CIA (TV series)
A CIA officer and an FBI agent unite against domestic threats.
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CIA is an American police procedural television series that premiered on CBS on February 23, 2026. Created by Dick Wolf, David Hudgins, Nicole Perlman, David Chasteen, and Warren Leight, it follows a Central Intelligence Agency case officer and a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent working together in New York City. The series is a spin-off from the FBI television franchise and was renewed for a second season in March 2026.
Production
Originally called FBI: CIA, the show started development at CBS in January 2025 with plans for a backdoor pilot inside an FBI episode. That pilot kept getting delayed, and since FBI was finishing its season while CIA was still casting, the network decided to order it straight to series with a fresh script instead. Dick Wolf and David Hudgins created it; Hudgins was set to be showrunner and said the procedural would stand apart from FBI by centering on the relationship between two leads from different agencies with different methods.
CBS gave the straight-to-series green light in April, with Wolf, Hudgins, former CIA officer David Chasteen, Nicole Perlman, and Peter Jankowski as executive producers. Wolf Entertainment, CBS Studios, and Universal Television produce. Eriq La Salle came on in July to direct the pilot and executive produce, but later left, as did Warren Leight, who had taken over as showrunner from Hudgins. Mike Weiss, the FBI showrunner, was expected to take over CIA as well.
Ken Girotti directed the premiere. In March 2026, CBS renewed the show for a second season, set to premiere October 5, 2026. Tom Ellis was cast in April 2025 as the CIA case officer. After chemistry reads, he met with Wolf, who changed the character at the last minute to be British with dual citizenship and a received pronunciation accent.
Nick Gehlfuss was cast in September 2025 as the FBI special agent working with Ellis. Michael Michele was cast as the CIA’s New York station chief, and Natalee Linez as a CIA analyst. After production began, Michele left in November, and Necar Zadegan took over her role. Jeremy Sisto appears as a crossover from the FBI franchise.
Did You Know?
- The series holds a 63% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 8 reviews.
- Metacritic gave the series a score of 46 out of 100 based on 4 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews.
- The CIA case officer Colin Glass is a loose cannon with no regard for rules, while FBI special agent Bill Goodman is strictly by-the-book.
More in Television Series About the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: CIA (TV series) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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