'New York' Goes Cyber

See Also: 'Time's Up' Episode Guide

CSI: New York enters a whole new world.

CSI creator Anthony Zuiker has been working on a project for three months that will allow New York to spill over into a virtual landscape. When CBS told him that they had put a stake in Electric Sheep, a company that designs software for Second Life, Zuiker knew what he wanted to do. "I want to have 16 million people go to first life ["CSI: NY"] and to Second Life," he said. "That'd really be a lot of fun."

Second Life is an online community where people from around the world can create an avatar (a digital representation of himself/herself) and, as the name suggests, live a virtual 'second life'. Zuiker's plan is to start with CSI: NY and then use that to draw people into this cyber world. The show's fifth episode, "Down the Rabbit Hole" (airing October 24), will find the team investigating a murder that connects to Second Life. Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) will create an avatar and go online in pursuit of their killer.

Zuiker himself is a member of Second Life. "I play every day," he said. In addition to featuring the community on New York, Zuiker is working with Electric Sheep to bring the show online. "The campaign will be something like, 'Your first life begins at 10 o'clock. But your Second Life begins this weekend,'" he said. "You'll be able to go and download and get in the site and play in the [CSI] lab." Within the virtual lab, members will be able to practice facial reconstructions. They will also be able to visit the "Zuiker Blog", where they can see a dead body and give their opinion about how the person died. Zuiker bragged that the crossover with Second Life is "going to be the biggest cross-platform stunt in TV history."

The original article can be found at Philly.com. You can read the CSI Files spoiler report for "Down the Rabbit Hole" here. Thanks to Elyse.

Discuss this news item at Talk CSI!
 Add CSI Files RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a Desperate Housewives fan? Then visit GetDesperate.com!