Zuiker Searches For A More 'Immersive' Experience

See Also: 'Oedipus Hex' Episode Guide

Television is evolving.

At the NewTeeVee live conference in San Francisco, CSI creator Anthony Zuiker discussed his vision of the future of TV. "We are in the golden age of television as of right now," he told NewTeeVee. "There are so many amazing shows. Every network has two or three monster hits. So how come the numbers are depressed? How is it we can take the medium forward and tell stories in a way that gives us an immersive experience?"

Zuiker's answer: cross-platform storytelling. "The fact that we have to sit at a specific time and find something to watch — it's a problem," he continued. "Try to find a more immersive experience that's not just that one hour at the one time slot. CBS has empowered me to take chances in television and dabble in different devices to create this paradigm of cross-platform storytelling." He started by including the Suicide Girls in an episode of CSI: New York ("Oedipus Hex"). He went on to introduce the CSI:Q quiz game, as well as the Second Life tie-in on New York.

"But television cannot be reduced to an ancillary broadcast device," Zuiker explained. "We need to drive people from one platform to another. The problem with CSI right now, it's a show that isn't designed for Silicon Valley or other devices. We launched the show when it had no multi-device type of world. So right now the goal is to create new shows having all these devices in my brain, and create that from scratch."

Something Zuiker is creating from scratch that involves multiple media platforms is his upcoming series of digital novels. "I am a horrible, horrible reader," Zuiker said, "so I felt like, How do I take the YouTube generation and bridge it to the publishing world? Create a book with web chapters in between each physical chapter to give people an experience beyond the book. The future of the one-off is over. It all has to work together."

So what is the future of television? "I feel that YouTube is the future of television in disguise," Zuiker said. "I believe a lot of TV networks will some day go on-demand. I would love to customize what I want to watch on any device. I believe that the TV should learn what you want to watch, when you want to watch it, and customize it to your needs."

The original article is from NewTeeVee.

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