Crossing Jordan

Crossing Jordan
Cast members Miguel Ferrer, Kathryn Hahn, Jill Hennessy, Ken Howard, Steve Valentine, and Ravi Kapoor (left to right)
Created by	Tim Kring
Starring	Jill Hennessy Miguel Ferrer Ravi Kapoor Kathryn Hahn Steve Valentine Jerry O'Connell Ken Howard
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	117 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	42–44 minutes
Production company(s)	Tailwind Productions Kaledo Dritte Productions NBC Studios (2001-2004) (seasons 1-3) NBC Universal Television Studio (2004-2007)
Distributor	NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	September 24, 2001 (2001-09-24) – May 16, 2007 (2007-05-16)
Chronology
Related shows	Las Vegas

Crossing Jordan is an American television crime/drama series that aired on NBC from September 24, 2001, to May 16, 2007. It stars Jill Hennessy as Jordan Cavanaugh, M.D., a crime-solving forensic pathologist employed in the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The show used an ensemble cast approach that featured a group of Jordan's co-workers and police detectives assigned to the various cases. Its roster of central characters was created by Tim Kring, who also developed its core format. The title refers to both the name of the main character, who is commonly shown as "crossing" others—especially authority figures—to learn what she wants to know, and the biblical metaphor of the ancient Hebrews crossing the Jordan River, commonly used in spiritual songs to represent death and passage to the afterlife.

During the first two seasons, the series used a gimmick whereby Jordan and her retired police detective father Maximilian "Max" Cavanaugh (Ken Howard) role-play the events leading up to that episode's murder, which were depicted by showing Jordan playing the part of the victim or suspect in a recreation of the scene, the idea being that such role-playing would help Jordan to figure out the circumstances of the crime, like a criminal profiler. This element of the series was mostly dropped when Howard left the series as a regular; however, there were instances of Jordan role-playing with other characters, such as Woody and Macy.

After six seasons and 117 episodes on May 16, 2007, the series was canceled by NBC.

¹ Promoted to the position during the first season
² Introduced during season two and added top-billing in the first episode of season three
³ Promoted to the position during the second season; during the first, was an intake administrator
⁴ Began appearing in the opening credits beginning with the fourth season
⁵ Began appearing in the opening credits in the middle of the fifth season; left the cast early in the sixth
⁶ Became a recurring guest star for the third and fourth seasons