CBS has a good thing going on Tuesday nights with the three FBI shows, and FBI: International ended the 2024 TV schedule on the most intense cliffhanger. The most immediate concern after the fall finale regards whether Vo will survive being shot into the 2025 TV schedule, but Wes and Tyler seemingly gearing up to avenge her doesn't bode well for them in the new year. While we can only speculate about what they'll actually do after their cliffhanger, new cast member Jay Hayden's deep dive on his longtime real-life friendship with Jesse Lee Soffer goes way back.
It was no secret ahead of Hayden's debut as Agent Tyler Booth that he and Soffer were friends well before he landed his role on FBI: International, not too long after Station 19 ended on ABC. The Chicago P.D. alum previewed "some baggage" between Tyler and Wes all the way back in an October interview with CinemaBlend, hyping getting to work with his real-life "really close friend."
Well, it remains to be seen just how close Wes and Tyler will be in the winter premiere and beyond, but when I spoke with Jay Hayden about his arrival in CBS' FBI world, I discovered that the friendship with Jesse Lee Soffer goes way further back than I knew. When I asked what it was like for him to work with somebody who was a friend before he was a co-star, Hayden replied:
We were laughing because we've been friends for 16 years or so, maybe more, and we finished our first scene together and I go, 'I think I just looked at you in the eyes more than we've looked at each other for all 15 years of knowing each other.' [laughs] He's like, 'Yeah, I didn't like it.' And I was like, 'Yeah, me neither.' But it's awesome. I mean, who gets to really do that?
Characters gazing into each other's eyes is a classic on the small screen, and both Jay Hayden and Jesse Lee Soffer did plenty of it in their respective Station 19 and Chicago P.D. days. Who knew that they'd be locking eyes shortly into their time together on FBI: International? After laughing about that interaction, Hayden went on:
There's not a lot of people who get to actually work with a close, personal friend, and it's fun because he's such an awesome actor and really takes care of the story and looks out for the integrity of the show. Acting with him, it's so fun. We're having fun on set, a lot of laughs and messing around, and then we get really serious and get to get into character and carve out these scenes together. It was such a joy, such a pleasure.
It's not shocking to learn that Hayden and Soffer had some laughs behind the scenes after how the Fly Team newcomer recounted his surprisingly silly scene with Wes from his first episode. The two actors had to be pulled back after their golf scene "just turned into a party."
What was surprising – to me, at least – was hearing from Hayden that he and Soffer had known each other for nearly two decades. I'd imagined that they'd met more recently as the stars of two successful network TV shows. When I noted that their friendship went back to pre-Station 19 and pre-Chicago P.D. days, he recalled:
Oh, yeah, way back! I mean, we were just young guys in acting class being like, 'Someday we're gonna make it in this town.' I remember, we were both so poor. We were like, 'Okay, we can't afford to get audition coaching from this acting school for all of our auditions, so we're going to make a pact. We're going to run our auditions with each other, no matter what, all the time, until we make it.' And we did. We literally ran every audition. I remember running his Mob Doctor audition with him, and that show's a deep cut.
I don't want to say that future TV stars Jesse Lee Soffer and Jay Hayden practicing auditions together parallels how future movie stars Robert Pattinson, Eddie Redmayne, Andrew Garfield, Charlie Cox, and Jamie Dornan all lived together before making it big, but that's certainly where my mind went! Hayden and Soffer had no way of knowing 15 years ago that not only would they star in their own network TV hits, but would also join forces another another successful series.
Plus, Mob Doctor certainly is a deep cut, as Jesse Lee Soffer was part of the cast of that short-lived series from 2012-2013, and it's possible that he never would have joined One Chicago full time if that Fox drama had taken off. Chicago P.D. premiered in early 2014, after Soffer made some earlier appearances on Chicago Fire.
As for how long we can expect to see Wes and Tyler together on FBI: International, Hayden confirmed after his first episode that he'd be around for "a bunch of episodes" and "Maybe I'll swing back through." A series of photos that he posted to hype his arrival showcased some of that real-life friendship, as you can see below:
For better or worse, we'll learn the fallout of whatever Wes and Tyler decide following that fall finale cliffhanger when FBI: International returns in 2025 on Tuesday, January 27 at 9 p.m. ET on CBS. If you'll need a refresher on how the show wrapped 2024, you can find the episode streaming with a Paramount+ subscription. As always, International airs between FBI (which lost a major cast member in 2024) at 8 p.m. ET and Most Wanted at 10 p.m. ET.
