‘It Feels Good’: ‘CIA’ Star Necar Zadegan on Fan Response to ‘FBI’ Spinoff (Exclusive)

It’s been a few weeks since FBI’s latest offshoot, CIA, premiered, and Necar Zadegan is reacting to the fan response.

The new series premiered on Feb. 23, following the midseason premiere of FBI.

Fans had been waiting a while for CIA. The drama was set to start as a backdoor pilot during Season 7 of FBI last year, but following delays with the casting, that didn’t happen since FBI was getting close to wrapping production. CBS officially ordered it to series in April, and had gone through some showrunner and casting changes over the next several months, pushing CIA’s premiere from fall 2025 to midseason 2026.

Now that the show has finally premiered, fans are getting their taste of this new world of FBI. Along with Zadegan, the series stars Tom Ellis, Nick Gehlfuss, and Natalee Linez. It follows Gehlfuss’ FBI Special Agent Bill Goodman and Ellis’ CIA Agent Colin Glass, who team up for a clandestine CIA/FBI task force.

Even though only three episodes have aired, Zadegan told PopCulture how it feels seeing the fan response to the series. “Whenever you do a project, it always feels good when it resonates with people and when they enjoy it, because we’re working to build something, especially in this kind of story in the Wolf Universe,” she said. “There’s a really strong element of entertainment and stories that harken back to kind of old school American storytelling and that’s something that we hope resonates with people in a really kind of entertaining way. So it feels good.”

CIA is just getting started, and there is going to be a lot more action and drama to look forward to, and plenty more crossovers. FBI’s Jeremy Sisto has already appeared in a couple of episodes, while Missy Peregrym and Alana De La Garza will be appearing later in the season. Zadegan is also expected to make the jump to FBI, but additional details on those episodes have not been revealed.

The FBI franchise is continuing to be a force to be reckoned with, and even though fans may still miss FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International, CIA is not a bad alternative. Zadegan is as grateful as ever to be part of the series, and she knows how unique it truly is. New episodes of CIA air on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+.