Criminal Minds: Paget Brewster on Paramount+ Revival, Show’s Success

It’s been a long and rewarding journey for fans of the series Criminal Minds from its 15 seasons on CBS to the announced revival on Paramount+. Paget Brewster, who plays Unit Chief Emily Prentiss of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, joined the series since the season two episode “The Last Word,” appearing in 194 of the 323 episodes. Created by Jeff Davis, the original run on CBS ended in 2020. Joining her for the revival are co-stars Joe Mantegna (David Rossi), Kristen Vangsness (Penelope Garcia), Adam Rodriguez (Luke Alvez), A.J. Cook (Jennifer Jareau), and Aisha Tyler (Dr. Tara Lewis). While promoting her indie psychological thriller Hypochondriac, Brewster spoke with Bleeding Cool about how the revival came to be and the series’ newfound fandom on Netflix.

“We’re all just really excited [laughs]. We’ve been talking to Paramount+ for over a year and a half about the possibility of this coming back,” Brewster said. “For a while, it was going to happen, then we thought it wasn’t going to happen, and then it was going to happen. A lot of components have to fall into place for a show to be rebooted like this. We’re just so happy that that is finally done and our contracts are signed. We’re ready to go and start shooting in August.” The actress, who’s also accomplished in voiceover work, including Adult Swim’s Birdgirl, FOX’s Family Guy, and Alpha Betas, was surprised by how popular Criminal Minds became in the streaming era.

“It’s sort of had another life on Netflix. When ‘Criminal Minds’ is on Netflix, all of a sudden different, young people are into it now,” Brewster said. “We used to think, “You’ve never heard of my show, but your grandma watches it.” Now, it’s found a whole new audience on Netflix. So we all think we’re pretty good at that job. We’re pretty good at doing ‘Criminal Minds’. We’re good with our characters. We did it for a long time, and it makes people happy. So, of course, we want to do it! I can’t tell you what’s coming up, but it’s really good. So I don’t know what I’m allowed to talk about, so I’m going to stick with it. It’s really good.”

The 16th season will be 10 episodes with longtime executive producer & showrunner Erica Messer also returning, which was contingent on the actors’ return, according to Deadline. Production is scheduled to begin on August 21st. Hypochondriac, which also stars Zach Villa, Devon Graye, Marlene Forte, Madeline Zima, Yumarie Morales, and Chris Doubek, comes to theaters on July 29 and on-demand and digital on August 4th.