Reality Meets Virtual Reality

See Also: 'Down the Rabbit Hole' Episode Guide

CSI creator Anthony Zuiker discusses the future of entertainment.

Zuiker was at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo in San Jose, California on Wednesday. He spoke about the evolution of television and said that the future will encompass "TV, online, mobile and games." During the conference, Zuiker gave information about the upcoming CSI: New York storyline that will bring the show's main character, Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise), into the online world of Second Life.

The episode, "Down the Rabbit Hole", will air on October 24. At the end of the episode, the killer will manage to escape. On February 6, the storyline will continue when the killer returns to New York. In that second episode, which will air around the same time as the Grammy awards, a rock star (who has not yet been signed to do the show) will have a role to play in catching the killer. He or she will also perform a concert in Second Life.

However, fans won't have to wait until February to continue the storyline that begins in "Down the Rabbit Hole". According to Zuiker, CBS will air "two 30-second spots that night to tell 16 million people that we're having a CSI: NY virtual world . . . that will be up forever." CSI Files recently described the activities that New York fans will be able to participate in online.

Zuiker described the Second Life tie-in as "an aggressive experiment" but said that, if successful, CBS might continue the arc beyond the planned February conclusion. The day after the February 6 episode, the killer will escape from the Second Life jail where he or she is being held when it explodes, thus opening the door for a future storyline. "We're going to blow this whole thing up," Zuiker said.

You can read more about Zuiker's trip to the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo on Yahoo.com, the San Francisco Chronicle and Gamasutra.

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