The FBI universe is about to get a little bit smaller.
CBS has announced it is cancelling its two spinoffs in the crime drama franchise — FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International.
FBI, which debuted in 2018, led into Most Wanted in 2020 and was followed quickly afterwards by International in 2021. Julian McMahon initially led the cast of Most Wanted, playing Special Agent Jess LaCroix for the series’ first three seasons. He was replaced by Dylan McDermott, who stepped in to lead the team as Supervisory Special Agent Remy Scott.
International launched in September 2021 with Luke Kleintank, Heida Reed, Carter Redwood, Vinessa Vidotto and Christiane Paul. After Kleintank stepped away, Jesse Lee Soffer took over the lead role.
According to Deadline and Variety, the two FBI spinoffs regularly win their timeslots, so producer Dick Wolf — who is also the mastermind behind the Law & Order franchise and the One Chicago trio of Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med — may be shopping both shows to other networks.
After NBC mulled the cancellation of Law & Order: Organized Crime last spring, Wolf was successful in getting that spinoff moved to Peacock.
And with NCIS, NCIS: Origins, NCIS: Sydney, Tracker, Fire Country, Elsbeth and Matlock all getting renewals, Most Wanted and International may have been dropped because of dwindling timeslots.
Last year, the original flagship series FBIscored a three-season renewal through the 2026-2027 season. Deadline, Variety and Entertainment Weekly report that with Most Wanted and International getting cut, CBS will pursue another offshoot series: FBI: CIA.
Other CBS shows are still on the bubble, including The Equalizer with Queen Latifah and the twice-cancelled S.W.A.T.
The network already has two spinoffs in the works for the fall: Sheriff Country, an extension of its Fire Country series, and Boston Blue, an expansion of the Blue Bloods universe that will follow Donnie Wahlberg’s Danny Reagan.
TV veteran McDermott joined Most Wanted after playing the Season 1 villain in Law & Order: Organized Crime, which brought back Law & Order: SVU’sChristopher Meloni.
“It was an easy yes for me to sign on to FBI: Most Wanted,” McDermott told PEOPLE in a March 2022 interview.
“Having just worked with Dick Wolf on Law & Order: Organized Crime, he allowed me a freedom to invent Richard Wheatley that I absolutely revelled in. Then he encouraged that same freedom for Remy Scott in FBI: Most Wanted.”
The cancellations of the FBI shows follow CBS’ decision last year to drop its popular police procedural Blue Bloods, which also regularly won its Friday night timeslot.
“I’m kind of frustrated,” star Tom Selleck said last fall of the decision to end that series after 14 seasons. “If you were to say to the television network, ‘Here’s a show you can program in the worst time slot you got, and it is going to guarantee you winning Friday night for the next 15 years,’ it would be almost impossible to believe.”