The Criminal Minds spinoff on Paramount Plus has the title Criminal Minds: Evolution, and starts in the fall. Criminal Minds, about the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, ran on CBS from 2005 to 2020. The new series details the FBI’s elite team of criminal profilers as they face off against their greatest threat yet, an Unsub who has used the pandemic to build a network of other serial killers.

There will be 10 episodes. 

Original cast members reprising their roles include Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez and Paget Brewster. Zach Gilford joins the cast as Elias, an operations analyst for a global cyber-security firm who has a dark side. Gilford played Matt on Friday Night Lights. 

Evolution is produced by ABC Signature and CBS Studios. Erica Messer is showrunner, executive producer and writer. Breen Frazier and Christopher Barbour are writers and executive producers, Glenn Kershaw directs and executive produces, and Mark Gordon is an exec producer too. ■

With venerable procedural drama Criminal Minds already a proven audience driver in subscription streaming, Paramount Plus worked hard to package a 16th-season reboot of the show. And that effort has apparently paid off. 

The series' revival was teased over a year ago, when Paramount Plus launched, but a series order just got minted earlier this week. 

Longtime cast members Joe Mantegna, Kirsten Vangsness, Adam Rodriguez, A.J. Cook, Aisha Tyler and Paget Brewster will return to star in a 16th season, as will longtime executive producer/showrunner Erica Messer.

The 16th season of Criminal Minds will feature 10 episodes. And in a break from procedural drama dogma, the installments will be serialized across a singular case, rather than self-contained narratives. 

Criminal Minds was produced by Disney/ABC's Touchstone TV unit for CBS from 2005-2020, dramatizing the work of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis unit.

The first 12 seasons were available Netflix, starting in 2014. The series regularly ranked as a top 10 most popular off-network offering when the show finally departed Netflix late last month. 

Paramount Plus now controls all 15 legacy seasons of Criminal Minds.

After watching Friends, The Office, Parks and Recreation, Mad Men, CSI and other very popular off-net shows leave its platform over the last few years, Netflix is about to watch another acquired stalwart walk out the door, Criminal Minds. 

The CBS procedural drama ranks as one of the most popular acquired series on Netflix. According to Nielsen, which measures subscription streaming usage for platforms including Netflix via sampling on TVs only, Criminal Minds was the second most watched acquired show among U.S. viewers for the week of May 9-15, garnering 546 million minutes of streaming. 

But on June 29, all 12 seasons and 321 episodes of Criminal Minds currently available on Netflix will shift over to Paramount Plus, which will now host all 15 seasons of the ABC Studios-produced series, along with an upcoming revival of show.  (The final three seasons of Criminal Minds, which unfurled between 2018-2020 and were never available on Netflix, will still stream on Hulu.)

Also read - Nielsen: Netflix Streaming of ‘Criminal Minds’ Stays Hot. But Does ViacomCBS Want It Back?

Criminal Minds was produced by Disney/ABC's Touchstone TV unit for CBS from 2005-2020, dramatizing the work of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis unit and featuring actors including Shemar Moore, Matthew Gray Gubler, Paget Brewster, A.J. Cook, Kirsten Vangsness, Joe Mantegna, and Mandy Patinkin.

Episodes started streaming on Netflix starting in 2014. 

With the loss, Netflix will still have long-running broadcast dramas NCIS and Grey's Anatomy -- which also consistently rank among its top 10 off-net shows -- on its thumbnail grid. 

But the ranks of acquired shows from major studios, once easily provided by media companies that viewed Netflix as a competitive threat akin to the "Albanian Army," continues to whittle away.  

The premiere of the Netflix original series The Irregulars captured 643 million minutes of U.S. viewing on the platform, making it the most watched show in the U.S. major SVOD biz for the week of March 29 - April 4, according to Nielsen. 

The eight-part drama about a group of troubled street teens who must come together to save London and the entire world debuted on March 26. In its first three days on the streaming service The Irregulars garnered 424 million viewing minutes. The 219 million  gain helped the drama surpass Disney Plus’ The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which placed No. 1 on the originals chart during the week of March 22- 28. 

With 628 million views per minute, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was the second most watched original series for the week ending April 4. The series follows Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan who both reprise their Avengers roles for the show. The series No. 2 spot on the originals chart is a noteworthy placement given Nielsen’s methodology.

For the fourth week in a row, according to Nielsen, no television program or film broke the one billion viewing minutes mark among the four major U.S. subscription streaming services.

Nielsen only ranks shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney Plus at this point. Each week, the research company publishes a snapshot of viewing a month prior. In addition to a master ranking of all SVOD shows, Nielsen also publishes rankings for original series, acquired series and movies. 

Typically, Netflix dominates these lists simply because it has far more subscribers than any other service. The Disney Plus platform has an estimated 40 million viewers in the U.S. vs. more than 70 million for Netflix. Shows with longer tails also have an advantage—more episodes to binge on means more total minutes of viewing. 

The Irregulars’ eight one-hour episodes gave it an advantage in viewing minutes over The Falcon and The Winter Soldier because only three installments of the Disney Plus six episode miniseries were available for viewing during the week of March 29.

For the first time, all four streaming services ranked by Nielsen made the originals chart. While Netflix represented seven of the top 10 original titles, Hulu’s Solar Opposites made the list for the second week in a row. The adult animated comedy’s 16 episodes tallied 171 million views per minutes, putting it in the No. 7 spot on the originals list. 

Another adult animated series, Amazon’s Invincible, came in at No. 10. Invincible is based on the comic book franchise of the same name. Amazon released the first three episodes on March 26.  The fourth episodes debuted on April 2. The rest of the eight-part season was released on a weekly basis throughout April.

 Netflix’s Who Killed Sara came in at No. 3 on the originals chart and No. 4 on the overall ranking chart. The 10-episode revenge drama netted 553 million views per minute during the week of March 29. The non-English language series launched on March 24 and was officially renewed for a second season, which will launch on May 19. Netflix reported that after the series debuted it went to No. 1 on the streaming service and reached 55 million subscribers. 

Netflix took all 10 spots on Nielsen’s acquired ranking chart. The off-network run of the ABC medical drama Grey’s Anatomy took the top spot. The show's 16 seasons and 368 episodes of the series tallied 580 million U.S. viewing minutes during the week of March 29. That is down 30 million viewing minutes week over week. The show came in No. 3 on the master chart.

According to Nielsen, Netflix streaming of the 353 episodes CBS procedural NCIS drew 535 million viewing minutes putting the show in the No. 2 spot on the acquired chart and No. 5 on the master ranker. NCIS was down by 190 million viewing minutes week to week. 

Netflix’s Cocomelon—the computer-animated, six—episode children’s program—collected 515 million minutes of viewing. The series came in at No. 3 on the acquired chart and No. 6 on the overall Nielsen SVOD listing.

For the second consecutive week, Netflix’s Bad Trip took the No. 1 spot on the movies chart. 

Bad Trip, which follows two best friends on a cross-country road journey, drew 344 million minutes of viewing. That’s up 36 million viewing minutes week to week. 

Netflix’s The Secret Magic Control Agency took the No. 2 spot with 268 million views per minute. The Easter holiday helped Netflix’s  Hop—a 2011 Universal film about the Easter Bunny—place No. 3 with 217 million views per minute. Hop did not place on the Nielsen’s movie chart during the week of March 22-28.

Previous Weekly Rankings:

March 22-28 - 'Falcon and Winter Soldier' Tops SVOD Originals

March 15-21 - 'Grey's Anatomy' Re-Runs Top SVOD Ranker

March 8-14 - ‘The Crown’ Got Royal Gains from Meghan’s Big Oprah Interview

March 1-7 - Amazon Tops the Charts for the First Time with ‘Coming 2 America’

Feb 22-28 - Netflix’s 'Ginny & Georgia' Leads the SVOD Biz

Netflix streaming of the CBS procedural Criminal Minds was the most watched show in the U.S. SVOD biz for the week of Jan. 25-31, according to Nielsen. 

Criminal Minds’ 12 seasons and 297 episodes available on Netflix garnered 984 million minutes of viewing, putting it ahead of Netflix original series Bridgerton on Nielsen’s master ranking chart.

Netflix began streaming the CBS Television Studios-produced drama in 2014. Additional seasons of the series about a team of FBI profilers who work for the bureau’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, and which debuted on CBS in 2005 and ended its run in 2020, popped up annually on Netflix up until 2017. But it doesn’t appear as though Netflix will be getting any more episodes beyond the first 12 seasons that are currently available on the platform. 

The last three seasons of the show— Nos. 13, 14, and 15—became available on Hulu on Jan. 1. 

And on Wednesday, a Criminal Minds revival was part of the ViacomCBS onslaught of familiar TV and film brands showcased in the conglomerate’s three-hour Paramount Plus launch presentation. 

Yes, ViacomCBS appears to want its show about murder back.

The terms of Netflix’s contract with ViacomCBS deal aren’t public. A standard five-year deal for those first 12 seasons of Criminal Minds would have the series departing Netflix next year.

If Netflix were to lose Criminal Minds, it would be yet another blow to the SVOD giant, which just lost The Office, the service’s most popular show of 2020, to Peacock earlier this year.

In Nielsen latest original program rankings, Netflix’s Bridgerton was again a big winner. Its eight episodes captured 936 million viewing minutes. However, Jan. 25-31 marked the first frame in which the Shonda Rhimes-produced romantic drama didn’t surpass the 1 billion viewing minutes mark since it debuted Dec. 25. 

Another Netflix original,  Fate:The Winx Saga, took the No. 2 spot on Nielsen’s originals rankings and the No. 3 spot on its master SVOD ranker. The coming-of-age drama, a live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon’s animated series Winx Club, shot in Italy and the UK, debuted on Netflix Jan. 22. The show’s first season’s six episodes garnered 918 million views per minute. Netflix just announced an eight-episode, second season of the show, which will begin production later this year.

The only non-Netflix show on the original program chart was Disney Plus’ WandaVision, which cracked the rankings for the third consecutive frame. The Marvel series tallied 431 million minutes of U.S. streaming, with just four episodes available for the week of Jan. 25-31.

Since September, Nielsen has ranked U.S. subscription video-on-demand domestic audience performance based on minutes viewed. The data company continues to rank only the four biggest SVOD services in the U.S.: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and Disney Plus.

WandaVision was the only non-Netflix show to make the master, original series and acquired shows lists. Disney Plus did take three spots from Netflix on the movie-ranking chart with Moana, Soul and Frozen II.

Netflix, which has more than 73 million users in the U.S., understandably dominates rankings based on total minutes viewed. 

On Wednesday, The Information reported that Disney Plus has around 40 million U.S. subscribers, which explains why we’re increasingly seeing Disney Plus shows crack Nielsen’s rankings. 

ION Media Networks said its investment in off-network procedural series has boosted ION to top-10 cable-network status and helped successfully launch a new original series, The Listener, in April.

ION said The Listener, about a telepathic law-enforcement consultant, played by Craig Olejnik, debuted April 1 to more than 1 million total viewers, 403,000 adults 25-54 and 849,000 households. Over its first three weeks, the series has averaged more than 1 million viewers and 872,000 households and is delivering among key demos, including adults 18-49 (376,000) and 25-54 (451,000) and women 18-49 (235,000) and 25-54 (279,000) over the same span.

The Listener airs Tuesday at 10 p.m., after a lead-in from Criminal Minds, which has become a mainstay for ION. The network’s acquisition of Law & Order: Criminal Intent also has given the Saturday night primetime lineup a 20% lift in the first quarter of 2014, it said. This fall, ION is launching CBS cop hit Blue Bloods, holding exclusive weekday off-network primetime broadcast rights, and ABC’s Rookie Blue on an off-network basis.

ION released the ratings figures as part of an overall programming release that also included adding five new original holiday movies this year and new content coming to ION's other networks, kids-focused Qubo and ION Life.