In April 2025, it was announced that Dick Wolf's hit series FBI would once again be expanding its universe, with a new spinoff series, CIA. Coming on the heels of the cancellations of two other FBI shows, FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International, fans were excited to hear about the new addition.
However, not all seems to have gone as planned with the launch of CIA, and some have started wondering if we'd ever actually get the series that was promised. But the good news is that CBS has finally announced a premiere date, and hopefully this one sticks.
What is CIA about?
From what we know so far, CIA will star Tom Ellis as a CIA case officer who doesn't play by the rules and is seen as a bit of a loose cannon. Alongside him will be Nick Gehlfuss, playing a by-the-book FBI agent who takes the rules seriously. It will also star Natalee Linez as a CIA analyst.
The series will be based around this odd couple's partnership and whether the two can learn to work together. They'll be working as part of a team to solve cases that involve threats against the United States, and hopefully use their strengths to rise to the occasion.
CIA's many struggles
The journey to CIA's eventual premiere has been plagued with setback after setback. Starting with the struggle to hold on to a showrunner, initially, FBI: Most Wanted's showrunner, David Hudgins, was picked to take on CIA, but then exited after some creative shakeups.
This led to Warren Leight, the showrunner of Law & Order: SVU, to take over; however, as of Thursday, Nov. 6, Variety reports that Leight also stepped back from the production. Now, it seems FBI's showrunner, Mike Weiss, will be stepping in. This came shortly after the news that executive producer Eriq La Salle was also stepping away from the show.
CIA has also suffered from issues with casting outside of their two main leads, and earlier in November, it was announced that one of their other leads was exiting the show. So far, there haven't been any updates on cast replacements, but with the announcement of the premiere date, we can assume production is moving forward.
Midseason premiere alongside FBI
While the original plan had been to introduce CIA as a backdoor pilot during FBI's season 7, and then have it premiere alongside FBI's season 8 as part of CBS's fall lineup, various production issues delayed this. Instead, the premiere was pushed to midseason.
According to TV Insider, CIA will be premiering on Feb. 23, 2026, at 10/9c, following FBI. So, assuming nothing else gets delayed in production, we'll get to enjoy back-to-back hours of the FBI universe, which perhaps could leave the door open for crossover opportunities in the future.
While there has been no official announcement about the two shows crossing over, especially since the backdoor pilot never happened, there is still hope. Both shows take place in New York and within the same universe, so it's not impossible for the characters to possibily collaborate on future cases.
CIA is slated to premiere on Monday, Feb. 23 at 10/9c on CBS.
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