The Sad Reason CBS Is Pulling The FBI Season Finale

Courtesy of creators Craig Turk and crime procedural mastermind Dick Wolf, "FBI" introduced itself to CBS viewers in September of 2018. As the title suggests, the series follows the cases of the New York branch of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the lives of the brave individuals who serve under it. As the show has proven, their line of work isn't easy, nor is it for the faint of heart, but those who take on its day-to-day responsibilities head-first anyway do it to make their state, country, and world a safer place.

Like most of Wolf's other projects, such as "Law & Order" and its highly successful spin-off, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "FBI" has drawn in viewers consistently and built up a large fanbase since its debut. In response, Season 2 arrived in September of 2019, followed by a Season 3 in November of 2020, but the forward momentum didn't stop there. Season 4 premiered in September of 2021, bringing with it 22 episodes. Therefore, the plan was for this batch of episodes to wrap up on May 24, 2022. However, that's no longer the case.

Per CBS, the Season 4 finale of "FBI" has been pulled from the airwaves. Here's the sad reason why the episode won't reach the small screen as initially planned.

As reported by Deadline on May 24, 2022, a mass shooting took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, resulting in the death of 14 students and one teacher. According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, two police officers were also shot but not seriously injured. This event comes a mere few days after 10 people were killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York (via The New York Times), and has led CBS to pull the Season 4 finale of "FBI" from the schedule altogether.

According to a separate Deadline report, CBS made this decision due to the content of the episode itself, which flies uncomfortably close to the Texas tragedy. Titled "Prodigal Son," the episode – written by showrunner Rick Eid and directed by Alex Chapple — would see the "FBI" team thwart a school shooting. Instead, CBS will air the 12th episode of the season, "Under Pressure," which originally aired on February 1. Meanwhile, "FBI: Most Wanted" and "FBI: International" will air their respective finales as initially scheduled, though this could change.

At the time of publication, it's unknown what will become of the "FBI" Season 4 finale in the days and weeks ahead.