The New York City field office will be one man down in the FBI season 8 finale.
Despite the end of FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International as part of the canceled shows by CBS in 2025, the flagship continues, as Isobel and Jubal's team remains committed to protecting the city. That said, FBI hasn't been without some changes within its own series. For starters, the year kicked off with the unexpected death of Dani Rhodes, leaving the squad shocked, all while waiting to hear about Isobel's fate after her near-death incident in the season 7 finale. The demise of Scola's old partner paved the way for the introduction of a new one in Eva Ramos.
Since then, the squad has remained intact, allowing the series to focus on their weekly cases and personal dilemmas. It has even had a couple of crossovers with its new spinoff, CIA. Before the 2025-2026 TV cycle ends, however, CBS has shared new information that confirms that another team disruption is on the horizon. This time, it involves an original character leaving the New York City field office for an unexpected reason.
Per CBS, FBI season 8, episode 21, "Long Shot," will see OA working on a different case, as he is forced out of the squad for "refusing to follow orders." The good news is that he's going to be partnered with a familiar face, although there's still something disappointing about not seeing him working with Maggie in the final episode of the year. Elsewhere, Isobel and Jubal's main team will deal with the fallout from the assasination of a major corporate executive. Read the full synopsis for "Long Shot" below:
Following the assassination of a major corporate executive, the team races to find leaders of a dormant terrorist organization that has reemerged. Meanwhile, OA is temporarily reassigned after refusing to follow orders but is paired up with a familiar face.
The synopsis says it's a temporary assignment, but what's more concerning here is how exactly OA got himself in this position. As a veteran member of the New York City field office, every member of the squad has long been proven to not be just lackeys to the brass of the organization. It's the very reason that the agency was saved from homegrown terrorists in the FBI season 7 finale. That said, the fact that neither Isobel nor Jubal was able to do anything to stop this reassignment makes the inciting incident more intriguing.
Whether this will have ramifications for FBI season 9 is unclear. It will likely depend on how people will respond to this new direction for OA, as the show finds ways to shake things up for the series after being on the air for such a long time. Cast changes have impacted FBI's appeal in the last several years, especially as it struggled to find a permanent replacement for Tiffany Wallace, Scola's long-time partner. As long as OA ultimately returns to his old team, this reassignment is just a way to do something different.
The good thing is that CBS has long renewed FBI for season 9, so fans of the series have nothing to worry about it being cancelled. This is also great in terms of its storytelling, as the writers can craft a finale without fear of not being able to pay off any cliffhanger next cycle.
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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