22-04-2025
Tom Ellis to Lead FBI/CIA Team-Up Spinoff Ordered at CBS
CBS is ready to dance with the devil.
TVLine has learned that Lucifer headliner Tom Ellis has landed one of the two leads in CBS' 'FBI Universe Expansion,' which pairs a G-man with a CIA agent and has been officially ordered to series for the 2025-26 TV season.
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Formerly titled FBI: CIA but now going by just CIA 🤷🏻♂️, the procedural follows two unlikely partners — a fast-talking, rule-breaking loose cannon CIA case officer (played by Ellis), and a yet-to-be-cast, by-the-book, seasoned and smart FBI agent who believes in the rule of law.
'When this odd couple are assigned to work out of CIA's New York Station,' the official synopsis reads, 'they must learn to work together to investigate cases and criminals posing threats on U.S. soil, finding that their differences may actually be their strength.'
Ellis' previous TV credits also include Tell Me Lies, Rush, Miranda, EastEnders and Hulu's upcoming Washington Black.
Originally, this addition to the FBI universe was going to air a backdoor pilot this spring, as an episode/proper spinoff of the FBI mothership. Instead, it has been ordered straight to series.
When TVLine spoke to FBI star Zeeko Zaki back in March, a friend of his had auditioned for this new series, 'so I got to see some of the writing, and it's really, really, really strongly written,' he shared. 'With the banter between the [FBI and CIA] agents, it's going to be a different dynamic. It's going to be really cool.'
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The prolific Dick Wolf, showrunner David Hudgins (FBI: Most Wanted), Nicole Perlman (Captain Marvel) and David Chasteen (former CIA officer/Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan technical consultant) will serve as writing executive producers on the Universal Television/Wolf Entertainment/CBS Studios co-production; Peter Jankowski will be a non-writing EP.
CIA (working title) is but one of many spinoffs/'universe expansions' in the CBS/Paramount pipeline. Fire Country already begat Sheriff Country (starring Morena Baccarin and debuting during this fall) and potentially a Jared Padalecki-led Fire Country: Surfside; the Donnie Wahlberg-led Blue Bloods offshoot Boston Blue is set to premiere this fall; The Neighborhood has not one but two offshoots in the works, the former of which is earmarked for Paramount+; The Equalizer just aired a backdoor spinoff pilot led by Titus Welliver; and the NCIS-verse's latest addition, NCIS: Tony & Ziva, will premiere on Paramount+ this fall.
On the flip side, CBS is losing two spinoffs: FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International, both of which got cancelled back in March.
The OG FBI stands as the third-most watched broadcast drama of the 2024-25 TV season, averaging 8.2 million total viewers (with delayed playback) and only trailing CBS' own Tracker and of TVLine
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