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NUMB3RS
The NUMB3RS logo
Genre	Police procedural
Creator(s)	Nicolas Falacci Cheryl Heuton
Starring	Rob Morrow David Krumholtz Judd Hirsch Peter MacNicol Alimi Ballard Navi Rawat Diane Farr Dylan Bruno
Opening theme	Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads (Season 1)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	56 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	43 minutes (approx)
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	January 23, 2005 – present
Links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

NUMB3RS (Numbers) is an American television show that follows FBI Special Agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) and his mathematical genius brother, Charlie Eppes (David Krumholtz), who develops formulae to predict the actions of various criminals. It was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, produced by CBS Paramount Network Television, and airs on the CBS network in the US.

The show focuses equally on the relationships between Don Eppes, his brother Charlie Eppes, and their father, Alan Eppes (Judd Hirsch) and on the brothers' efforts to fight crime, normally in Los Angeles. A typical episode begins with a crime, which is subsequently investigated by a team of FBI agents led by Don and mathematically described by Charlie, occasionally with the help of Larry Fleinhardt (Peter MacNicol) and/or Amita Ramanujan (Navi Rawat). The insights provided by Charlie's mathematics are always in some way crucial to solving the crime.

Contents 1 NUMB3RS and Mathematics 2 Cast and characters 2.1 Main Characters 3 Episodes 3.1 Season 1 3.2 Season 2 3.3 Season 3 4 U.S. television ratings 5 Production notes 6 International first broadcast dates 7 DVD releases 8 References 9 See also

Several mathematicians work as consultants for each episode.^[1] Actual mathematics is presented in the show; the equations on the chalkboards are real, and they are indeed applicable to the situations presented in each show. This phenomenon has been recognized by working mathematicians; see, for example, the article "NUMB3RS gets the math right", published by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA)^[2] and the January 21 issue of Math Games^[3] in which Ed Pegg, Jr. discusses related issues. e.g. Bayesian search theory, graph theory, combinatorics. However, at least one mathematician consultant to the show has expressed concern with its use of math and the failure to integrate consultants at various stages in each episode's development, in addition to its portrayal of female mathematicians, and inappropriate aspects of the relationship between Charlie Eppes and his graduate student Amita Ramanujan.^[4]

While the mathematics are accurate, a great number of other ideas presented in the show are not as grounded in fact; for instance, in the episode "Dirty Bomb," the explosion caused by the "C4" in the plaza would require nearly twice as much C4 as the trash can could hold.^{[citation needed]}

To assist the FBI in the show, Professor Charlie Eppes has invoked the following mathematical disciplines (among others): cryptanalysis, probability theory, game theory, partial differential equations, decision theory, graph theory, data mining and astrophysics.

American math teachers have used episodes of the show as a teaching tool, as it connects the forensics boom in America (triggered by such shows as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) to classroom topics. Texas Instruments and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics have created the We All Use Math Every Day education outreach program, in which teachers are provided with class activities based on the concepts to be featured in the next episode.^[5]

Main article: Characters of NUMB3RS

Name	Portrayed by	Division/Precinct
Don Eppes	Rob Morrow	FBI Agent
Charlie Eppes	David Krumholtz	Mathematician/ FBI/NSA Consultant
Alan Eppes	Judd Hirsch	Former LA City Planner
Megan Reeves	Diane Farr	FBI Agent/Profiler
Larry Fleinhardt	Peter MacNicol	Physicist/FBI Consultant
Amita Ramanujan	Navi Rawat	Mathematician/FBI Consultant
David Sinclair	Alimi Ballard	FBI Agent
Colby Granger	Dylan Bruno	FBI Agent

Main article: List of NUMB3RS episodes

Season 1 (January 23, 2005 – May 13, 2005) sees the start of the working relationship between Los Angeles' FBI department and Charlie Eppes. The main FBI agents are Charlie's brother, Don Eppes, and Terry Lake, as well as David Sinclair. Don and Charlie's father, Alan Eppes, provides emotional support for the pair, while Professor Larry Fleinhardt and doctoral student Amita Ramanujan provide mathematical support and insights to Charlie.

Season 2 (September 23, 2005 – May 19, 2006) sees the continuation of the relationship between the FBI and Charlie. Terry Lake is reassigned to Washington, and Megan Reeves replaces her role as a psychological profiler for the team. Colby Granger is also introduced.

NUMB3RS has been renewed for a third season,^[6] which began airing in North America on September 22, 2006. Perhaps the largest changes from previous seasons include the removal of the opening credit sequence (credits are now done during the first segment of the show).

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of NUMB3RS on CBS.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Season	Timeslot	Season Premiere	Season Finale	TV Season	Ranking	Viewers (in millions)
1st[7]	Friday 10:00PM	January 23, 2005	May 13, 2005	2004-2005	#36	10.77
2nd[8]	Friday 10:00PM	September 23, 2005	May 19, 2006	2005-2006	#32	11.62
3rd	Friday 10:00PM	September 22, 2006	TBA	2006-2007	TBA	TBA

For most of its series run, NUMB3RS has been the most-watched television program on Friday nights.

• The original concept for the show had the events take place at MIT.^[9]
• Scenes which take place at CalSci, where Eppes, Fleinhardt and Ramanujan are on the faculty, are filmed at Caltech and USC. One of the most frequent campus locations at Caltech is the vicinity of Millikan Library, including the bridge over Millikan Pond, the Trustees room, and the arcades of nearby buildings. At USC, locations include Doheny Library and the Town and Gown dining room.
• Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heuton, the show's creators, won the Carl Sagan Award for the Public Understanding of Science in 2006.^[10]
• The Craftsman home used in the first season is owned by David Raposa and Edward Trosper.^[11] From the second season forward, a repelica set has been used.
• Famous scientists and mathematicians mentioned in the series include Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Archimedes, John von Neumann, Paul Erdős, Pierre-Simon Laplace, Michael Faraday, Richard Feynman, Werner Heisenberg, Bernhard Riemann and Edward Witten.
• The famous chess game Morphy v. Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard is featured at least twice in the series, once in the ending scene of "Man Hunt" and again in the "chess interlude" of the episode "Assassin".

Country	First aired	Television network
Australia	August 15, 2005	Network Ten
Belgium	September, 2006	RTL-TVI
Brazil	August 7, 2005	Telecine Premium
Bulgaria	January 19, 2006	bTV
Canada	January 23, 2005	Global TV
Denmark	September 20, 2006	Kanal 5
Finland	November 24, 2006	MTV3
France	April 14, 2006	M6
Germany	September 5, 2005	Pro 7, now on Sat.1
Hungary	May 22, 2006	TV2
India		AXN
Ireland		Channel 6
Israel	October 27, 2005	yesWeekend ("מספ7ים" - Misparim)
Italy	March 5, 2006	Rai2
Japan	2006/2007	Fox Crime/Fox
Malaysia	December 5, 2005	RTM1 and AXN
The Netherlands	August 30, 2005	SBS6
New Zealand	July 20, 2005	TV3
Norway	December 21, 2006	TV2 (Norway)
Philippines		AXN
Poland	June 28, 2006	TV4
Portugal	October 19, 2006	TVI
Quebec	January 6, 2006	Z Tele
Russia	August 18, 2006	TV3
Serbia	March 14, 2007	B92
Spain	March 7, 2006	Antena 3
Sweden	April 29, 2006	TV4
Taiwan		AXN
Thailand		AXN
Turkey	2005	Dizimax
United Kingdom	October 5, 2005	ITV3
Saudi Arabia and Arab World	October 30, 2006	MBC 4

DVD cover	Season	Episodes	Originally aired	Discs	DVD release date
					Region 1	Region 2/4
	1	13	2005	4	US/CAN: May 30, 2006	AUS: October 05, 2006
	Running Time: 544 minutes DVD Special Features:[12][13] Audio commentaries on selected episodes, with co-creators/co-executive producers Cheryl Heuton, Nicholas Falacci and David Zucker; actors David Krumholtz, Lou Diamond Phillips, Judd Hirsch and Rob Morrow; supervising producer/writer Andrew Dettmann and directors Alexander Zakrzewski and Paris Barclay. Crunching NUMB3RS: Season 1 Point of Origin: Inside the Unaired Pilot Audition Reels, with optional commentary by casting director Mark Saks Do the math: The Caltech analysis CharlieVision: FX Sequences 1.0 Blooper Reel
	2	24	2005 – 2006	6	US/CAN: October 10, 2006	TBA
	Running Time: 1037 minutes DVD Special Features: [1] This box set contains the second season shown in Anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio along with audio commentaries featuring Commentary by: Robert Port, John Behring, Barry Schindel, Rob Morrow, Miller Tobin, Diane Farr, David Krumholtz, Sean Crouch, Norberto Barba, Bill Nye, Andrew Dettmann, Nicolas Falacci, Andrew Black, Alimi Ballard, Will Patton, Cheryl Heuton, Don McGill, Peter Ellis and Mark Llewellyn. Blooper Reel Behind the Scenes with Nicolas Falacci Behind the Scenes with David Krumholtz "Crunching Numb3rs: Season 2" featurette

1. ^ Hollywood Math and Science Film Consulting. Retrieved on 2006-04-26.
2. ^ Keith Devlin. NUMB3RS gets the math right. Retrieved on 2006-05-07.
3. ^ Math Puzzle.com. Retrieved on 2006-04-27.
4. ^ Silverberg, Alice (November 2006). "Alice in NUMB3Rland". FOCUS 26 (8): 12-13. 
5. ^ We all use math everyday Math Education Program. Retrieved on 2006-06-24.
6. ^ Mahan, Colin. "Voila! CBS renews 14 shows at once", TV.com. Retrieved on 2005-06-07.
7. ^ Viewer numbers of the official 2004-2005 U.S. television season
8. ^ Viewer numbers of the official 2005-2006 U.S. television season
9. ^ "Numb3rs (2005). Retrieved on 2006-05-07.
10. ^ Official Numb3rs website. Retrieved on 2006-05-13.
11. ^ Arts and Crafts by the 'Numb3rs' by Christy Hobart, Special to The Times Los Angeles Times, February 17, 2005
12. ^ Numb3rs (Numbers) - Featurettes, a gag reel and commentaries Tvshowsondvd.com. March 17, 2006. Retrieved July 1, 2006.
13. ^ Numb3rs - The Complete First Season (2005) Amazon.com. Retrieved July 1, 2006.