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After one of the more dramatic cast shakeups in recent TV history, things have settled down on the set of CBS's drama series "Criminal Minds," says executive producer Ed Bernero.

In case you've been napping, Mandy Patinkin said he was returning to the series right up to the day before they started shooting the first episode of the show's third season a few weeks ago -- at which point he went MIA, according to Bernero.

"Criminal Minds," about a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico, is one of CBS's more important players on its prime-time lineup. It repeats far better than most shows on TV these days; its average audience grew from just under 13 million viewers its first season to more than 14 million its second -- no small feat for a show that, half the year, airs in the teeth of "American Idol." "Criminal Minds" may be the most "Idol"-proof show on any network. Losing its star, a.k.a. profiler Jason Gideon, was big.

Bernero insists Patinkin was not the show's lead because it's an ensemble drama, though most reporters and TV critics seem to think he is, so let's just call him "very important to the show." The actor has been silent, except to say in a statement it was a case of "creative differences."

CBS's head of programming, Nina Tassler, subsequently explained to TV critics gathered in Los Angeles last month that "creative differences" meant "personal reasons." She declined to elaborate, while adding that she hoped at some point Patinkin would address questions about his departure. (Patinkin, you may remember, famously walked away from CBS's drama series "Chicago Hope" in its second season in the mid-'90s, saying that time he wanted to spend more time with his family.)

Anyway, by the time Tassler was dodging questions about Patinkin at Summer TV Press Tour 2007, his disappearing act had already caused an eruption of blog-o-blather as to what the bloggers' "sources" claimed had happened: Patinkin and the producers were embroiled in a nasty contract renegotiation dispute, Mandy was angry he was going to be barely featured in the season-opening episode, Mandy was unhappy the producers planned to get away from the serial-killer cases and focus more on the lives of the FBI profilers, it was about money, there was a standoff, there was still time to kiss and make up.

"I really started looking at this stuff and we were being blamed," Bernero says of the Internet noise, in an interview with the TV Column. "This guy never asked for anything he didn't get. We have a culture where we're so . . . forgiving of celebrities -- they were looking for a reason to make it everybody else's fault," Bernero recalls.

Finally, Bernero spoke out:

"Let me make this clear: This is not about a contract renegotiation, this is not about money, this is not about something Mr. Patinkin asked for and wasn't provided -- in fact, everyone involved in the show has for two years bent over backward to give him anything he wanted," Bernero wrote on one of the show's unofficial fan blogs.

"Mr. Patinkin told the show, the studios and the network he was returning right up to the day before we started shooting the first episode and then simply did not show up. . . . He was not, as some media reports have indicated, written 'lightly' in our first episode. In fact it was quite the opposite. Because of the construct of the first episode story, he was actually in the center of that episode. He left us completely in the proverbial lurch."

Bernero tells the TV Column he made that statement in order to save the show. "It was not personal about Mandy, it was about the show not being blamed for [his departure]. I thought it was really detrimental for the show losing Mandy, which was big in itself, and then have people blame the show," which he feared might lead to viewer rejection.