'Criminal Minds' Revival Officially Coming to Paramount+, and Longtime Fans Have Thoughts

Criminal Minds is pulling off a Last Man Standing-style move, staying off the air for just one [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Criminal Minds is pulling off a Last Man Standing-style move, staying off the air for just one television season before getting revived elsewhere. Last week, Paramount+ confirmed a Criminal Minds revival would be among the original programming available on the new streaming platform. Although very little is known about the revival aside from its format, longtime Criminal Minds fans have already made their thoughts about the project heard.

News that a Criminal Minds revival is in the works surfaced in early February and then confirmed just a few days later. While the previous 15 seasons featured a "Crime of the Week" format (save for occasional two-part stories), the revival will feature a single case being investigated over 10 episodes, notes Deadline. Despite that new format, most of the original creative team will take part, including executive producer and showrunner Erica Messer. Talks are still underway with the cast members from the final season of the series to come back.

ABC Signature and CBS Television Studios are producing the Criminal Minds revival, as well as a true-crime series titled The Real Criminal Minds. The show will feature a former real FBI profiler introducing cases that the fictional members of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit might take on if they really existed.

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The original Criminal Minds began on CBS in September 2005 and only finished its run in February 2020. The series was created by Jeff Davis and featured a large ensemble cast over its 15 years. The final season's main cast was Matthew Gray Gubler, A.J. Cook, Kristen Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Daniel Henney, Adam Rodriguez, Joe Mantegna, and Paget Brewster. Although it was a big hit during its heyday, Criminal Minds failed to have the same strong franchise legs as NCIS and CSI. Both spinoffs, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, lasted one and two seasons, respectively.

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All 15 seasons of the original Criminal Minds will also be available on Paramount+. The first 12 seasons are still available on Netflix, where the show continues to be a big hit. In 2020, Netflix subscribers spent over 590 million hours watching the show, behind only The Office and Grey's Anatomy. Paramount+ is betting that those millions will want to see more on the new platform.

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Paramount+ will launch on March 4, replacing CBS All Access. You can subscribe to the platform with a free trial by clicking here. The platform also includes BET, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and CBS programming.

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One very common request from fans is bringing back Thomas Gibson. The actor left the show in 2016 after an on-set altercation with a writer-director.

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Most agree that the revival would be pointless without any members of the original cast. One fan even believes the show should never have been canceled in the first place.

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"Better have original actors coming back! I need more [Gubler], [Mantenga], [Cook], and [Brewster] in my life," one fan tweeted.

Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.

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