The three shows of CBS’ FBI world once felt like some of the safest in primetime, with ratings across the board that were respectable, even if not on par with Tracker. Fans therefore got an unpleasant surprise in the 2025 TV schedule with the news that FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted were cancelled.
While a spinoff with the dubious title of FBI: CIA is in development to potentially join the original FBI in primetime next season, CBS cutting its solid night of FBI programming reminded me of what went wrong for me with NBC’s Chicago Justice, a.k.a. the one and only failed One Chicago show elsewhere in the nine-show Dick Wolf TV universe.
Let’s start at the beginning with the changes to the FBI world!
FBI Renewed For Two More Seasons
There was no need for suspense this spring when it came to the future of the original FBI, starring Missy Peregrym and Zeeko Zaki. CBS had renewed the hit drama for another three seasons last year, guaranteeing a future through Season 9 in the 2026-2027 TV schedule. This wasn’t the show’s first multi-season renewal, but it did spare fans from having to wonder this year if it would share the same fate as Most Wanted and International.
Since the FBI: CIA spinoff has not yet been ordered to series, the lineup for next season currently has FBI standing alone as CBS’ last drama standing in that TV universe. FBI Tuesdays with three full hours of primetime are going to be a thing of the past, even if the CIA series does move forward.
FBI: Most Wanted And FBI: International Cancelled
The future didn’t seem guaranteed for FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International when both series were left out of CBS’ nine-show renewal spree, and the rumblings of a CIA spinoff that could film in New York rather than in Europe had me somewhat nervous for International, but I still didn’t see it coming that both shows would get the axe.
Per Variety when the news broke back in early March, International regularly ranked first or second among network TV shows in the 9 p.m. ET time slot on Tuesdays, while Most Wanted won the 10 p.m. ET time slot on Tuesdays for every episode of Season 6 to that point.
No reason has been publicly confirmed for why the two FBI spinoffs were axed, although I imagine the cost may have been a factor, as well as CBS potentially needing to free up primetime slots for other shows. Both Blue Bloods and Fire Country have spinoffs set for the 2025-2026 TV season, with a spinoff of The Equalizer potentially on the way as well.
This all means a great deal for CBS toward the end of the 2024-2025 TV season and looking ahead to the fall, so why am I flashing back to One Chicago’s short-lived legal drama from 2017? Bear with me.
Chicago Justice: One Chicago’s Only Failed Show
The three shows of One Chicago have been grouped together on Wednesdays since the 2018-2019 TV season, and NBC hasn’t even changed the order of Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D. except for special events like crossover multi-parters. Basically, the network has a good thing going on Wednesday nights. As of the end of 2024, the trio of shows were NBC’s three most-watched series, pulling ahead of Law & Order: SVU.
I’m sure there are many reasons why Chicago Justice just didn’t work despite its backdoor pilot on Chicago P.D. and recruiting a P.D. series regular as a new star, but one factor still stands out to me even years after Justice’s one and only season in 2017. Although the fourth One Chicago show launched as part of a Tuesday-Wednesday crossover with Fire and P.D., the majority of its thirteen episodes aired on Sunday nights without one of the other shows to pair with.
And Chicago Justice felt so separate from Fire, P.D., and Med on Sunday nights so early in its run that I honestly would forget to tune in until it was too late, and 2017 was well before streaming One Chicago was easy with a Peacock subscription. (Chicago Justice is not currently available on Peacock.) Standing alone just didn’t work for the legal drama, in my book, whereas the other three shows all received a boost in viewership once they were grouped on Wednesday nights.
That three-hour arrangement is more or less what CBS had going with FBI, Most Wanted, and International on Tuesday nights, and seemed to be working fairly well.
Will Losing Most Wanted And International Be Bad For FBI?
I can’t help but wonder if FBI potentially standing alone on Tuesday nights will result in a dip in viewership. The parallels to Chicago Justice are admittedly limited, since the legal drama ran for just thirteen episodes and FBI has run for nearly 130 and counting, but it’s not hard to imagine FBI Tuesdays having less appeal with just one show as opposed to the novelty of three.
Of course, it’s still entirely possible that CBS will have FBI: CIA ready to go for the fall of the 2025-2026 TV season and just run two hours of FBI action on Tuesdays instead of three, like what the network has going on Mondays with NCIS followed by NCIS: Origins.
The sky certainly isn’t falling for Missy Peregrym’s show. Still, as long as we’re comparing worlds within the Dick Wolf TV universe, it’s worth noting that (per TVLine) both Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order’s audiences dipped in the 2024-2025 TV season after Law & Order: Organized Crime was removed from the Thursday night lineup. Could FBI suffer like Chicago Justice did on its own on Tuesday nights, or dip in the ratings like SVU did in its current season without Organized Crime?
A lot may depend on what CBS does with FBI: CIA, although my #1 hope for that spinoff is that the title is changed to something more creative before it hits the airwaves. There are a lot of variables in play at the time of writing, and I shouldn’t overlook that NBC hasn’t actually renewed any of the One Chicago or Law & Order shows just yet.
For now, FBI fans can keep tuning in to CBS on Tuesdays starting at 8 p.m. ET for the original series, continuing at 9 p.m. ET with FBI: International, and wrapping at 10 p.m. ET with FBI: Most Wanted. The current seasons of all three are also available streaming with a Paramount+ subscription now.
