CSI Files
Captain
It's been a rollercoaster ride of a year for <font color=yellow>Anthony E. Zuiker</font>, professionally speaking.After four years of work on his first major television creation, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, 36-year-old Zuiker felt ready to take on the position of showrunner of CSI: New York, the franchise's third show, which debuted in the Fall of 2004. Zuiker readily and frankly admits that the job took him by surprise.
"This was my showrunning debut," he says. "What I never anticipated was that it would be difficult beyond belief, that it would be this much of a challenge."
Zuiker wasn't alone in his surprise at CSI: New York's rocky beginnings. Before the show's September debut, CBS President <font color=yellow>Les Moonves</font> predicted it would be the highest-rated new drama this season. In a bold move, CBS scheduled New York against the flagship of the long running Law & Order franchise. Zuiker himself was deferential to the competition, but confident the many fans of CSI and its first spin-off, CSI: Miami would turn out for the new show.
"I felt that the CSI name would sort of carry us through the first season, but I've learned that we had to earn a new audience," Zuiker states frankly. "We have stiff competition going up against Law & Order. And there were a lot more science-oriented shows [when New York debuted]. When Miami first spun off, there was CSI, Crossing Jordan and maybe John Doe--we still had sort of a monopoly on the [forensic science genre]. Now I think there's probably fifteen or twenty shows on the air so it's been difficult to establish a vision for the show, and its own identity."
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