‘FBI’: CBS Orders Full Season of Dick Wolf Drama Series

Law & Order creator Dick Wolf might have another big hit on his hands after his CBS series, FBI, earned a full season on Friday.

CBS put in a full back nine order after the first three episodes aired, the network said. It is the most-watched new show of the 2018-2019 TV season for CBS, and the second-most watched new show overall after averaging 13.6 million total viewers. It is produced by CBS TV Studios and Universal Television.

While this is good news for the show, it has struggled to have continuity behind the scenes and is already on its third showrunner. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Craig Turk, who wrote the pilot, left early on because of creative differences and was replaced by Greg Plageman (Person of Interest). Plageman got the show back on its feet, but was soon replaced by Rick Eid and Derek Haas, who are both veterans of Wolf’s Chicago franchise. The two are still working on Chicago PD and Chicago Fire for NBC.

FBI is Wolf’s second series for CBS, more than two decades after the short-lived Feds. He is best known as the creator of NBC’s Law & Order franchise, which includes the still-running Law & Order: SVU. He also executive produces the Chicago franchise, which makes up the entirety of NBC’s Wednesday schedule this season.

The new crime procedural is set in New York, and stars Missy Peregrym as Special Agent Maggie Bell and Zeeko Zaki as Special Agent Omar Adom Zidan. Sela Ward stars as Dana Mosier, the team’s supervisor, and Ebonee Noel plays Analyst Kristen Chazal. Law & Order vet Jeremy Sisto plays Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Jubal Valentine.

“What clicked for me is that we deal with federal cases. When you think of federal cases, you think of mafia and terrorists, and that kind of stuff only has really existed in films,” Zaki told Town & County when asked what makes FBI different from other crime procedurals. “To take Dick Wolf’s equation and apply it to the larger scope of crime really, really got me. The traditional SVU and other cop shows — their jurisdiction stops where the FBI begins, so it’s a realm that hasn’t been fully exploited or represented in this sense.”

FBI is only the second freshman show of the season to get a full-season order, following NBC’s medical drama New Amsterdam.

New episodes of FBI air on CBS Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.

Photo credit: CBS