Paramount+ is betting Criminal Minds fans will feel like relaxing in front of the TV after feasting on turkey or whatever it is they consume on Thanksgiving. The streaming service has officially set a Thanksgiving Day premiere day for the rebirth of Criminal Minds.
Criminal Minds: Evolution will launch with two episodes streaming on Thursday, November 24, 2022. Per Paramount+, the new season will consist of 10 episodes, with the mid-season finale scheduled for Thursday, December 15th. After taking a break for the winter holidays, Evolution returns on Thursday, January 12, 2023.
Returning original cast members include Joe Mantegna as David Rossi, A.J. Cook as Jennifer JJ Jareau, Kirsten Vangsness as Penelope Garcia, Aisha Tyler as Dr. Tara Lewis, Adam Rodriguez as Luke Alvez, and Paget Brewster as Emily Prentiss. Zach Gilford will be a recurring guest star, playing a character named Elias Voit in a season-long arc.
The series also brought back Criminal Minds‘ Erica Messer as a writer, executive producer, and showrunner. Writer Breen Frazier, writer Christopher Barbour, director Glenn Kershaw, and Mark Gordon are also serving as executive producers.
Criminal Minds season 16 is an ABC Signature and CBS Studios production.
The Plot: CBS’s original Criminal Minds series, which ran from 2005-2020, followed the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, the best of the best who profiled the worst of the worst. In Criminal Minds: Evolution, the FBI’s elite team of criminal profilers come up against their greatest threat yet, an UnSub who has used the pandemic to build a network of other serial killers. As the world opens back up and the network goes operational, the team must hunt them down, one murder at a time.
