While largely unsurprising, the confirmation that the One Chicago franchise will be back in the fall is sure to please fans, who have made the three shows that make up the franchise – Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D. – among the most-watched network TV series worldwide. Creator Dick Wolf is certainly no stranger to hit television shows, with his long-running Law & Order franchise also a favorite among viewers, with NBC and Peacock reaping the rewards of his work. For One Chicago fans, though, it's his franchise on rival CBS/Paramount+ that gives them everything they want, and has for 8 years and counting: FBI.
'FBI' Has Bigger City and Bigger Stakes Than One Chicago
FBI is a procedural in the vein of Chicago P.D., detailing the internal operations of the FBI's New York City field office of its criminal division. In the office, and in the series by extension, there is a core group of five characters. Three have been there from the start: Special Agent Maggie Bell (Missy Peregrym), a former Indiana police officer, the latest in a long line of family in law enforcement, and now veteran investigator; Special Agent Omar Adom "O.A." Zidan (Zeeko Zaki), a New York native and West Point graduate who migrated to the FBI after two years undercover for the DEA; and Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Jubal Valentine (Jeremy Sisto), responsible for coordinating efforts through the Joint Operations Command. The other two, Special Agent-in-Charge Isobel Castille (Alana de la Garza) and Special Agent Stuart Scola (John Boyd), joined the series in its second season.
FBI premiered on September 25, 2018, and begins with 27 people killed when an apartment building is destroyed by two bomb blasts. At first glance, it seems to be part of a gang war. The truth, however, is much darker: a white supremacist has made it his mission to create chaos in New York by attributing the bombings to gangs of non-white people. The good news: Maggie and O.A. are closing in on their target. The bad news: there's one more bomb somewhere in the city. Fortunately, technical analyst Kristen Chazal (Ebonée Noel) defuses the bomb at a town hall meeting as the anarchist is taken in. FBI's pilot sets the tone for the series going forward: straight into the high-stakes action, and not letting up until the crowd-pleasing conclusion.
'FBI' Has the Best of the 'One Chicago' Franchise
FBI, by its nature, has the most in common with Chicago P.D., but shares elements of those things that appeal to fans of the other two One Chicago series. The partnership between Maggie and O.A. is reminiscent of the special bond between Sharon (S. Epatha Merkerson) and Daniel (Oliver Platt) on Chicago Med, or Mouch (Christian Stolte) and Herrmann (David Eigenberg) on Chicago Fire. The incidents and investigations are like what you'd see in One Chicago, albeit with stakes on a larger, occasionally on a national, level. And given that they all fall under Wolf Entertainment, there's an inherent connection thanks to the sharing of production personnel (and a tangible connection, with Detective Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) in New York to work a case with O.A. in a 2020 episode). There's also a strong commitment to diversity, shown in a positive, working environment.
However, FBI isn't as relentlessly gritty as Chicago P.D., allowing for sarcastic, witty banter between its core partnerships, where "wit" is as far away from the latter as New York is from Chicago. It also has little interest in the personal lives of its characters, eschewing the drag of "will they/won't they" relationships and allowing the procedure to drive the story, where the One Chicago shows are more character-driven. As a result, there's a more personal connection to those characters than to those in FBI. However, the series has a much smaller cast of characters, with little turnover, something that has plagued the One Chicago series' for years.
But it's not like FBI outright avoids the touchy-feely moments: in fact, the relative scarcity of them makes them hit harder when they come. Take Season 1's "Exposed," where Maggie, whose journalist husband was killed in an accident before the start of the series, confides in O.A. that she believes his death was not an accident, and she struggles to cope with his loss. It sets up an overarching storyline that eventually leads to Maggie finding the man who murdered him, thanks to the work of her partner, who secretly investigates the case to support her. FBI takes the best of the One Chicago franchise, in a leaner, more action-driven package, and has succeeded in doing so for eight years. And counting.
CIA Season 2's Fate Officially Decided By CBS After Rocky Season 1 Production
The fate of CBS' new FBI spinoff series, CIA, has now been decided.
CBS confirmed that CIA has officially been renewed for season 2, following impressive viewership numbers from its series premiere. According to Paramount, the premiere episode saw 8.4 million multiplatform viewers via broadcast and streaming within the first seven days of its release.
Ratings for the first three episodes of the series showed a 39% improvement on Monday at 10 p.m. compared to the same timeslot in fall 2025.
Behind the scenes, though, CIA has had a rocky production. FBI: Most Wanted showrunner David Hudgins was initially in charge of the series, but Warren Leight later replaced him. That wasn't the end of the turnover, though, as he eventually departed, along with executive producer Eriq La Salle. Mike Weiss, who was the showrunner on the original FBI series, was hired as the CIA showrunner.
All of this turmoil, plus Michael Michele's departure from the cast, caused production delays, and CBS decided to give CIA a mid-season 2026 premiere after previously announcing it would debut in fall 2025.
CIA stars Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss as CIA Agent Colin Glass and FBI Agent Bill Goodman, respectively, who are tasked with working together on a secretive joint CIA/FBI task force. The two agents couldn't be more different, with the latter a rule-follower and the former more mischievous in nature.
While on the job together, Glass and Goodman stay in the shadows as they solve domestic and international crimes away from the eyes of the public.
Before CIA, Ellis was best known for his role as Lucifer Morningstar on the Fox/Netflix drama Lucifer, while Gehlfuss has starred in The Newsroom, Shameless, and Chicago Med (another Dick Wolf-created series).
Their CIA co-stars include Necar Zadegan and Natalee Linez. Zadegan, who plays Nikki Reynard, will guest star in the March 30 episode of FBI season 8, in which the Deputy Chief of Station is called in to help following a double homicide. The episode will mark Maggie Bell's return to the team after suffering a major loss.
Wolf created the hugely popular Law & Order and One Chicago franchises on NBC, and then went on to create the FBI crime procedural franchise for CBS. The first FBI series debuted in 2018 with star Missy Peregrym and is currently airing its eighth season.
Two years later, the first spinoff, FBI: Most Wanted, launched and aired for six seasons. FBI: International followed in its footsteps and aired for four seasons.
CIA, which currently has a 63% critic score and 51% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, marks the third FBI spinoff, with Wolf, Weiss, Ken Girotti, Paul Cabbad, Nicole Perlman, David Chasteen, Anastasia Puglisi, and Peter Jankowski serving as executive producers.
CIA airs Mondays at 10 p.m. EDT on CBS.
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