What To Know
- Criminal Minds will end with its 20th season in 2027, after 15 seasons on CBS and five on Paramount+.
- The cast reacted and shared tributes to the show on social media.
Criminal Minds is ending after 20 seasons — the original 15 on CBS, then five as the Evolution continuation on Paramount+, with the last one airing in 2027. (CBS also released photos from Season 20, which you can check out here.) After the news broke, some of the cast took to social media.
“It’s being canceled,” Kirsten Vangsness (Garcia) said in a video she shared on Instagram. “You know the part in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Charlie gets the chocolate and he’s like, ‘This is a little bittersweet but thank you so much for the chocolate’? Look at how long [the show lasted]. That doesn’t happen ever. But I love my job, and my boss Erica Messer says there’s so many more stories to tell so if we get to keep telling them somewhere, that would be amazing. And I know all of us feel the same way. … So maybe this goes somewhere else.” Watch her full statement in the video here.
A.J. Cook (JJ) shared a cast photo on her Instagram Stories and wrote, “These people own my heart forever and always” with heart and broken heart emojis.
AJ Cook/Instagram
Aisha Tyler (Tara) also shared that photo from R.J. Hatanaka’s post and added, “Family for life.” She then posted a graphic of the top-streamed titles of 2026, which lists Criminal Minds as the 11th with 13.15 billion minutes watched.
Aisha Tyler/Instagram
Aisha Tyler/Instagram
“Just the finest group of people,” Hatanaka (Tyler) wrote in the caption of the photo, with a heart emoji. See his post below.
“It’s hard to put into words what Criminal Minds has meant to all of us who have been fortunate enough to be part of this extraordinary journey, first on CBS for 15 seasons and then on Paramount+ for five,” showrunner and executive producer Erica Messer said in a statement with the news of the show ending. “While suddenly navigating the end of this chapter, I’m filled with gratitude for our remarkable cast, writers, directors and crew who have poured their hearts into this show, and for the incredible fans around the world whose unwavering loyalty has kept Criminal Minds going for two decades. We’re looking forward to sharing Season 20 with everyone, and celebrating the legacy of this special show we’ve all built together.”
For going on 20 seasons now, the series has followed the profilers of the BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit) as they hunt down serial killers. In addition to Vangsness, Cook, Tyler, and Hatanaka, Season 20 stars Joe Mantegna (Rossi), Adam Rodriguez (Luke), and Paget Brewster (Prentiss).
How do you feel about Criminal Minds ending? What are you hoping to see in the final season? Let us know in the comments section below.
Criminal Minds: Evolution, 20th and Final Season, 2027, Paramount+
