‘CIA’: Necar Zadegan Shares How New ‘FBI’ Spinoff Compares to ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ (Exclusive)

CIA star Necar Zadegan compared the new series to one of her previous projects while speaking to PopCulture.com.

Zadegan was cast as Deputy Chief of Station Nikki Reynard in November, taking over for Michael Michele.

She is no stranger to procedurals or even procedural spinoffs. One of her most well-known roles is as Special Agent Hannah Khoury on NCIS: New Orleans for the final three seasons. Zadegan listed some of the similarities and differences between the two shows, including the fact that they both have one very important character.

“Of course, this is a CIA kind of a story, which is much more international in scope, what we’re gonna hope to do, whereas NCIS: New Orleans was much more local,” she said. “But, similarly, New Orleans played a role in that show, and I can’t say enough good things about New Orleans. I love that city so much. It’s one of the great American cities to visit, and the music itself, which played a big part in our show, where at the end of every episode, we’ve been listening to some great local band, which made it really cool.”

“Similarly, New York plays a big role in our show,” Zadegan continued. “And with regards to the pacing, with regards to the high level, everything is at the highest level. My mom’s always like, ‘Oh, the best doctors are in New York.’ Or there’s kind of a running joke or whatever. It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re going to New York. Oh, great. The best doctors are there if you need anything.’ But the best of everything, you know? Greatest restaurants and the greatest dealers. That’s the vibe. And so we get to have that as part of the show.”

In addition to the city playing a big character and the surrounding areas, Zadegan also shared how everybody “crosses through.” She explained, “Everybody passes through, and all the different characters that we’ll get to see by virtue of that, and the iconic locations we get to shoot at. And so New York will play a big role in the show, and it does. The writers talk about a big kind of a character in the show. And I think a lot of times when you shoot in New York, that does happen. New York makes you wanna do that.”

Of course, CIA will never be NCIS: New Orleans and vice versa, but it really just proves how similar some of these procedurals are while still being completely different from one another. CIA is already setting itself apart from its predecessors in the FBI franchise by going the CIA route, so who knows what other differences there will be. Luckily, it won’t be long until fans find out, as the series premiere airs on Monday at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, following the midseason premiere of FBI. All seven seasons of NCIS: New Orleans are streaming on Paramount+.