‘Criminal Minds’ to End With Season 15

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The long-running CBS procedural “Criminal Minds” has been renewed for a fifteenth season, which will also be the show’s last, Variety has confirmed.

The final season will consist of 10 episodes. The final 10 episodes will be shot back-to-back with the Season 14 episodes currently in production. With the final 10 episodes, the show will have aired 325 episodes when it ends its run, making it one of the longest-running shows in television history.

The show revolves around an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze the country’s most twisted , anticipating their next moves before they strike again. It currently stars Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster, Matthew Gray Gubler, A.J. Cook, Aisha Tyler, Kirsten Vangsness, Adam Rodriguez, and Daniel Henney. The series was created by Jeff Davis and is executive produced by Mark Gordon, Erica Messer, and Breen Frazier. ABC Studios produces in association with Television Studios.

The series has been a cornerstone of the CBS schedule, though its ratings have fallen in recent years. In Live+Same Day, Season 14 is currently averaging a 0.8 rating in adults 18-49 and 4.7 million viewers per episode, though those numbers have typically risen noticeably in delayed viewing.

The show has also not been without controversy during its run. Most recently,  Variety exclusively reported that the show’s long-time director of photography, Greg St. Johns, had faced multiple accusations of abusive behavior and sexual harassment towards crew members. St. Johns has since left the production. Prior to that, series star Thomas Gibson was fired from the show after an on-set altercation with a producer.