Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia): Clocks ticking. Let's get out there.

Announcer: It's a white knuckle race against time.

Jack Malone (Anthony LaPaglia): We just got a ransom note.

Announcer: In a high stakes game of hide and seek as the FBI's Missing Persons Unit hunts high and low for those who have vanished... without a trace.

Anthony LaPaglia: There's hundreds of thousands of people who are missing every year. Some people disappear because they want to, some people disappear through foul means, um, some people just fall through the cracks. And uh, we try to cover all of those.

Announcer: Extra was first on the scene with series star Anthony LaPaglia and the cast of the CBS suspense thriller Without A Trace.

Crew: Here we go. ready. Rehearsal

Announcer: Co-star Poppy Montgomery says it took plenty of rehearsal with the real feds before the cast was ready to take on their first case.

Poppy Montgomery: I went in and... and... and did their basic training which was actually really enlightening.

Announcer: And a little disheartening for LaPaglia

Anthony LaPaglia: You know, one of the things I was really shocked at was that when a kid goes missing um, it's usually the last person that reports seeing them is the one that took them.

Kid: (echoing) Dad. Dad. Dad.

Announcer: In the wake of the recent rash of high-profile child abductions, LaPaglia says, Without A Trace, while timely, will not rip plots straight from the headlines.

Anthony LaPaglia: You want to be current and you want to be relevant, but you don't want to take advantage of somebody else's misfortune. That's the delicate balance that you have, you don't want to be exploitive.

Announcer: But series creator, Hank Steinberg reveals the show was actually inspired by a recent headlining missing person's case.

Hank Steinberg: It originated with um, the disappearance of Chandra Levy. She went missing and everyone had sort of... it became this media sensation.

Announcer: And Anthony hopes the nail-biting drama and heart-wrenching emotion will give viewers what they've been missing.

Anthony LaPaglia: I can honestly say that you really never really know what's coming.