#Criminal Minds season 16 revival reportedly in the works at Paramount+

Consider this some news that certainly left us floored this afternoon — a Criminal Minds revival may be coming!

According to a new report from Variety, the soon-to-be-named Paramount+ streaming service (currently CBS All Access) is working on a new iteration of the long-running crime procedural. The original show went off the air early last year, but we never got the sense that it was for-sure done. Many of the main characters were left at the BAU, and we know the franchise remains enormously popular all over the world. It also performs very-well in streaming.

For some more news on Criminal Minds in video form, be sure to watch our take on the series finale of this article! Once you do, subscribe to Matt & Jess on YouTube and then also view our show playlist.

With all of this in mind, we can’t say that we’re shocked that Paramount+ is choosing to bring the show back, even if we were by the timing of the news. There’s a real push from Viacom to make the Paramount+ service a competitor to the likes of HBO Max, Peacock, and Disney+, and one of the best ways to do that is by bringing on board franchises. There’s already a Yellowstone prequel announced there, and we’ve heard that a Frasier revival as well as a new iCarly could be a part of the service down the road. These will get viewers watching and hopefully paying, alongside the big library of shows from MTV, CBS, Nickelodeon, and other networks.

As of right now, it remains to be seen how many of the show’s most-recent cast members would return for a new version, but longtime showrunner/executive producer Erica Messer is expected to be involved. We think that Criminal Minds, despite at times being incredibly dark, is comforting to a lot of viewers out there; it shows that someone is watching out for them even while the most vicious of criminals are out there in the world. It’d be a thrill to get it back.

What do you think about the idea of the Criminal Minds revival?

Be sure to share right now in the comments! Once you do that, be sure to also come back around for some other updates. (Photo: CBS.)

This article was written by Jessica Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.