Dick Wolf explains why ‘FBI’ avoids political storylines despite real-world controversies

Dick Wolf shares why he steers ‘FBI’ away from partisan plots

When Dick Wolf launched FBI on CBS in 2018, the real bureau was in the middle of a very public clash with then-President Donald Trump over national security controversies and ongoing investigations.

Many assumed the series would lean into the headlines. Instead, Wolf made a deliberate choice: FBI’s agents would remain “assiduously not political.”

Speaking at a Television Critics Association panel in 2018, Wolf explained that politics, no matter the direction, risk alienating half the audience.

“You can go back over the years. You can’t find many episodes of any show I’ve done that are politically oriented,” he said, per USA Today. “If you do that, 50% of the audience is [ticked] off.”

Wolf emphasized that his shows operate as entertainment, not extensions of any political agenda. But that doesn’t mean FBI lacks purpose.

The producer, who has longstanding family ties to the bureau through an uncle who served in the 1950s and ’60s, believes in spotlighting the real-world dedication of federal agents.

“Positive images of the bureau make them happy,” he noted. “A lot of them, in the past couple of years, have told me they feel underappreciated for what the real work is.”

Wolf’s approach to FBI mirrors the core philosophy behind his One Chicago franchise, which highlights first responders and frontline workers whose everyday acts of service often go unseen.

“They’re heroes,” he told the Television Critics Association in 2016, according to Variety. “You can’t pay people to run into burning buildings. Doctors are not in it for the money anymore, either.”

Still, Wolf’s brand of realism hasn’t always been free from controversy. In 2016, NBC shelved an episode of Law & Order: SVU involving a fictional political candidate accused of sexual assault, fearing it would appear tied to the presidential election.

Wolf argued at the time that his shows operate under one principle: “We steal the headlines, not the body copy.”

With FBI, that approach has meant drawing from real-world issues while staying clear of partisan messaging, a balance that’s helped the series remain accessible to a wide audience through politically charged times.