CBS went on a renewal spree early in the 2025 TV schedule, with shows ranging from comedies like Ghosts to dramas like Justin Hartley's Tracker earning returns for the 2025-2026 TV season. Sadly, both FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International were missing from the list, and later were cancelled.
I'm still shocked about Most Wanted getting the axe ahead of its 100th episode, and the ratings for International were high enough that fans likely felt pretty safe about a fifth season. After I looked back at the ratings, I was reminded of what the stars shared about working closely together, and it stings all over again.
FBI: International's Season 4 Ratings
CBS' ratings rundown for the 2024-2025 TV season as of the end of 2024 (via TVLine) revealed that Tracker in particular was thriving after a time slot change, but it was hardly the only successful drama. Season 4 of FBI: International averaged an audience of 6.46 million total viewers and rating of 0.42 in the 18-49 age demographic in Live+7 totals, placing it as CBS' #8 scripted drama.
While that's lower than FBI with its average of 7.97 million and 0.51 rating, the outlet noted no big drops from the end of Season 3 to start of Season 4. International was higher in both ratings and viewership than Fire Country, which dipped 12% from last season but was among CBS' renewals. The FBI spinoff also has higher average numbers than NCIS: Origins, which will return for a second season.
Interestingly, the numbers for International and FBI: Most Wanted are similar, with both averaging the 0.42 rating, although Most Wanted averaged a lower audience with 6.3 million and dropped by 12% from its fifth season. All in all, while I knew one one of the FBI spinoffs might be cut once news broke of FBI: CIA, and International seemed like the easier one to cancel with its overseas setting, I still look at the numbers and am surprised that the Fly Team won't be back for another round.
What The FBI: International Cast Told Us
The agents of FBI: International's Fly Team rely pretty heavily on each other, with all of them fighting crime far from their own homes. It seems that the actors have built strong bonds as well, with International almost rebooting itself in Season 4 when Jesse Lee Soffer came on board.
When I spoke with Vinessa Vidotto earlier this year about filming Vo's bloody fall finale cliffhanger, the cancellation news was still weeks away. Reflecting back on that episode ahead of the winter premiere, the actress shared a fun fact about the cast getting together to celebrate their show:
We watch our show together as a group, and I love it. We're so cute. [laughs] We've watched it in our own green room, in between takes, we have premiere gatherings at each other's apartments. It's just a thing we do. It just feels like family. You know, we film out here in Europe, and it was a new show. It's similar to the other two FBIs, but it's its own style, because we are in Europe, and I think it was just a way to bond and to learn about yourself as a performer and the style of the show, and to see it evolve, and the camera work and the lighting and all that. I watched the finale, and it was awesome. It was epic.
The FBI: International cast has gone through a lot of changes over the years filming in Budapest and elsewhere in Europe, and it's very sweet to learn how the actors bond with each other an ocean away from the other two FBI shows. (All three series are available streaming with a Paramount+ subscription now.) Of course, there's also plenty of bitter to go with the sweet in light of International's cancellation.
I was also fortunate enough to speak with Eva-Jane Willis for Smitty's big episode back in the U.K., and she had her own sweet stories to share, including a snowy moment of Jesse Lee Soffer calling back to his Chicago P.D. days. With the future for International still seemingly bright when we spoke, I shared with Willis what Vinessa Vidotto said about the cast watching episodes together, and she responded:
That's right, yes! We did a screen viewing at the very beginning with Jesse when he first joined. The Mitchell character was new to the season, so we all sat down and watched the first two episodes together. That was very much fun, and we like to do that whenever we can. But obviously, what with everyone's schedules and things being different, we don't get to do it often, but it's really cool when we do because we basically just make fun of each other while we're watching it. [laughs] And then we pat each other on the back with tears in our eyes going, 'Oh my god, that was amazing. You're so great. Well done.'
With no sign that CBS intends to reverse its cancellation decision or that Paramount+ will pick up FBI: International (or FBI: Most Wanted) like what Peacock did for Law & Order: Organized Crime elsewhere in the nine-show Dick Wolf TV universe, the most fans may be able to hope for following the Season 4 finale is for Fly Team agents to show up on FBI or FBI: CIA. The original series was renewed for three more seasons last year, and I'm guessing the odds are pretty good for the CIA spinoff now that CBS has vacated some Tuesday night time slots.
For now, we can all keep tuning in to CBS on Tuesday nights for the remaining episodes of FBI: International Season 4 at 9 p.m. ET, between FBI at 8 p.m. ET and FBI: Most Wanted at 10 p.m. ET. New episodes are also available streaming next day on Paramount+.
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