Lucifer Star’s FBI Spin-Off Premiere Date Revealed

Tom Ellis has a new show called CIA, and CBS finally circled a date for it after a very messy game of musical chairs behind the scenes. If you get the feeling this one has been shuffled, tweaked, and reslotted more than once, you are correct.

So, when is CIA premiering?

CBS slotted CIA for midseason as part of its 2025 to 2026 schedule announcement. The network says it will air Monday, February 23 at 10 p.m. ET, right after FBI at 9 p.m. Small wrinkle: February 23 lands on a Sunday this cycle. CBS also laid out an hour-by-hour run of shows for that date that looks like a Monday lineup (The Neighborhood and a new comedy leading into FBI). Bottom line: CBS has CIA pegged for 10 p.m. after FBI; the exact calendar labeling in their materials is, let’s say, less than crystal clear.

What night looks like around it

Here is the snapshot CBS put out, plus a few other midseason moves worth knowing about:

• Monday, February 23 (their words) lineup: The Neighborhood at 8 p.m., DMV at 8:30 p.m., FBI at 9 p.m., CIA at 10 p.m. ET.
• Sunday reshuffle starting March 1: Watson moves to 10 p.m., Tracker shifts to 9 p.m., and CBS premieres Y Marshals at 8 p.m.
• Other midseason premieres: Harlan Coben's Final Twist on Wednesday, January 7 at 10 p.m.; America’s Culinary Cup, hosted by Padma Lakshmi, on March 4 at 9:30 p.m.; Survivor 50 lands February 25 with a three-hour premiere, preceded by a two-week programming event of encore episodes.

The awkward backstory

CIA was supposed to roll out in the fall. Then came a leadership shuffle. David Hudgins was originally set to run the show; Warren Leight came in as showrunner; then CBS confirmed Leight exited too. On top of that, Michael Michele left the cast and the role went into recasting, and Eriq La Salle departed as director and executive producer. If it felt like this one quietly moved to midseason while everyone sorted things out, that is exactly what happened.

Who is in it and how it fits the franchise

Confirmed cast includes Tom Ellis and Nick Gehlfuss. CIA is being paired with the mothership, and FBI itself is heading into its eighth season. The wider FBI universe has had its own churn in recent years (think cast departures and production tweaks on FBI Most Wanted and FBI International), so CBS keeping CIA glued to FBI on the night makes strategic sense.

Calendar oddities aside, the network’s plan is clear: build a Monday block that funnels directly into a shiny new spinoff led by a very recognizable face. If the schedule holds as advertised, Ellis debuts in the 10 p.m. slot right after FBI, with CBS rearranging a few Sundays and sprinkling in some unscripted launches and a big Survivor milestone to fill out the rest of midseason.