"CSI" actor George Eads, who plays Nick Stokes on the drama, walks through the Palms during location filming. Photo by John Gurzinski. "CSI" producer Louis Milito, left, discusses a scene with director Ken Fink at the Palms. Photo by John Gurzinski.

You can take "CSI" out of Las Vegas. (As the show's Miami and New York spinoffs demonstrate.)

But you can't take Las Vegas out of "CSI" -- at least not when it's time for the season opener.

TV's top-rated drama, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," launches its sixth season today on CBS (9 p.m. on KLAS-TV, Channel 8) with the episode "Bodies in Motion," in which the separated "CSI" teams reunite to tackle a trio of murders.

And while the show has a new studio home (Southern California's Universal Studios), where most filming takes place, a location visit to "CSI's" on-camera hometown remains an annual ritual.

That explains why cast and crew members braved triple-digit temperatures in August for a whirlwind three-day shoot that took them from the shadow of the Stratosphere to the sway of the Palms.

Among the "CSI" regulars making the trek: William Petersen (alias "CSI" chief Gil Grissom), Marg Helgenberger (investigator Catherine Willows), Gary Dourdan (Warwick Brown), George Eads (Nick Stokes) and Jorja Fox (Sara Sidle), all of whom have been with the show since its 2000 debut, plus David Berman (alias assistant coroner "Super Dave" Phillips) and Louise Lombard, who played the recurring role of Sofia Curtis last season and has been promoted to full-fledged regular this season.

Eads remembers when he filmed the "CSI" pilot in Las Vegas -- and "lost all my per diem" gambling.

"There's a distraction in that," he acknowledges. (These days, Eads' luck is considerably better; he won a $20,000 slot jackpot at Mandalay Bay during the location visit.)

In addition, "you're going to get better sleep at home," Eads says. "And there's a better mind set to work. But I don't really mind" the Vegas location visits, he says. "It's a pretty pleasurable experience."

For his part, "CSI" producer Louis Milito welcomes the "energy" shooting in the real Las Vegas brings to the show's depiction of Glitter City.

After all, "what we point the camera at reflects the place we're at," he says. "In every way, it's more interesting -- but it's a lot more work."

Along with portions of tonight's opener, the "CSI" squad also captured scenes for next week's episode, "Room Service," during the August shoot.

And if Milito had his druthers, "CSI" would visit Las Vegas a lot more than the current three to four times a year.

"We would love to be here six, seven, eight times a year," Milito says, keeping an eye on crew members setting up a shot on the Palms' casino floor. "It's great for the show and the production value. That would be ideal."

Yet, while "you would think 30 million viewers watching what we do and seeing helicopter shots of Las Vegas would be beneficial," Milito says, the Vegas welcome mat isn't always out -- even for the top-rated "CSI."

As a consequence, the producer considers "CSI's" hometown "the single most difficult place to shoot," he says. "Las Vegas in general has a lot of rules."

No filming on the Strip until 2 a.m., for example. And "none of the corporate casinos will allow us in," Milito adds.

That's why "CSI" gravitates to the Palms, where the show is spending much of its final 12- to 13-hour day in Las Vegas filming in the casino, at the pool and inside the N9ne steakhouse.

In addition to the restaurant and pool, the Palms boasts other "great features," Milito says, citing the Rain nightclub and the top-of-the-tower ghostbar. "It's great-looking," he says. "And it's one of the few casinos" that's family owned and, therefore, willing to let "CSI" set its often-grisly mysteries there.

For example, "Room Service" focuses on a familiar actor, a gaggle of adoring women in tow, who hits the casino to play the slots, then goes up to his room -- and dies.

"He's alive here, and he's dead upstairs," Milito explains.

Large signs flank an area crammed with slot machines, advising Palms patrons that CBS Productions is filming there. As if visitors couldn't tell by the banks of lights and Panavision cameras set up in the slot pit and carts carrying camera lenses and cables lining the walkways.

A few blocks away, in a parking lot at The Orleans, "CSI's" base camp is bustling, with two tractor-trailers dominating the compound. (The production even has its own orange cones -- marked "CSI" -- to identify its territory.)

Wardrobe staffers tote multiple costumes -- including the "LVPD Crime Scene Investigation" vest Eads will wear when he shoots his scenes at the Palms.

For now, the actor's hanging out in his private trailer, waiting to be called to the set -- at which time he'll climb aboard a van to make the quick trip from The Orleans to the Palms.

Background performers mill about, seeking refuge from the blistering sun beneath canvas canopies.

The wardrobe, hair and makeup departments are in full swing, preparing eight actors -- and about 100 extras -- for the day's shooting, according to Jamie Weber, the "CSI" production assistant overseeing base camp operations.

"It's all just a juggling act," he explains, shielded from the sun by a wide-brimmed straw hat.

"I call the studio 'home court advantage' because everything that can go wrong already has," Weber says. On location, however, new challenges emerge.

For example, "I didn't have any changing tents," he notes -- which meant he had "two changing rooms for 100 extras." Another thing he didn't have: cold drinking water for the extras, waiting to be called to the set. (At least he found the two pop-up shelters shielding them from the sun.)

"It is a little harder here," Weber acknowledges, in part because "you can't really walk around."

Back at the Palms, standing by for his next scene, Eads can't really walk around either -- not with a bodyguard hovering nearby, keeping eager onlookers at a distance.

Eads figured prominently in "CSI's" fifth-season finale -- directed by "Pulp Fiction's" Quentin Tarantino, who concocted a story line that found Eads' character kidnapped, buried alive (in a Plexiglas coffin) and nibbled by ravenous ants.

Some predicted Eads' claustrophobic turn would earn him an Emmy nomination, but that didn't happen.

His reaction to being overlooked: a philosophical shrug.

"It is what it is," Eads says.

Besides, "we've never needed to be validated by awards," the actor insists. "Our viewership does that."

As for all of the "CSI" spinoffs -- and copycats -- that have cropped up on TV since the show's unexpected success, "there's only one 'CSI' as far as I'm concerned," the actor says, his Texas drawl broadening his words. "I don't watch or talk about them. They don't even exist."

Little wonder, then, when people ask Eads " 'which "CSI" are you on?' " he offers a succinct reply: "The only one."