‘The Red Line’ Series Preview: Cast, Plot, and Photos from CBS’s New Drama

The timely new limited series The Red Line will premiere on Sunday, April 28, 2019 at 8pm ET/PT. The series is set in Chicago and follows three families dealing with tragedies that affect their lives. The eight-episode drama will air in two-hour installments over four consecutive Sundays.

Noah Wyle (Falling Skies, ER) Emayatzy Corinealdi (Ballers, Hand of God), and Noel Fisher (Shameless, Castle Rock) lead the cast of The Red Line, with Greg Berlanti, Ava DuVernay, Sarah Schechter, Caitlin Parrish, Sunil Nayar, and Kevin Hooks serving as executive producers.

The cast also includes Aliyah Royale as Jira Calder-Brennan, Howard Charles as Ethan Young, Elizabeth Laidlaw as Victoria “Vic” Renna, Vinny Chhibber as Liam Bhatt, and Michael Patrick Thornton as Jim Evans.

The first episode, “We Must All Care,” was directed by Victoria Mahoney from a script by Caitlin Parrish and Erica Weiss. Episode two, titled “We Are Each Other’s Harvest” and airing immediately after episode one on April 28th, was directed by Kevin Hooks and written by Shernold Edwards.

The Plot, Courtesy of CBS:


The Red Line is an eight episode original limited series that follows three very different Chicago families as they journey toward hope and healing after a tragedy causes them all to consider how race and racial biases affect their lives. On the north side of Chicago, Daniel Calder (Wyle) is a high school history teacher mourning the death of his husband, an African American doctor who was shot, while unarmed, by a white cop. As Daniel tries to comfort their grieving daughter, Jira Calder-Brennan, the two butt heads when she decides she needs more support than her father can provide. She seeks the understanding of someone who knows what it’s like to grow up as a young black woman, and searches for her birth mother to learn more about her personal history, culture and community. Daniel seeks comfort in his colleague – and Jira’s teacher – Liam Bhatt.

On the south side, Tia Young (Corinealdi) scours news of the shooting, torn between her political ambition of running for Alderman and risking it all to comfort the daughter she gave up for adoption as a teen. Tia’s husband, Ethan Young, a red line train operator and devoted father to their 6-year-old son, champions her running for office, but cautions her about connecting with Jira.

On the west side, police officer Paul Evans (Fisher) must face the reality of his actions and intentions in the fatal shooting of an innocent man and worries about his fate amidst the public and legal fallout. His police partner, Victoria “Vic” Renna, and his brother, Jim Evans, a volatile former cop confined to a wheelchair after being shot in the line of duty, cause more harm than good in their attempts to help him.

As the stories of the Calder, Young and Evans families converge, they each discover that it’s impossible to ignore issues of race; it’s important for each of us to explore how our backgrounds and internal biases affect how we act, and that we must open our eyes and see that we’re all human and all deserving of the same dignity.

The Red Line Noah Wyle
Noah Wyle as Daniel Calder and Aliyah Royale as Jira Calder-Brennan in ‘The Red Line’ (Photo © 2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc)
The Red Line Noah Wyle
Noah Wyle as Daniel Calder in episode 1 (Photo: Elizabeth Morris ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc)
The Red Line Noel Fisher
Noel Fisher as Paul Evans in episode 1 (Photo © 2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc)
The Red Line Noel Fisher
Elizabeth Laidlaw as Victoria Renna and Noel Fisher as Paul Evans in episode 1 (Photo: Elizabeth Morris ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc)
The Red Line Emayatzy Corinealdi
Emayatzy Corinealdi as Tia Young and Howard Charles as Ethan Young in episode 1 (Photo: Elizabeth Morris © 2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc)