FBI offshoot CIA gets series order at CBS, with Lucifer star Tom Ellis in lead role

CBS has given a series order to a new show set in the FBI universe that will star Lucifer alum Tom Ellis as a “fast-talking, rule-breaking” CIA case officer, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed. It’s slated to air during the 2025-2026 broadcast season.

Currently known as CIA, the project was first reported in January, under the working title FBI: CIA. The original plan was to set up the new show as a planted spinoff, introducing the central characters in an episode of FBI, though that’s no longer the case.

According to logline for the one-hour drama, CIA will follow two unlikely partners: Ellis’ loose cannon and a “by-the-book, seasoned and smart FBI agent who believes in the rule of law,” played by an actor yet to be named. “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.”

David Hudgins is on board as showrunner, and will executive-produce alongside franchise mastermind Dick Wolf, Nicole Perlman, David Chasteen, and Peter Jankowski.

News of CIA getting the green light comes several weeks after CBS canceled the FBI spinoff shows FBI: Most Wanted, which premiered in 2019, and FBI: International, which premiered in 2021. The three series are concurrently airing on what CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach has called “all-FBI Tuesday,” but in May, Most Wanted will conclude after six seasons, and International after four.

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The FBI mother ship, meanwhile, premiered in 2018 and is currently airing its seventh season.

The go-ahead for CIA should be welcome news for fans of CBS’ police programming, as the network recently pulled the plug on two other law enforcement procedurals: S.W.A.T. was axed for a third time in March, and the enduringly popular Blue Bloods ended in December, after 14 seasons.