‘FBI’ Spinoff Gets Premiere Date Amid Major Setbacks

The FBI world is finally expanding once again.

CBS has released its midseason 2026 premiere dates, including FBI‘s newest offshoot, CIA.

Starring Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss, the new series will premiere on Monday, Feb. 23 at 10 p.m. ET, following FBI. News comes after some pretty big setbacks for CIA, starting with the first showrunner change. It was announced in July that FBI: Most Wanted showrunner David Hudgins would be stepping down as showrunner, while Law & Order: SVU’s Warren Leight was being brought on. CBS opted to push CIA’s premiere date from fall 2025 to winter 2026 to give the show time to readjust to a new showrunner.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Leight would be leaving as showrunner, with FBI showrunner and EP Mike Weiss in talks to take over while also continuing his duties on the Mothership. Production was briefly halted to account for the transition, but it didn’t seem to affect the timeline for the show’s premiere. Additionally, one of the leads, Michael Michele, and executive producer and director Eriq La Salle, have also departed.

Ordered to series in April, CIA centers on “two unlikely partners – a fast-talking, rule-breaking loose cannon CIA case officer (Ellis), and a by-the-book, seasoned and smart FBI agent (Gehlfuss) who believes in the rule of law. When this odd couple are assigned to work out of CIA’s New York Station, they must learn to work together to investigate cases and criminals posing threats on U.S. soil, finding that their differences may actually be their strength.”

CIA was originally titled FBI: CIA and was set to get a backdoor pilot during FBI’s seventh season. However, casting took longer than expected as there were some issues, and CBS decided not to do the backdoor pilot since it was getting too late in production. That and the cancellations of FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International didn’t hurt the show’s chances of being ordered. But it’s still been getting into some obstacles.

Natalee Linez also stars on CIA, which is produced by Universal Television in association with Wolf Entertainment and CBS Studios. Dick Wolf, Peter Jankowski, and Anastasia Puglisi serve as executive producers. CIA premieres on Monday, Feb. 23 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+.