CBS Cancels ‘FBI: Most Wanted’ & ‘FBI: International’

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CBS pulled out the cancellation axe this evening, and brought it down on both ‘FBI: Most Wanted’ AND ‘FBI: International’… Leaving the main ‘FBI’ standing alone (for the moment, although possibly not for long…) And no, we don’t have UK premiere dates for them yet before anyone asks.

‘FBI: Most Wanted’ was a high-stakes drama that focused on the Fugitive Task Force, an elite unit that relentlessly pursues and captures the notorious criminals on the Bureau’s Most Wanted list. It launched in January 2020 and is currently airing its 6th Season in the USA.

‘FBI: International’ was the third iteration of the FBI brand that followed the elite operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s International Fly Team. This one launched in September 2021 and is currently airing Season 4 in the USA.

This is quite the turnaround for the FBI brand after the CBS Entertainment President said when they were renewed last year that an “All-FBI Tuesday is a powerful force to be reckoned with.” Only a few years back all three shows where handed multi-season renewals too… so what happened?

Well, there are a couple of issues.

Firstly, CBS has too many popular shows. As we’ve mentioned before, CBS scheduling is the epitome of the old adage “You don’t have to run faster than the bear to get away. You just have to run faster than the guy next to you…” By that, we mean, shows that are getting viewing figures which – by any other network’s standards – would be a shoo-in for renewal, struggle to compete on the CBS schedule, which has many of the most watched dramas and entertainment shows on US TV. So things that might easily survive on NBC, ABC or FOX, end up in the trash at CBS.

CBS recently renewed a bunch of shows including ‘Tracker‘ (the US’s most-watched drama) and ‘Elsbeth‘ for Season 3; ‘Fire Country‘ for Season 4; New seasons of ‘NCIS‘, ‘NCIS: Origins‘, and ‘NCIS: Sydney‘; ‘Young Sheldon’ spinoff ‘Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage‘, which was US broadcast’s most-watched comedy; ‘Hollywood Squares’, which was US broadcast’s most-watched new unscripted series; And comedy ‘Ghosts‘, which landed a two-season pickup, taking it to at least Season 6. They had also previously renewed ‘Matlock‘ for Season 2, and the main ‘FBI‘ series up to Season 9.

In addition to all those, they have already ordered to series ‘Blue Bloods’ spin-off ‘Boston Blue‘, and ‘Fire Country’ spin-off ‘Sheriff Country’, so need space for both of those. Plus, they are looking at pilots for a potential ‘Equalizer’ spinoff starring ‘Bosch’ lead Titus Welliver, and ‘Einstein’ lead by ‘Criminal Minds’ star Matthew Gray Gubler.

To bring in those new shows, some of the old ones will need to go… Still waiting to discover their fate on the drama front are ‘S.W.A.T.’, which has already dodged the axe twice, and freshman series ‘Watson‘.

The second issue is that both shows (along with the main ‘FBI’) are made by an outside studio, NBC’s Universal Television, rather than internally by CBS. That automatically makes them more expensive straight out of the gate. That means CBS has to renegotiate deals with Universal TV to bring them back each year, unlike, say, the ‘NCIS’ franchise, which is made internally by CBS Studios.

Having said that, there are some glimmers of hope…

Firstly, as I mentioned, by any other network standards, the viewing numbers for both ‘Most Wanted’ and ‘International’ were actually pretty solid. That could possibly inspire Universal TV and Wolf Entertainment to try and shop one or both shows to another network. Whilst NBC might not want them for their main channel, the other obvious place would be their Peacock streaming service. However, we stress, there is no news on them looking to do that right now, but it could be a possibility.

Secondly, there is another spin-off in the works called ‘FBI: CIA’ which is being “backdoor piloted” in the main ‘FBI’ show (i.e. the characters from the potential spin-off will appear in the main show as part of its season.) The cancellation of both ‘Most Wanted’ and ‘International’ makes the chances of them picking up ‘FBI: CIA’ far more likely.

As I mentioned at the top of the article, we don’t yet have UK premiere dates for ‘FBI‘ Season 7, ‘FBI: Most Wanted’ Season 6 or ‘FBI: International’ Season 4, although all signs currently point to Sky Witness having booted them back to their Autumn 2025 timeslot…  If you want to keep track of these or any other shows, you can add them via our Never Miss system, and you’ll be notified when they get UK premiere dates.