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[Monday at NAB]
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Zuiker Brings Content to Life
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by Kelly M. Brooks,
~ April 14, 2008
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RADIO WORLD
Talk about hitting the ground running. Not only was Anthony Zuiker’s first crack at creating a television series successful, one could argue he founded, or at least reshaped, television’s forensic crime drama.
His “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” debuted in June 2000, captivating audiences with its balance of fast-paced action, drama and those super-realistic morgue scenes that would have had the folks from “Diagnosis Murder” running for the restroom.
Zuiker, the show’s creator and executive producer, has since launched two successful spin-off series, “CSI: New York” and “CSI: Miami,” and the franchise — one of the highest rated in TV history — maintains a rabid following too. Web sites such as www.csiguide.com provide fans with merchandise, audio interviews, videos, games, music and screensavers from the show. Not bad for a former Las Vegas tram host.
Zuiker will be speaking to NAB Show attendees this morning, 10:30–11:30 a.m., as part of the Spotlight Series, “A Conversation with Anthony Zuiker.” Reportedly, he will discuss how ideas, talent and the right amount of risk can open doors for existing brands, and why promoting fresh content to a young audience is so important.
An interactive media enthusiast, Zuiker also will likely talk about his collaboration with The Electric Sheep Co., and the role that alternate reality can play in attracting that young audience.
CONTENT COMES TO LIFE
Zuiker was born in Blue Island, Ill., and graduated from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Prior to graduation, he attended the University of La Verne in La Verne, Calif., where he was initiated into the California Upsilon chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
Zuiker first tinkered with the idea for “CSI” as he worked as a tram host at The Mirage casino before “making it big,” but he also had a little help from his friends.
According to the Web site CSI Files (www.csifiles.com), he got his start “in the biz” when childhood buddy Dustin Lee Abraham, now a “CSI” scribe but an actor back then, recruited Zuiker to write monologues for him for auditions.
“I wrote a speech about a man, mentally retarded, watching his wife give birth. He’s a degenerate gambler, and he went into an announcing [mode, a play-by-play],” Zuiker said of the monologue, which earned him some of that coveted Hollywood buzz. The speech was later turned into a movie, “The Runner.”
Zuiker is a perfect match for this year’s NAB Show, branded with the tag line “Where Content Comes to Life.” In a nutshell, the guy is all about the marriage of television, Internet, gaming and mobile technologies to better deliver customized content to an audience.
At October’s Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo in San Jose, Calif., Zuiker declared the future of television is interactive: “Web-native programs, not television.” He said he envisions mobile alerts about the storyline throughout an episode; and already has created an interactive experience based around the mobile platform. CSI Q asks a question during the show, such as “What is the motive?” or “Who is the killer?,” which can be answered via cell phone for $1.
VIRTUAL WORLD
Zuiker also is big into “Second Life,” a 3D virtual world. Last summer, he developed a Second Life “CSI: NY” experience in conjunction with 3D properties developer The Electric Sheep Co. CBS had invested in the company and approached Zuiker — who has said he logs in to Second Life every day — about incorporating 3D into the CSI franchise.
“They called and said ‘Hey, we just bought some of this company and what do you think?’ and I’m, like, ‘What I think is, I want to have 16 million people go to first life [CSI: NY] and to Second Life, that’s what I think. That’d really be a lot of fun,’” he told Virtual Worlds News.
A “CSI: NY” episode last season found Gary Sinise’s character Mac Taylor — as a female avatar — entering Second Life to catch a killer who had escaped into the virtual world and would not return to television until the spring. The audience, however, could investigate the crime online in the interim in a virtual CSI lab, a concept similar to alternate-reality games, another of Zuiker’s passions.
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