As evident by this week's highly touted crossover between "CSI," "CSI: Miami" and "CSI: NY," the impact this franchise has had on the television industry is as strong as ever with more crime procedurals populating many of the slots in television. How exactly has the medium been effected since the first "CSI" premiered on CBS in 2000? Our Jim Halterman figured it was best to go to the man who started it all and rang up creator Anthony E. Zuiker to talk about changing the face of television, why novel writing excites him, how "CSI" helped change the face of television and what he thinks is to come in the state of the ever-changing television landscape.

Jim Halterman: You recently released your digi-novel, Level 26, which incorporates going from the book to the Internet. Was there any trepidation as you embarked on this endeavor?

Anthony Zuiker: Sure, no question about it. I know enough about Silicon Valley to know that a buying a book, stopping every 25 pages, logging into a website, entering a code and watching a piece of motion picture footage that will bridge you from one chapter to another could be classified as a bit clunky. But I wanted to make sure that I got the book out into the stores because you can read the book cover to cover and read like any other novel. I was hoping to add value for the newer generation to watch these speed bumps or clips, which were real scenes that you might see in the movies or on television. The younger audience would consume the book a different way than what's traditional but also it could be a direct segue into the website www.Level26.com always knowing that the ideal and primary experience of the digi-novel was always conceived to be on the iTouch and the iPhone.

JH: Now that the book has been out for a few months, what has the response been? Did the introduction to the digi-novel work?

AZ: I think on the up end it's been moderate. In terms of working, people either love it or hate it. The reviews have been mixed top to bottom. Some of the tech reviews coming out after we launched the iTunes extras, PC app and also the app for the iTouch and iPhone... the press labeled it as 'the digi-novel is finally a digi-novel.' Those reviews have been fairly positive much more than the book history so I feel really good about that. Whenever you take something that has been around since the burning bush and completely turn it upside down in terms of technology you can expect to have a wide array of first responses but I like it and I like it in a sense that what I needed as a reader which was wanting something a little extra to look forward to on my reading breaks; some great scene that is of outside quality is satisfying.

JH: Do you think the idea is catching on and there will be more digi-novels coming?

AZ: It's possible. The financial numbers don't support it so when we're selling at the rate of a Dan Brown or a Stephanie Meyer maybe... but I think what it will do in retrospect a couple of years from now - and we're going to launch book two and three and there may be more - but what they're going to go back to in the course of our short term history is to really put the finger on that digi-novel. If Apple does the iTablet as people want more interaction in terms of their narrative more so typically than the book... this is what is quantified as ahead of its time and new for its time and over the course of time it's going to evolve itself into a different way to consume a book.

JH: Will we eventually see a film or television show based on "Level 26?"

AZ: It's possible, sure. This has always been designed to have different ancillary conduits to further the content in terms of a motion picture or a television show or a comic book or a bobble head - I'm kidding - but one thing that I wanted to do was create really great characters and a storyline and I believe we've done that. I've had several offers for movies and television that we're talking about but right now my primary focus is just to perfect and evolve and listen to the feedback from the community on the experience [and] make those adjustments.

JH: With your work in television since "CSI" launched, how did it feel to get back to doing the kind of writing you do when crafting a novel?

AZ: It felt great. I was on set rewriting 'Terminator Salvation' for six months while I was writing the outline for 'Level 26,' the novel, which was about 90 pages, so I almost dropped dead during that process but I know my level of excitement going from the movie, which was complicated and very stressful, to writing a novel was getting back to being a writer again where you didn't have anyone looking over your shoulder or worrying about notes or changing but writing right from the gut. I think being television over the course of ten years and having so many people collaborating with your vision, and albeit positive, sometimes you want to have your own voice.

JH: Do you watch a lot of television?

AZ: I do.

JH: I'm curious what you watch and if you see the "CSI" influence in the other crime procedurals out there.

AZ: For sure, there's no question about it. To be fair, all of these 'CSI'-type shots really came as an influence from the movie 'Three Kings.' When you saw the bullet inside the cadaver that's where I got that idea so it's only fair that other TV shows have watched 'CSI' and copied the white/flash/flashback mechanism or the fractured time mechanism and this isn't the end of seeing things at a very close way to demonstrate a story point or the evidence. I think it's the sincerest form of flattery and if we're doing our job at 'CSI' to move television forward by the storytelling from hour-to-hour than I think we're doing our job.

JH: Do you watch the other procedurals out there?

AZ: I steer clear pretty much. I really enjoy 'Hell's Kitchen' and I enjoy 'Grey's Anatomy,' I've watched reruns of 'The Sopranos.' I just sort of like to watch what I like to watch. It allows me some time to tune out for a while and relax. I don't slave over every single drama that's out there. I definitely don't watch the other forensic-type knock-off shows. That's just too much for one man to handle but I love television and I love nothing more than to sit and watch; it's one of my favorite pastimes. I'm a little depressed that television is going through a lot of growing pains based on behavioral shifts of technology and how we're consuming it but you have to turn that into a challenge.

JH: You hear a lot of people say that 'cable is where it's at.' Do you agree with that?

AZ: It's a tricky question. I agree that the writer's voice inside cable can be a touch more distinct and I'm glad the audience still respects really solid storytelling but my business - for what puts food on my plate and what pays my rent - is not the cable business but the network business and I'm also trying to hit things based on how to get in the app business and stay there because I've heard such great things about Apple as well as how can I bring creative content to a viewer in network television to make network television be 'where it's at' again. Those are two tremendously huge challenges. It's hard to create a great app when you're fighting 85,000 apps in the iTunes store. It's also very tough to just think of a brand new show that can get through the outline phase, the actor phase, the producing phase and then land on the schedule. There's only a small number of slots left from year to year that will say 'Hey, let's give this show a try.' It's very, very tough.

JH: From what I hear from the people working in cable, it sounds like there are not as many cooks in the kitchen than the broadcast network world.

AZ: I don't know if there are fewer cooks in the kitchen. I just think that the writer's voice and vision is a touch more honored in cable because that's what the cable viewer wants; like the ones that have a really clear voice and a high quality of production and an extraordinary level of entertainment value like a 'Mad Men,' which is a runaway success, like 'The Closer.' It's good that those kinds of shows are still very strong. I'll get nervous when nothing is working on network and nothing is working on cable. Then I'll be very nervous.

JH: Reality television is so huge right now and just seems to get bigger. Could it ever take over scripted programming?

AZ: I don't think so. I think there will always be a cycle for reality that the consumer wants to enjoy because it is a level of escapism. What reality is doing very nicely as of late is they are engaging in the one hidden secret that makes a show successful and that's storytelling. As long as they tell a story within the reality show that's engaging, reality will always have a very long life. Do I think reality will ever surpass and make scripted programming become history? Absolutely not. But reality, by the way, wears a black eye for no reason. To sit down when they make a great reality show and it's bought and put on the air... it's extremely difficult and has been a nemesis of mine for years. I've been thinking every day for years what's the next great reality show and it's an art form that should be regarded with every bit of class as a drama should be regarded and a comedy because it's just as difficult to create.

JH: You've talked about how the OJ Simpson trial influenced audiences being able to be drawn in by the forensics element of 'CSI.' How do they relate?

AZ: It's no secret that the American audience was captured by the OJ trial and everybody had some sort of emotional investment or cared about the trial but the downside was that they didn't know what the hell everyone was talking about in terms of all the forensic terminology. 'CSI,' I believe, came along at the right time when we were able to answer a lot of those forensic type questions and bring a different spin to the modern day mystery and take the point of view in a crime show that really hadn't been done before, which was forensic science and while you were being entertained you were also learning. To the American viewer and the world, something bad happened and the forensic experts could take the evidence and piece things together without ever being there and the body was the perfect specimen to give evidence in terms of trauma. It was so fascinating to a viewer that it just made for a great television show and to this day is still going strong.

JH: In the CSI shows, the case of the week has always been in the forefront and viewers only get bits and pieces of the lives of our regular characters. Was that part of the design and why?

AZ: Indeed. The writers room would always go 'Let's give the audience dropper-full of character' so we can have that level of entertainment. TV is all about the people but we were very, very strict to never wake up one day and put the crime solving and science of forensic evidence in the background of the show. The best example, with all respect, was 'The Sopranos' episode where half the show was a dream sequence about the horse and that kind of got away from what we expected in 'The Sopranos,' which is cheating on somebody or people getting whacked but you really expected a certain rhythm to 'The Sopranos' and I don't fault David Chase at all for going off the grid for one episode but it did feel a little bit off and can you imagine if 'The Sopranos' committed to every show being like the horse episode? We want to make sure we always really stuck to what we call the forensics/procedural meat and potatoes in every show and never get away from that.

JH: Women really respond strongly to these crime procedural shows. Does that surprise you?

AZ: Not at all. We thought that maybe the 'Level 26' book didn't take off because it was too dark. Women love the darkness if it's earned. Women don't like gratuitous violence, women don't like violence against women and it's very important that as long as we told the female audience that we're showing this gore, we're showing this bloody arm, we're showing this blood spat, we're showing these maggots for forensic reasons in the storytelling then it was immediately forgiven. The first note we got on the planet was we needed to tone down the maggots crawling out of the gunshot wound in the guy's chest in the bathtub because women will think this show is all about gore so we shaved a lot of that out of the pilot in the very beginning and it was a good note in retrospect because what the network was telling us is to make sure we earn the right to show that kind of stuff and now that we've earned it we can hang them from the rafters and nobody cares anymore but in the beginning we were very cautious in terms of the gore.

JH: Are Emmy awards important to you? "CSI" has been nominated for Best Drama and other categories many times but has yet to win

AZ: Another tough question. For me, personally, it's not important but to the cast and the crew that works on the show it would be nice. I believe the show deserves it. I think that victory is the fact that we've been in the top ten for over five years. I've employed 400 people, thousands of people over the course of our ten-year run and changed the course of television; to me that's the trophy. What saddens me is that a William Petersen, a Marg Helgenberger, some of our directors, the great writing on the show, which is almost never well received and never acknowledged. I just don't think you can have great television without those factors so the fact that a director or a writer or one of our actors has not taken home a statue or even had best show is a bit of a sacrilege but if I get too involved in the politics of how those awards are handed out... it's kind of like winning the Super Bowl and you don't give the quarterback the trophy. It doesn't make any sense.

Zuiker's novel "Level 26" can be found everywhere books are sold and www.Level26.com can tell you more about the digi-novel. The "CSI" crossover event begins tonight on CBS with Laurence Fishburne turning up on "CSI: Miami" then heading to "CSI: NY" on Wednesday before returning returning to Las Vegas on Thursday.