CBS plants Criminal Minds spin-off in series

CBS is turning to its trusted backdoor pilot process to test another spin-off series, this time for procedural drama Criminal Minds (pictured).

The pilot will be part of Criminal Minds’s latest season, and come in the shape of an episode written by original show showrunner and executive producer Erica Messing.

It will follow a separate FBI team that helps American citizens in trouble abroad.

As with the original series, Messing with work with Mark Gordon and Nick Pepper of The Mark Gordon Company, which has an overall pact with coproducer ABC Studios. CBS Television Studios is also attached.

Criminal Minds already has one CBS spin-off, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, which ran for one season in 2010-11.

CBS has used the backdoor pilot system on many of its top performers, most notably launching NCIS, now officially the world’s most successful scripted series, which started as an episode of JAG.

CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, CSI: Cyber, NCIS: LA and NCIS: New Orleans also came to life in this way.