There has been a change at the top of CBS’ “FBI” spinoff.
The network has tapped “Friday Night Lights” alumnus David Hudgins as the showrunner for the upcoming second season of “FBI: Most Wanted,” Variety has confirmed. Hudgins has also signed an overall deal with the show’s producer Universal Television.
He takes over from René Balcer who ran the first season of “Most Wanted,” which ended in May.
News of the change doesn’t come as a great surprise, given that the original “FBI” has bounced between multiple showrunners through its two seasons so far. Back in Oct. 2018, Rick Eid and Derek Haas took over to split showrunning duties, following the exit of Greg Plageman. Plageman himself took over as showrunner after original showrunner and series co-creator Craig Turk left the series in July of that year.
“Most Wanted” follows the division of the FBI tasked with tracking and capturing the notorious criminals on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. Season 1 was written and executive produced by Dick Wolf and Balcer, who also served as a consulting producer on “FBI” and previously collaborated with Wolf on multiple iterations of the “Law & Order” franchise.
It stars Julian McMahon as Jess LaCroix, an “agent’s agent” who is at the top of his game, and oversees the team from the FBI’s Most Wanted Unit, which is assigned the most extreme and egregious cases.
“FBI” executive producers Arthur W. Forney and Peter Jankowski also executive produce “Most Wanted.” Like its originator, “Most Wanted” is also produced by Wolf Films and Universal Television, in association with CBS Television Studios.
Deadline first reported the “Most Wanted” change.