LOS ANGELES – The cast and crew of Criminal Minds: Evolution finished shooting a 20th season this fall without knowing it would be the last. Deadline reported that Paramount+ decided to end the series after production had wrapped, which means the final episodes were not built to close the story and, in the trade’s words, will not give fans a proper ending.
Paramount+ will air that season in 2027 as the final chapter of a franchise that began on CBS in 2005, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety both reported. Showrunner and executive producer Erica Messer said in a statement that she and her colleagues were “suddenly navigating the end of this chapter,” and she thanked the cast, writers, directors, crew and fans whose loyalty carried the show through two decades. She added that the team still wants to share the season and celebrate what they built together.
The timing is what makes the announcement unusual. Season 19 aired between May and July, and Paramount had announced on March 24 that Season 20 was already greenlit for 2027, ahead of that premiere on May 28. Deadline, citing sources, reported that the decision to end the show was made recently and is the first official cancellation under the streamer’s new leadership team, headed by Casey Bloys.
Deadline also reported that the series is currently in the Paramount+ Top 10, so the reason is not obvious from viewing alone. The trade suggested the call may be tied to how that performance measures up against cost, or to the nature of a broadcast-style procedural on a streaming service. None of the reports reviewed for this article includes an explanation from Paramount+ itself, so the actual calculation remains unconfirmed.
The franchise ran on CBS from 2005 to 2020, producing more than 300 episodes across 15 seasons, according to The Hollywood Reporter. CBS ended the original series after its 15th season, and Paramount+ later revived it under the Evolution title. Two shorter-lived spinoffs also came out of the show: Suspect Behavior, which lasted one season, and Beyond Borders, which lasted two. Counting the five seasons on Paramount+, the total reaches 20.
Streaming changed the shape of the series. Evolution seasons have run 10 episodes each, compared with 22 or more for most of the CBS run, and the stories now span entire seasons instead of resolving case by case. Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler and RJ Hatanaka star, with Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster also appearing. Hatanaka joined in the first Paramount+ season, while the rest of the regulars had been with the franchise for several of its CBS years.
The numbering explains why the finale is Season 20. Variety reported that Paramount+ originally revived the series for its 16th season in 2022, so the streamer’s run covers Seasons 16 through 20. Those five seasons sit on top of the 15 that aired on CBS, and the cancellation notice arrives only a few months after the last of them premiered.
Vangsness, who plays technical analyst Penelope Garcia, responded to the news in an Instagram video on Friday, according to Us Weekly. She noted that the cancellation notice itself says the show is ending “for now,” and she said Messer believes there are many more stories to tell. “If we get to keep telling them somewhere, that would be amazing,” she said, adding that she hopes the story can continue elsewhere. Neither Paramount+ nor the producers have announced any plan to do that.
Messer executive produces with Breen Frazier, Chris Barbour, Glenn Kershaw, Stacey Hardt and Mark Gordon, and the series is produced by 20th Television and CBS Studios. Even at 20 seasons combined, Deadline said, the show remains tied for fifth among the longest-running dramas, behind Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order, NCIS and Grey’s Anatomy, all of which are still on the air.
Deadline described Evolution as the last of its kind on Paramount+, following earlier streaming continuations of network hits such as SEAL Team, Frasier and NCIS: Tony & Ziva. It also noted that Jane Wiseman, the streamer’s former head of originals, who left last week after the merger, said in August that she and her team were big fans of the show and open to more series in that mold. The streamer’s new leadership has now reached a different conclusion about this one.
What nobody has said yet is how the final season will actually end. Paramount+ has not announced a premiere date for Season 20, and the reports reviewed do not say whether any footage will be added to give the story a closing chapter now that the decision has been made. Messer’s statement promises a celebration of the show’s legacy, but it does not say what form that will take.
