The three-show FBI universe on CBS is about to shrink down to just one in the 2025 TV schedule, as the network cancelled both FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted and has no official premiere date set yet for the CIA spinoff. The original series is already guaranteed another two seasons, however, and most of the current seventh has gone down without Scola having a permanent partner.
I was quickly won over by S.W.A.T. alum Emily Alabi as Agent Dani Rhodes after she was finally introduced this spring, but I’m now wondering if filling Tiff’s vacancy would have been handled differently if Most Wanted and International were before Alabi had been cast.
FBI’s Open Slot After Tiff
News broke over last year’s summer hiatus that Katherine Renee Kane was exiting FBI as Agent Tiffany Wallace, despite previously expressing what she was “excited to continue” in Season 7. The actress returned for the seventh season premiere (which is available streaming now with a Paramount+ subscription) and got a fitting final scene with John Boyd as Agent Stuart Scola.
Initially, National Treasure: Edge of History vet Lisette Olivera seemed set to join the team as Scola’s new permanent partner when she was cast as a series regular. Olivera was then cut as a series regular before her first episode even aired, leaving Scola either “speed dating” new potential partners or floating between Maggie and OA for some time. There was a big vacancy on the team, but nobody who could fill Tiff’s shoes.
The New Member Of The Team
Episode 17 in early April introduced Emily Alabi as Agent Dani Rhodes, an agent who was an expert at undercover work and fit in with the team pretty well when she joined in on a case. She impressed Isobel enough for the SAC to offer her a “home” at 26 Fed, while still hanging on to the potential for undercover work.
As somebody who has been missing Tiff all season, I was pleasantly surprised by how Alabi won me over in her first episode with one very specific line. FBI may be able to go back to business more or less as usual, with two sets of partners working under Jubal and Isobel. Harmony has been restored to the FBI TV world... for now, anyway.
Alas, two of the current three FBI shows got the axe just over a month after Emily Alabi's casting as Scola's new partner had been announced. Now, with two shows’ worth of characters who are presumably going to be gone from the expansive Dick Wolf TV universe in less than a month, I can’t help but question if the vacancy would have been filled differently if there was time to add somebody from International or Most Wanted.
A Lot Of Characters Are Losing Their Shows
Even under the most ideal circumstances, I wouldn’t have hoped for FBI to absorb all the characters from FBI: Most Wanted or FBI: International. FBI is its own show, and both spinoffs have large casts of their own. In fact, there are some actors who I would be shocked to see turn up as more than a guest star. Not every agent would make sense as the person to fill Tiff’s vacancy, after all.
For example, I don’t really see Dylan McDermott or Jesse Lee Soffer going from lead roles on their own spinoffs to an ensemble role in the original series, and Smitty’s status as a Europol agent presumably means she’s staying behind in Europe no matter how International ends. Barnes on Most Wanted seems to be on the verge of a move to D.C. and a desk job anyway.
But what about characters like Most Wanted’s Ray, Hana, and Nina? Ray has roots in the NYC area thanks to his wife and stepson, while Hana’s tech skills make her valuable both behind a computer and in the field. Nina seems most likely to turn up on FBI again simply thanks to her relationship and son with Scola, so I’m expecting to at least see Shantel VanSanten again.
Over on the International side, why not Vo, Raines, or Tate? Vo and/or Raines aren’t too hard to imagine taking a job at 26 Fed, since both agents are currently considering moving up from the Fly Team if they’re offered a promotion. Tate didn’t have the best luck when she ventured into the field, but her tech skills may be the best of any main character of the FBIs.
We can even look over to what International has been doing throughout the current fourth season. New agents have arrived for arcs before being written out again, as was the case with Station 19 vet Jay Hayden and then La Brea alum Veronica St. Clair. It could have been fun to see FBI playing with certain International and Most Wanted characters for a bit without necessarily adding them as regulars, and fans might not have had to plan on permanent goodbyes at the end of the TV season.
Should FBI Have Waited Until Season 8 To Pick Scola’s New Partner?
All of this said, I can’t be mad about FBI casting Emily Alabi as the newest agent on the team. Dani has already proved to be a very capable agent, and it's just a little unfortunate that the search for the best replacement for Tiff took almost the full seventh season. I won’t wish for Dani to lose her spot on the team (or Alabi her spot in the cast) just because I’m going to miss the International and Most Wanted characters.
Plus, the FBI universe isn’t going to just be made up of the original show forever. The CIA spinoff received a straight-to-series order to debut alongside FBI Season 8 in the fall. Much like Most Wanted bringing in The Practice’s Dylan McDermott and International adding Chicago P.D.’s Jesse Lee Soffer, the new show cast an actor with plenty of TV experience as leading man: Lucifer’s Tom Ellis. Details are otherwise few and far between about the project, which was orignally set to launch via an FBI backdoor pilot. Could FBI: CIA premiere in the fall with some familiar faces from Most Wanted and/or International? That might be more straightforward than adding of them to Missy Peregrym's show!
Honestly, at this point I’m just hoping that the working title is changed to something a little more interesting than FBI: CIA, and I’m not going to speculate too much when we still don’t know how the spinoffs are going to wrap their final seasons this spring. Who knows? Maybe some of the candidates I listed won’t be available (or alive) to return on FBI.
For now, keep tuning in to CBS on Tuesdays for all the fictional federal law enforcement action you could hope for. FBI airs at 8 p.m. ET, followed by FBI:International at 9 p.m. ET, and FBI: Most Wanted wraps up the night of primetime at 10 p.m. ET. Finales of all three series will air on Tuesday, May 20.
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