From New Installments of 'CSI' to 'NCIS': CBS' 2021 Upfronts Trailers Ranked Daniel D'Addario, provided by May 19, 2021 FacebookTwitterEmail Continuing the week of networks’ upfront presentations, ViacomCBS released sneak peeks of four new shows to their advertisers and public consumers Wednesday. Although it’s too soon to really assess the shows themselves, that isn’t stopping this critic from weighing in on their potential, based upon these first looks. More from Variety If any further proof was needed that Dick Wolf is in the absolute elite tier of TV producers — beyond the fact that this fall he will have three dedicated nights of television, with NBC’s “Chicago” Wednesdays and “Law & Order” Thursdays joining CBS’ “FBI” Tuesdays — it’s in this trailer. How many other producers would be trusted to explain their point-of-view to audiences directly? It’s Wolf’s appeal that CBS is banking on far more than any insight as to what the forthcoming “FBI: International” will look like. We get a sizzle reel of action; moody character stomping; officers entering rooms with weapons drawn, and tense, grim violence, all while Wolf explains his concept: The new installation of the popular “FBI” franchise will draw more upon “international intrigue” than gunplay, given that FBI agents posted overseas, Wolf says, eschew violence. “These shows are different,” he adds, but they “have an overarching similarity of purpose. You give them what they like, they’ll stick around.” Addressing the audience this way in a trailer approaches meta, but we can’t deny that Wolf’s good at his job. Suggesting a sort of continuity-with-change — the old “FBI,” but with the violence that pulses throughout replaced by tradecraft — is an effective sell that made me curious in spite of my skepticism.