother.

Well, it’s a good thing they follow the evidence, like the fingerprint you can see on the glass and blood next to it in TV Insider’s exclusive first look at the new art for CSI: Vegas Season 3 (full version below). But that’s easier said than done in the February 18 premiere.

Josh being behind bars, as a suspect in the aforementioned murder, will “weigh on him heavily,” CSI: Vegas showrunner Jason Tracey tells us. “He’s in a difficult position because he’s not sure about the culpability of his friend and foster brother Trey [Daniel Di Tomasso], and so he’s keeping his cards close to the vest, but you see it weigh on him. I think that Matt Lauria delivers a fantastic performance in a really emotionally charged environment there in prison.”

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Meanwhile, “the team around him has to maintain their objectivity and follow the evidence as is their job. But it’s challenging when somebody you love and care about is kind of in the crosshairs and the evidence initially is really pointing in his direction. I think it’s a fun character dynamic and everybody came to play.”

The Season 2 finale in which Josh learned of his mother’s death, found a man he thought knew who was responsible, made him think he was bleeding out, and then learned said man was her killer was Tracey’s first time directing. “We had a lot of fun with that one, and I learned a lot,” he recalls. “It was exciting to sort of paint ourselves into a corner and see how we could figure out how to get out at the top of this year. And I’m excited for everybody to see it.”

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'CSI: Vegas' Season 3 Premiere: Josh Is Behind Bars! (PHOTOS)

The writers were also excited about what they’d get to do with Josh as a result in the aftermath. “Matt is a unique performer in the fact that I think his sort of face contains multitudes. We know that he’s got a troubled and checkered and interesting past in Las Vegas,” Tracey notes. “Some of the folks that he spent time around in his youth are a challenge to maintain positive relationships with because they don’t always make the healthiest choices.” Trey, for example, is one, with the exploration of that dynamic leading to the position Josh is now in.

“I think ultimately what attracted everybody in the writers’ room to this story was that it’s kind of the ultimate test for the ethos, the credo that the CSIs live by of ‘follow the evidence.’ Can you really do it? Can you maintain your objectivity and really let the evidence do the talking when it’s so hard not to have motivated thinking and just want to default to an expectation of innocence for the people that you care about and that you trust and have come to see his family?” Tracey asks. “Can you really live up to your own standards? I think that it will end up being a finest hour for our team.”

CSI: Vegas, Season 3 Premiere, Sunday, February 18, 10/9c, CBS