CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American procedural crime drama franchise created by Anthony E. Zuiker, following forensic investigators who use scientific evidence rather than traditional detective work to solve crimes, and which aired on CBS from 2000 to 2015, becoming for several seasons the most watched television series in the world. Its success led to three geographically distinct spin off series, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY and CSI: Cyber, along with later revival series CSI: Vegas, and the franchise's heavy visual emphasis on forensic laboratory techniques, though frequently criticized by real forensic scientists for dramatizing the speed and certainty of the science, is widely credited with popular interest in forensic science and with what researchers have called the CSI effect, a shift in jury expectations about forensic evidence in real trials. The franchise has also produced video games, novels and a themed museum exhibition, cementing its influence on the wider procedural crime genre in television.