CBS ordered FBI straight to series on September 20, 2017 — 13 episodes, no pilot, a full year before anything aired. The bet was on Dick Wolf and co-creator Craig Turk, and it paid off in the narrow sense. The show premiered September 25, 2018, and ran nine seasons and 158 episodes.
The published critical score sits at 5.7 out of 10, with a Metacritic score of 57 out of 100. Those two numbers tell the same story from different angles.
Trailer, via CBS.
A Straight-to-Series Bet on Dick Wolf
The commission tells you what CBS thought it was buying. Thirteen episodes, no pilot, no test run. Wolf and Turk were handed the keys on reputation.
What CBS got was a series about the New York City Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, following its agents as they work major cases. The network’s own synopsis is candid about the pitch: the office brings “all their talents, intellect and technical expertise on major cases in order to keep their city and the country safe.”
The show ran nine seasons. Whether that counts as a recommendation is a separate question, and the score answers it.
Missy Peregrym, Zeeko Zaki and the Cast Carousel
The show’s most documented story is not on screen. It is in the cast list, which changed from the first episode and kept changing.
Missy Peregrym played Maggie Bell. Zeeko Zaki played Omar Adom “OA” Zidan. Jeremy Sisto played Jubal Valentine. Those three became the recognizable face of the series.
Start with the pilot. The FBI Special Agent in Charge in the first episode was Ellen Solberg, played by Connie Nielsen. On May 16, 2018, the same day CBS scheduled the series for fall, Nielsen was announced to be leaving for undisclosed reasons. Sela Ward was cast on July 13, 2018, in the second episode as Dana Mosier, filling a similar role. Ward departed after the first season.
Alana de la Garza, who played Isobel Castille in a first-season guest appearance, was promoted to the main cast on July 9, 2019, for season two. John Boyd was cast on August 6, 2019, as Special Agent Stuart Scola, Kristin’s new field partner, in a recurring role with an option to promote him. He was made a regular on October 7, 2019. On August 28, 2020, Katherine Renee Kane and Kathleen Munroe joined as series regulars for season three. On April 20, 2022, Shantel VanSanten was announced to return as Special Agent Nina Chase in a recurring role.
On August 19, 2024, Lisette Olivera joined as a new series regular for the seventh season, while Kane exited in that same season. On January 21, 2025, Emily Alabi joined for season seven. On July 14, 2025, Juliana Aidén Martinez was cast as a series regular for season eight.
The Special Agent in Charge Chair
Connie Nielsen’s exit is the detail worth sitting with. She was cast as the Special Agent in Charge, the authority figure at the center of the pilot, and she was gone before the series premiered. The replacement, Sela Ward, lasted one season.
The ensemble that survived — Peregrym, Zaki, Sisto — carried the load. Peregrym’s Maggie Bell and Zaki’s OA Zidan are the emotional center the show returns to, and Sisto’s Jubal Valentine gives the office a supervisor with a pulse.
The paper’s read: the command chair moved three times before the show found a permanent occupant, and that is the most revealing pattern in the record. Not because any single departure was fatal, but because the source lists the changes without ever describing a settled hierarchy.
Nine Seasons, 158 Episodes, One Formula
In April 2024, CBS renewed the series through its ninth season, locking it into the 2026–2027 network television schedule. The ninth season is slated to premiere on October 5, 2026.
The show’s last listed airdate in the source is May 18, 2026, which sits before that October premiere. The record does not reconcile the two, and this paper will not pretend it does. What the source supports is a run of nine seasons and 158 episodes, with a ninth season still to come.
That is a real achievement on its own terms. Network television does not hand out 158 episodes to shows that fail commercially. The franchise around it — including the spin-off FBI: Most Wanted, where de la Garza’s Isobel Castille also recurs — turned the original into a foundation rather than a standalone.
What the Metacritic 57 Actually Says
The published critical score sits at 5.7 out of 10, with a Metacritic score of 57 out of 100.
The paper’s judgment: 5.7 is a middling score, and it is fair to the show the source describes. FBI is a case-of-the-week drama with a federal badge, and the record shows a series that executed its formula for nine seasons without the critical reception to match its longevity.
That is not a disaster. It is not a recommendation either.
Where the Record Is Thin
The source gives dates, cast changes, episode counts and two scores. It does not give ratings, budget, production notes or any account of what the show was trying to say.
That gap matters. A reader can trace every casting decision from 2018 to 2025 and still not learn why the show kept rebuilding its center. The source does not say. This paper will not guess.
What the record does support is a simple observation: the show’s most documented feature is its turnover, and the source never frames that turnover as a problem.
The Verdict on FBI
Here is what matters and what does not. The cast record is the most complete fact set the source offers — Nielsen out before the premiere, Ward out after one season, de la Garza promoted for season two, Kane out in season seven, Olivera, Alabi and Martinez in. That timeline is the story the source actually tells.
The 158 episodes matter less than they look. Volume is a network’s business, not a critic’s.
The number to weigh is 5.7, and it is fair. The paper’s conclusion: FBI is a show that ran a long time and never earned the weight of its own premise. Both things are true, and the source supports both.
- Premiere: September 25, 2018
- Last listed airdate: May 18, 2026
- Seasons: 9
- Episodes: 158
- Network: CBS
- Creators: Dick Wolf, Craig Turk
- Published score: 5.7/10
- Metacritic: 57/100
- Season 9 premiere: October 5, 2026
The cast changes, in the order the source gives them:
- Connie Nielsen cast as Ellen Solberg in the pilot, announced to leave May 16, 2018.
- Sela Ward cast July 13, 2018, as Dana Mosier; departed after season one.
- Alana de la Garza promoted to main cast July 9, 2019, for season two.
- John Boyd cast August 6, 2019, as Stuart Scola; promoted to regular October 7, 2019.
- Katherine Renee Kane and Kathleen Munroe joined August 28, 2020, for season three.
- Shantel VanSanten announced to return April 20, 2022, as Nina Chase.
- Lisette Olivera joined August 19, 2024; Kane exited in season seven.
- Emily Alabi joined January 21, 2025; Juliana Aidén Martinez cast July 14, 2025.
FBI is a machine that ran. Nine seasons and 158 episodes say CBS got what it ordered, and the 5.7 says the critics were never fully won over. That is the whole review.
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