CBS= Constantly Buying Spin-Offs?

CBS is adding fresh fuel to its 2025-26 season, ordering three new original series spanning crime drama, workplace comedy, and quirky mystery. The network has greenlit “CIA,” an “FBI” spinoff, “DMV,” a single-camera comedy, and “Einstein,” a drama based on a German format.

The more mainstream online trades paid particular attention to the first of these three winners, with no less than the intrepid Nellie Andreeva of DEADLINE providing the details earlier this week:

The FBI spinoff with a CIA twist is moving forward with a straight-to-series order at CBS and Tom Ellis as star. Tentatively titled CIA, the project (fka FBI: CIA) will now join the mothership FBI drama on CBS’ 2025-26 schedule.  Written by Wolf, FBI: Most Wanted showrunner David Hudgins, Nicole Perlman and former CIA officer David Chasteen, CIA (working title) 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 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.

Originally announced as a planted spinoff, the new FBI universe extension was supposed to be introduced in an episode of the mothership series this spring. As Deadline reported last month, that plan was eventually scrapped, with the attention shifting to a straight-to-series order, which was considered contingent on casting the main lead. 

Ellis emerged as a top choice early on and was offered the CIA agent role more than two months ago. Word started circulating about a month ago that negotiations with the Lucifer star had broken off but the project remained alive and casting. It is unclear when exactly talks with Ellis restarted but his deal just closed, I hear, paving the way to the series order.

So considering what they went through to get their guy, I have little doubt CIA will be the most heavily promoted of their freshman class, and might even be worthy of a media spend outside the Para-verse, assuming any discretionary funds are left after legal fees .  And besides, they’ve already been promoting two other new dramas, BOSTON BLUE and SHERIFF COUNTRY, as early as February during the Super Bowl–and in fact seeded the appetite for them with their mother series, BLUE BLOODS and FIRE COUNTRY, even earlier than that.

POP CULTURE’s Kane Mitten wrote about this, and what they saw as a continuing evolution of the network’s strategy, as if it were a revelation yesterday:

It’s all about the spin-offs these days on CBS. Eight of the network’s upcoming series for the next year are spin-offs of pre-existing shows. 

I’m going to take a wild guess Mitten is perhaps a bit younger than moi, or at minimum not as much of a television savant.  Because considering the extensive history and appreciable track record of this network with spin-offs, they night have at least noted that is hardly a novel concept for CBS.

Most astute TV fans know how the network was vaunted into a modern era on the formidable back of Norman Lear, who germinated THE JEFFERSONS, MAUDE and GOOD TIMES from the ALL IN THE FAMILY tree in the 70s.  Mary Tyler Moore contributed a couple of more modestly successful spin-offs of her own with RHODA and PHYLLIS.   Heck, go back further than that.  There was a $64,000 CHALLENGE at the same time there was a $64,000 QUESTION.

Sure, there were missteps.  Spinning off M*A*S*H was a non-starter–AFTERMASH was a disaster and an attempt to spin that off, W*A*L*T*E*R,was one of the more unwatcahable unsold pilots ever produced.  PHYLLIS lasted a mere two seasons despite a cushy time slot.

Maybe the CBS braintrust knew about that when they placed their bets, because there could have been still more spin-offs in their arsenal, as BLAVITY’s Trey Magnum reported earlier this week:

The untitled spinoffs for CBS series The Neighborhood and The Equalizer are not moving forward at the network. The Neighborhood was previously renewed for its eighth and final season earlier this year, and The Equalizer is still awaiting on a decision. This news came as CBS made several decisions for its 2025-26 schedule on Tuesday, including canceling Poppa’s House and ordering the FBI spinoff, CIA.

The Equazlier spinoff would have starred Titus Welliver and Juani Feliz, who guest-starred in last week’s episode of the show. Welliver’s character was set to be Hudson Reed, “a former top CIA operative with a dark secret who is connected to Robin McCall (Queen Latifah) by an old mentor.” Feliz would have been Samantha Reed, described as being “trained by her father to be a weapons expert, skilled martial artist and true chameleon all while hiding a mysterious past.”

The Neighborhood spinoff at CBS was set to follow “Marty (Marcel Spears) and Malcolm (Sheaun McKinney) Butler as they embark on new adventures, finally leaving their parents’ nest to start the next chapters of their lives, finding themselves the newcomers in a neighborhood that’s both close by yet worlds apart: Venice Beach.”

Not exactly original, and at least to moi not exactly something that would move the needle.  And one only wonders what somewhat more unique concepts CBS passed on to even give those shows a shot.

But CBS isn’t–and it would appear has never been–a home for boutique ideas.  It’s in effect the Costco of entertainment–a large aggregator of like-minded content under one roof that looks to appeal to as many as possible using a least common denominator approach.  And of all that big box store offers, far and away their most enduring and successful bait is their $1.50 hot dog.

Hey, maybe there’s a low-cost marketing tie-in in there somewhere?  Might be all the new regime will be willing to approve.

Until next time…