BWW Interviews: Anthony E. Zuiker and Cris Abrego Talk New ABC Series WHODUNNIT?, Premiering Tonight

What happens when CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker and celebreality television pioneer Cris Abrego team up to create a new reality competition? You get ABC's new high-stakes murder mystery WHODUNNIT? The show pits thirteen contestants of varied backgrounds - from bounty hunting to serving as a quiz master at bar trivia, from Boston to Long Beach - against each other in a series of murder investigations that will ultimately lead to the unmasking of the killer and $250,000 for whoever finds him or her out. The catch? In this show, if you don't solve the crime you don't just pack your bags and miss out on a shot at the prize money. You become the killer's next victim.

Zuiker and Abrego spoke exclusively with BWW about how the show came together and what viewers can expect from tonight's (June 23) premiere.

Anthony, you're the man we have to thank for the ever-amazing CSI franchise, you wrote the crime thriller Level 26 series and now you've put together this murder mystery turned reality competition. What is it that got you so interested in crime-solving?

Anthony E. Zuiker: Well, I think as a kid I watched a lot of QUINCY. You know, Jack Klugman, back when I was a youngster. And I was always a very curious kid, you know, an only child from Las Vegas. So, I just feel like growing up I was always into puzzles and games and it kind of transferred into watching THE NEW DETECTIVES on the Discovery Channel, then when I first got in the business to create CSI. But I love reality, the genre is fantastic. I'm a big fan, it's all I really watch. I've been trying to crack the space for so long and the irony is that all of my favorite shows are things that Cris has created, so when he brought me this concept and we got together to figure out what is the reality fiction version of WHODUNNIT? where you have great crime-solving scripted and you also have this excellent reality producing storytelling, we put our heads together and created this show.

Cris, you obviously have a very different background in reality television, you did more of the matchmaking shows... all the great ROCK OF LOVE, FLAVOR OF LOVE... what made you want to do a murder mystery competition?

Cris Abrego: You know, I've always been a fan of [murder mysteries] myself. I've always been a fan of Agatha Christie and CSI, obviously, and knew that it was this space we were trying to get into. That became my inspiration to get into it. But it's really tough to crack.

How did the concept for the show come together, how did you guys put your heads together to come up with the format?

CA: I think it was a credit to both our personalities, that we both love what we do and we both love the genres we were in. And kind of holding our ground in those two respective spaces helped us come up with a perfect show. The way it really came up was that I had been developing the idea with ABC and in all these meetings we kept going over ideas and different approaches, but the one thing that kept coming up in the meeting was the term CSI. You know, CSI meets this or CSI this or we should look at CSI, and then finally somebody was like, 'well, maybe we should call the creator of CSI and see if he has any interest in doing this.' It was like a brilliant idea and such a simple idea and we reached out to Anthony, we set up a lunch and him and I sat down.

AZ: And it's funny because we actually sat down at this Kate Mantilini place, which is this restaurant in Beverly Hills, and when you first walk in there's a picture of like DeNiro and Pacino in HEAT. That's like us, but not as thin [laughs]. We had this piece of paper with coffee and we literally just cracked the show in one lunch and it became the show it is today. It was really a special combustion of creativity.

You have a really interesting group that was pieced together. Were you both involved in putting the cast together?

CA: 100%, we did all the casting and all the selection along with ABC.

What were you looking for when you were picking all of the contestants?

CA: We were looking for great storytellers, great personalities.

AZ: Skill sets.

C: But above all, different than any of these other reality shows, we were looking for a real intellectual group. To some extent, we wanted a smart group who could really come and take on and try to solve these crimes.

AZ: It's not about scratching eyes out or women arguing or all this kind of cheesy... there's no love-making in this show [laughs]. It's this straight up, procedural, fun, crime-solving play-along.

Watching the premiere, I was struck by how genuinely terrified some of the contestants were. One of the girls was crying.

CA: We worked really hard to keep the experience as authentic to the cast as possible. What you see happen at the end of this episode, it happened in real time. At 4:00 in the morning to a cast who was kind of awoken out of bed by a fire alarm. Imagine getting to see that five feet from you.

AZ: That was pretty crazy that day, too.

Did you expect that they would be able to suspend disbelief to the extent that they have?

CA: It was definitely the biggest question for us going forward and it was something that Anthony and I talked a lot about. Anthony obviously has experiences working with professional actors and mine are working with real people, so what was going to be the response? I think that the group was a perfect blend of them being just genuinely scared when they saw certain things and them just not wanting to be eliminated and lose an opportunity to win a quarter of a million dollars.

AZ: Yeah, what I think is really cool about the show is, like you said, the genuine fear of getting killed is the same fear of getting kicked off the show.

CA: And not having a shot at the money.

AZ: So, that's sort of like... the storytelling works all day long.

What is ot like for you to watch the competitions unfold? Are you surprised by the way the contestants approach it?

AZ: I think for me, on my end of it, we tried to do the biggest, funnest crimes as possible, but the love affair I'm having in the cutting room right now is the story inside the story. It's the people. It's the horses that you're backing inside the episode, it's the alliances, the backstabbing, the lying, the gameplay that goes on. It's very human and very relatable. The crime is fun and it's sort of the backdrop and inertia of the show, but it's all about the people and we're totally winning the game on that one.

CA: For me, obviously, having a reality background, it's like you can build the entire environment, but once you plug in real people, anything can happen. I think that became the fun part and frustrating part for Anthony. He was like, 'no, no, no! He's supposed to go this way!' I'm like, 'oh, no, he went that way' [laughs]. We've got to just go with it because that's what they decided to do. Fortunately for us, the cast is a great cast, they're so fun to watch and they obviously do most of the heavy lifting in the series and they made a lot of great choices. Even when they made mistakes, it was fun to watch them and I think the play-along factor really helps for the audience at home.

AZ: And the fun part is to see the sort of doe-eyes of the cast for the first couple of episodes trying to get in the game, but as they get deeper into it, they are totally into it, they're grasping how the show works now. It's almost like watching children grow up in nine episodes because what starts out as being amateur ends up being expert. It's a really cool journey of the characters' progress.

How do you think you'd fare if you were a contestant on the show? What would your strategy be?

AZ: I'd be control freak, working by himself, talking to nobody. I think I'd win this show [laughs].

CA: Do you? [laughs] I would quickly team up. I would team up as fast as possible because I think the way we've built the show, no one person initially can have all the evidence. It's broken up into three parts. The last known whereabouts, the scene of the crime and the actual body that you need to investigate and you can't go to all three. You can only go to one place. So, to me, I would team up quickly with whoever I think would be people I could trust. That's probably why I would lose, because you can't trust anybody in this show.

It was amazing how quickly they all turned on each other.

CA: Oh, exactly, right?

What do you think is going to surprise people about the show? You've talked a little bit about people taking unexpected turns, but what is unique about this reality competition?

AZ: I think people are going to be blown away at the cinematic quality of watching this show because it feels and looks like a drama. There are shots in this that feel like they should be out of a motion picture. And the storytelling is so unbelievable. The storytelling and being this cinematic in the genre is not something that's really commonplace and we've really reinvented that and blown this thing up. The second thing is the level of fun you have as you play along with the crimes, is the best part about it. You think about what's great programming for the summer, it's really a show like this.

CA: I was going to say, I think you're going to be surprised at how entertaining it is and how easy it is to watch. This is what I do for a living and I watch a lot of television, but when I watch the WHODUNNIT? episodes, when they're over, I can't believe they're over. They're so easy to digest and they're so much fun to watch and the play-along factor is cool. I think people will be surprised by that.

WHODUNNIT? premieres Sunday, June 23 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

What do a former NFL cheerleader, a bounty hunter, a nurse and a flight attendant all have in common? They're all putting their investigative skills to the test along with nine other guests in the new murder mystery competition, "Whodunnit?," premiering SUNDAY, JUNE 23 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

"Whodunnit?" is an interactive series that puts 13 amateur slueths' investigative skills to the test in a riveting mystery reality competition. Players will use a variety of crime scene investigation techniques to meticulously uncover evidence in a series of puzzling murders and to ultimately reveal who among them is the killer. Some players will form alliances in the competition, while others will choose to go it alone in their quest for the grand prize of $250,000. The contestants will be guests on a glamorous estate called Rue Manor with a steward, Butler Giles (Gildart Jackson), and each week must solve a new crime in order to advance in the game. Failure to solve the crime will lead to a player's demise, until only three are left. In the final episode, one player will unmask the killer and take home the $250,000 prize.

British actor Gildart Jackson hosts "Whodunnit?," playing Rue Manor's resident steward, Butler Giles. Jackson has appeared in various television series, including "Charmed" (Gideon) and ABC's "General Hospital" (Simon Prentiss.) He recently starred in the critically acclaimed feature film "YOU," opposite Brenda Strong and Allison Mack, directed by his wife, Melora Hardin (NBC's "The Office.")

ANTHONY E. ZUIKER, executive producer
Anthony E. Zuiker is one of the most creative and multifaceted individuals working in Hollywood today. He is the creator of television's hugely successful "CSI" franchise, and his production company, Dare to Pass, has a three-year first-look deal with ABC Studios to develop new scripted series in partnership with Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Zuiker serves as executive producer of "Wonderland," a new drama pilot currently in production for NBC. "Whodunnit?" represents his first foray into reality television.

Zuiker is also a pioneer in bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Most recently he created and execute-produced "Cybergeddon," a groundbreaking digital blockbuster which launched globally first on Yahoo! in September of 2012 in 25 different countries and 10 different languages. "Cybergeddon" brought to life the growing threat of cybercrime and engaged Yahoo!'s worldwide audience through immersive storytelling, social media and gaming experience. Dare to Pass is also introducing new horror, thriller and sci-fi online programming for BlackBoxTV, a YouTube premium channel, in partnership with director Tony E. Valenzuela and Collective Digital Studio. Both "Cybergeddon" and BlackBoxTV received a total of six nominations from the 2013 Streamy Awards, including Best Branded Entertainment Series for "Cybergeddon."

Cross-platform storytelling has been a major theme in Zuiker's career. He pioneered the "digi-novel" genre as author of the Level 26 series, published by Dutton/Penguin Group. The first digi-novel in the crime series, Level 26: Dark Origins, debuted in September 2009 and was a New York Times Bestseller. The book's killer, Sqweegel, was the first digi-novel character to TV cross over when he appeared in an episode of "CSI." Zuiker is also the author of MR. CSI: How a Vegas Dreamer Made a Killing in Hollywood, One Body at a Time, published by Harper Collins.

CRIS ABREGO, executive producer
A true innovator in an ever-changing medium, Cris Abrego has established himself as a leading voice in the foundation of reality television, as well as its future. Having honed his skills at every level of production prior to heading up his own company, 51 Pictures, in 2003, Abrego's subsequent combination of hands-on technical savvy, fearless creative risk and unforgettable storytelling has resulted in a string of groundbreaking television series that have forever changed the American entertainment landscape.

Abrego's launching of "The Surreal Life" in 2003 did more than propel a new word - celebreality -- into the popular vernacular. It created an equally new genre that Abrego found himself at the forefront of, with hit after hit to show for it. "The Surreal Life" became the cornerstone launching VH1's Celebreality Block, carving out a niche for comedic reality-programming that Abrego was more than up to the task to meet in an unprecedented string of hit franchises: "Strange Love" (with Flavor Flav & Brigette Nielsen), "My Fair Brady" (3 seasons with Chris Knight & Adrianne Curry), "Flavor of Love" (3 seasons with Flavor Flav), "Celebrity Paranormal Project," "Surreal Life Fame Games," "I Love New York" (2 seasons), "Flavor of Love Girls' Charm School" (with Mo'nique), "Rock of Love" (3 seasons with Bret Michaels), "America's Most Smartest Model" (with Ben Stein and Mary Alice Stephenson), "Rock of Love Girls' Charm School" (with Sharon Osbourne), "I Love Money" (2 seasons), "New York Goes to Hollywood," "Real Chance of Love" (2 seasons), "Charm School 3" (with Ricki Lake), "For the Love of Ray J" (2 seasons), "Daisy of Love," "New York Goes to Work," "Frank the Entertainer in A Basement Affair" and "Brandy and Ray J: A Family Business." Many of these series set multiple basic cable ratings records and represent a sustained run of consistent popularity and success. In addition, Abrego also executive-produced "From G's to Gents" (2 seasons) on MTV, "Gotti's Way" (2 seasons with Irv Gotti) and "Glam God" (with Vivica A. Fox), both for VH1, as well as "Bret Michaels: Life as I Know It" and "Mario Lopez: Saved by the Baby." "Lala's Full Court Life" is starting its 4th season, and "TI and Tiny's: Family Hustle" is in production on its 3rd season.

Continued success in one field led to breakthroughs in others, as Abrego went on to create and produce programming for a wide range of networks, from E!'s "Scouted" and CBS' "Same Name" to CMT's "Top Secret Recipe" and "Redneck Island." A one-time producing partner with Joel Silver on NBC's "Next Action Star," Abrego again finds himself coupled with a scripted celebrity producer on "Whodunnit?," "CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker. "Does Someone Have to Go?!" represents Abrego's first partnership with FOX.

Prior to forming his own company, Abrego traveled the world under Bunim-Murray's banner, ensuring MTV's hit "Road Rules" had its most successful seasons via on-location production in Mexico, New Zealand, Paris, Fiji and Australia. He was a supervising producer on MTV's "Fear," a coordinating producer on ABC's hit "Making the Band," and created "Cannonball Run" for USA, "Surf Girls" for MTV and "The Hitchhiker Chronicles" for FX. He is a graduate of California State University Fullerton with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications, a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and of the American Association of Producers. Abrego has earned a reputation among peers and programmers alike as a producer who can create, develop and, most importantly, execute original content across a broad spectrum of reality programming.