Times are different in the crime lab in 2021. Thanks to Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), who inherited a goodly fortune from her father, and a group of other concerned hotel owners, the Las Vegas P.D. crime lab has been fully funded so it houses all the latest in forensic equipment for the new team of investigators, led by Maxine Roby (Paula Newsome). But the new 10-episode series will also have a taste of the original with the return of Gil Grissom (William Petersen), Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), Jim Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) and David Hodges (Wallace Langham) with a storyline that will arc over the entire first season. “Having William Petersen, Jorja Fox and Paul Guilfoyle for our existing core audience, and then having a very diversified new ensemble of cast as a combo platter makes the most sense in my opinion,” series creator Anthony Zuiker told Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “You bring back all the original cast and nobody new, it puts a lot of pressure to be innovative. If the cast is completely brand new, it’s a lot of a family to love early. But if you do a little bit of both, it feels like it’s a good option to move forward.” And move forward it does. In addition to the new cast members, CSI: Vegas will have the aforementioned longer storylines, something that never happened on the original. “It’s a manifestation of the evolution of our franchise based on a new world, a new cast, new behavioral watching habits and streaming services which have dictated a different level of storytelling for our franchise,” Zuiker said. Another difference in addition to longer episodic cases is more personal arcs with possible visits to the characters’ homes, which was a no-no on the original show, which had an ironclad rule against home visits. That said, TV has changed over the course of the years the show has been off the air and CSI: Vegas will reflect that. “We didn’t necessarily want to go to Sara Sidle’s home,” Zuiker pointed out. “I believe we went to Gil Grissom’s home once or twice, but it wasn’t that kind of a show. We didn’t really bring our problems or our personal life home because our rinse and repeat nature of doing these standalone crimes of the week was the most important.” Parade.com also spoke to Zuiker about how CSI changed not just procedural dramas but also the way that trials are conducted, spoilers on the potential return of some of the series’ infamous villains, and more. Why was this the right time to bring back the show? Did you go to CBS? Did they come to you? Our last air date was September 27, 2015. Probably four or five years later we were talking to CBS about the possibility of returning because it would be coming up on our 20-year anniversary. We debuted October 6 of 2000, and our optimal 20-year anniversary would be to come back October 6 of 2020. So, we were planning on the 20-year anniversary, COVID hit, and we received a limited series order. And as luck would have it, we’ll be debuting October 6, 2021, 21 years to the date of which we aired originally. Timing is everything. We had a great, successful 16-year run, so you don’t want to come back to [CBS] a year after you got canceled to come back. And you don’t want to come back to them 10 years from now. So, it felt like the 20-year anniversary was a pretty good excuse to start talking about it. It was a sweet spot. This time around Grissom and Sara are finally happily married. How was that decision made? Because as I recall, they were divorced. I think somewhere there’s some mythology of them being divorced. But what I recall when I wrote the two-part finale, “Immortality Part 1” and “Part 2,” metaphorically I did write them going off into the sunset. So, when they come back, they are married; they refer to each other as a married couple. Your past villains have included the Miniature Killer, the Gig Harbor Killer, the Dick & Jane Killer, which was later in the series. What can we expect from new villains? And might we revisit any from the past? There are no villains that make a surprise appearance in this particular season. But I have a strong suspicion that Jason Tracey, our showrunner, has got some things cooking up if we get a pickup to return. I think the audience will buy into a little bit of the vintage cast, the brand-new cast, and then one of our own will be under scrutiny which will make for an exciting storyline. But the great thing about this cast for CSI: Vegas is if you ever wanted to dip into previous villains, previous stunt casting, we’ve done things with Justin Bieber and John Mayer, Taylor Swift, and all those greats. The whole entire family of CSI is always wide open for surprises for CSI: Vegas, and we can always tap into that as storylines dictate. When you were looking for new cast, what qualities did you want the new team to have? We understand the importance of diversity in the casting. We wanted to be able to have an empowering, strong female lead for the new show. We’ve done an amazing job of casting people like Hugo Martinez, Mandeep Dhillon, Paula Newsome. Having the proper representation is important for our franchise because a lot of young people watch our show. What we’ve done for criminalistics in that industry based on CSI has been unbelievable in terms of the application ratio. Don’t forget, in the year 2000, the Las Vegas crime lab received like 10 applications to be a CSI. Now it’s well over 10,000 applications a year. So, we’ve definitely moved the needle big time in that department. What we’d love to have happen is as people are age appropriate to watch our show, that they see a woman from Indian descent, or Hispanic descent, or an African American boss, female, and say to themselves, “Someday I want to be like that individual.” And we’ve beautifully accomplished that in this very important and timely cast. But do the new CSIs have to have different skills than those in the past? Sure, sure, one million percent. Jason Tracey has created these new characters that have skill sets obviously in DNA and in ballistics. He’s used the forward-thinking forensic processes and given each one of them a skillset to accompany the diversity, which shows you the evolution of evidence on top of a character. Obviously, the science is moving in a very fast and forward direction, and we do dabble in some of that in this series. How different is the technology? Are there a lot of new bells and whistles since the show went off the air? I think the best way to describe it is there’s a lot of acceleration and visual stimulation in some of the standard forensic processes. Jason’s done a nice job in the dialogue. Sara will say things like, “Wow, this used to take us two weeks. Now you can have it in one day?” Or “Oh, you can use this particular gizmo on site versus back in the lab?” So, we’ll use that kind of dialogue to remind you that some of these forensic processes have moved at Mach speed. And then we’ve also put some good money and thought into trying to re-imagine some of the things that I created in the original series. We put a lot of time and thought into how do you transition across Las Vegas besides just a flyover? How do you zoom into a body? How do you zoom into the visual forensics and use different camera tricks, so it looks a little bit different? I know that CBS is very strict on making sure that when these shows air on Paramount+, that there’s a distinguishable nature between CSI: Vegas and CSI to show that we’ve really moved the franchise forward. That’s been a pretty loud mandate. Will you have to deal with this whole issue of defunding the police? It’s a good question and I’ll tell you my stance on it. Jerry Bruckheimer has a very interesting philosophy about television, even in movies, and I think it makes a lot of sense. He always would tell us we’re in the teleportation business. Meaning that when people opt into CSI, or one of his fabulous movies, that we’re able to teleport and transport ourselves into an imaginary place of storytelling to forget about life for a while. I think it’s very insightful by Jerry to say that. That said, we didn’t go a lot to the COVID well. We didn’t go to a lot of defunding the police. We didn’t really jump into these highly charged topics on purpose. I just think if you’re wearing a mask all day, the last thing you want to do is tune into our show and see people wearing masks. I know it’s a sign of the times, but at some point, let’s just forget about life for a while and enjoy the show. Getting into highly charged topics like defunding the police or that kind of thing, we’re entering a more political conversation, and we didn’t want to do that to the audience. We don’t live and die on those kinds of things. We live and die on the puzzles, the solves, the mysteries, justice for victims. That’s where we live and we’re very, very strict not to stray outside that ZIP code or else it becomes some other show. The one thing that the show did is it changed how criminal cases are tried, everybody always wants DNA now. Do you get flak from prosecutors? Well, there is a thing called the CSI effect, and it’s a very real part of our world. Arguably there’s arguments on both sides, right? So, the one argument about the CSI effect is there are jurors that have watched so much of these type of television shows that they believe that there should be some magical button, or computer, or a fingerprint that solves the case immediately. Obviously, that’s just not real life. And the other side of that argument is because there’s been a lot of education of forensic science in these types of shows, that the viewer is a little bit more savvy in the forensic department than they would be before CSI got on the air. But so are the criminals. For sure. So, there’s arguments on both sides. In the end, my recommendation for a juror is to be able to focus on what’s in front of them. Make an informed decision based on all the testimony. And then render a verdict that they feel is sound based on the case that they’re on. Are there plans for season 2? Assuming that the cases with both Brass and Hodges will be wrapped up and since they’re both retired, I think they wouldn’t be a part of it. But could Billy and Jorja stay on? Or could the show go on with just the new cast? Boy, I wish I could consult my crystal ball and ask. I will tell you that it’s a very strong season with a whole new crew and a brand-new showrunner, with some of the old codgers like myself, Jerry Bruckheimer, Jonathan Littman and KristieAnne Reed. Our hope for the audience is that we can do more. We’re certainly positioned to do more with the talent we have, and we believe it’s a very important show for the world. It sends all the right messages. On the worst day of your life there are people out there that can scrutinize evidence to bring peace of mind and justice to the survivors. I think that’s a message that is sound in today’s world. It was sound 20 years ago. And we are hopeful we did a good enough job to have the privilege to do more. CSI: Vegas premieres tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Next,Find Out If Your Favorite Show Is Coming Back or Canceled with Our Fall TV 2021 Guide!
