‘CIA’ EP Mike Weiss Teases New Series as the ‘Alternate Version’ of ‘FBI’ (Exclusive)

The FBI world is expanding with CIA, and executive producer Mike Weiss spoke to PopCulture.com about what to expect.

CIA is set to premiere on Monday, Feb. 23 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, following the midseason premiere of FBI.

Per CBS, “When by-the-book FBI Special Agent Bill Goodman (Nick Gehlfuss) is loaned out to a clandestine CIA/FBI task force, he finds himself teamed up with secretive and roguish CIA Agent Colin Glass (Tom Ellis). Together they will work covert operations in New York, uncovering international plots, terrorist cells, and geopolitical secrets. On CIA, Bill will learn the rules of this murky world on the fly as Colin leads him deeper into spy games where only one thing is clear – their work keeps America safe, even if no one will ever know what they did in the shadows.”

Necar Zadegan and Natalee Linez will also be starring in the new series, which will be the fourth in the FBI franchise. Weiss, who was brought on to oversee CIA late last year after Warren Leight departed as showrunner, talked all about what’s coming up on the series, including a very special FBI crossover that will kick off CIA. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

PopCulture: What can you tell me about this new series?

Mike Weiss: The new series, I could not be more excited about it. It’s kind of an alternate version of FBI, in a lot of ways. FBI takes place in a New York that I think a lot of tourists might recognize, I think that a lot of New Yorkers might recognize. And, hopefully, with CIA, we’re taking people a little bit deeper into the shadows and into parts of the city and into parts of the heroism that takes place every day just trying to keep New Yorkers safe that they don’t always get to see on FBI.

There’s this great concept in intelligence gathering of being left of boom versus right of boom. On the FBI side of the equation, we’re trying to solve cases and get to the bottom of what happens so that eventually, bad guys can be apprehended, read their rights, and eventually put on trial. And on CIA, the show is left of boom. The whole concept is that we’re trying to work fast, gather information, and stop bad things from happening before they even happen.

There won’t be trials, which allows our characters to flex the muscles that they don’t get to flex on FBI. And I think the bad guys in the cases of the week can be a little bit sometimes more exotic, sometimes a little bit spookier, sometimes a little bit more terrifying, actually, than on FBI. We’re gonna be dealing with counterterrorism, threats to the city, threats to the nation, major transnational organized criminal organizations. But I’m just excited about all the opportunities that a show like CIA leaves for writers and actors to really have fun running and gunning in New York City.

PC: Going off of that, what has it been like seeing Tom and Nick portraying basically these polar opposite characters who have to work together?

Weiss: It’s great fun. I mean, as soon as they call cut, they could not be nicer and are like fast friends. But as soon as action is called, they just step right into these roles seamlessly. I think Nick is someone that’s really easy to root for. He gives you a kind of American-flag, apple-pie vibe. And I think that Tom is so good at indicating that he knows a lot more than he’s running on. It’s an absolute dream having two guys that are that good at just dropping into their characters. It’s super fun.

PC: What kind of dynamics can we expect from all these new characters as the series goes on?

Weiss: I mean, we talk about it a lot in the writers’ room. We talk about it on set. I think that, unlike FBI, where the show started with FBI agents in their careers, this show is a little different. Nick is playing Bill Goodman, who is an Army veteran, lawyer, and FBI agent who was on kind of a specific track, a by-the-books, black-and-white law enforcement track. And we get to watch him step out of that life and into this world where things are not black and white. There’s a lot of gray. And I think that over the first season, our hope is that we’re gonna see him evolve.

He’s an incredibly capable FBI agent, but there are some moves and some techniques and some ways of working that he’s less familiar with over here in the gray on CIA. So our goal is that over the course of the season, we’re gonna see him evolve, and we’re kind of seeing this secretive, fascinating world through his eyes every step of the way.

PC: Speaking of FBI, Jeremy Sisto is gonna be guest starring in the series premiere of CIA. What can you tease about his appearance?

Weiss: Jeremy’s the best. His character, Jubal Valentine, is going to basically be giving the stamp of approval when the CIA comes calling and they say, “We need a guy who’s good and thorough and can be dropped right into an active operation.” And what we need from Jubal is for him to come up with a name and vouch for this guy in a major way. And there are also some secrets that Jubal has about the assignment that I’m not gonna spoil.

PC: Is there anything else you can tease about CIA?

Weiss: Not everyone is who they appear to be in CIA, is what I would say. And I hope the audience catches on to that early. But even if it creeps up on them, I think it’s gonna be really fun to discover that some of these characters are more complicated and come with some very complicated backstory that is definitely gonna affect the ongoing saga of the New York Station in a major way.

CIA premieres on Monday, Feb. 23 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+.