Actor George Eads wins back his ‘CSI’ role

Actors George Eads and Jorja Fox will both be back on the job this week at “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” after learning a lesson in hardball network politics.

Eads has reached an agreement to return to television’s most popular drama after he and Fox were fired for skipping work in what CBS believed was a contract dispute, a network spokesman said.

Fox negotiated her own agreement to come back last week.

The actors portray investigators Sara Sidle and Nick Stokes on the Las Vegas-based forensics drama.

Actors in a successful Hollywood production angling for more money is a long-established Hollywood tradition. But CBS boss Leslie Moonves, who said the actors’ deals had already been renegotiated after two seasons, played tough.

“There comes a point where we feel a contract is a contract,” he said.

In a similar situation last year with “Everybody Loves Raymond” actor Brad Garrett, CBS kept him on the job and gave him more money.

Eads was hired back at his old salary, a reported $100,000 per episode, said an executive close to the production who requested anonymity.

He essentially had pleaded for his job by apologizing before a group of reporters last week, saying he had overslept on the first day of filming for the new “CSI” season and wasn’t trying to apply pressure.