Crime procedurals have been consistent hits on network TV for decades, with NBC's Law & Order: SVU still going strong with Mariska Hargitay as leading lady Olivia Benson since 1999 and FBI expanding that Dick Wolf TV universe to CBS in 2018 with Missy Peregrym as Agent Maggie Bell. Both shows are still going strong in the 2025 TV schedule, and fans are still rooting for Benson and Stabler to hook up on SVU. As for Maggie on FBI, Peregrym spoke with CinemaBlend with her take on romances in a procedural like hers.
To start with SVU, the power of fans rooting for a "Bensler" romance is such that even Stabler leaving the franchise for over a decade wasn't enough to quash the flames. Ice-T, who has actually starred on the show with Mariska Hargitay for the past 26 seasons, has addressed a potential Benson/Stabler romance, and Christopher Meloni's ad-libbed "Love you" in a recent SVU cameo prompted Hargitay to address it on TODAY. I'm on the record as being a fan of Benson and Stabler as just friends, but... even I also kind of wanted Stabler back on NBC full-time after that cameo.
So, what does any of this have to do with Missy Peregrym, Agent Maggie Bell, and FBI on CBS? Well, the relationship between Maggie and OA on FBI has been solidly platonic from the start, and they've become one of my favorite TV partnerships because of it. OA has found a lasting relationship with Gemma, however, while Maggie's once-promising relationship with Joel fell apart.
When I spoke with Peregrym about the Season 8 premiere (now available streaming with a Paramount+ subscription) and teaming up with SVU alum Juliana Aidén Martinez as the newest FBI star, she shared her thoughts on whether Maggie is really capable of a relationship like OA and Gemma at this point:
It is going to take someone who can really handle that. I loved that we explored that a little bit last year, of what it would mean for someone to partner with me with the job that I have and the expectations and how much they'd have to care about me and continue to invest in us personally, but then professionally, I can take off at any moment because of work or die. I don't know. Not a lot of people would like to sign up for that, so we'll see what the writers come up with.
Considering all the near-deaths that Maggie has accumulated over the eight seasons of FBI so far, I'd say it would be very important for any romantic partner of hers to learn to live with her potential demise on a daily basis! Peregrym went on to share that while she's up for whatever the show has in store for her character, she doesn't see romance as something that Maggie needs. She explained:
I'm so down to try anything, but I also love that it's not about me [as Maggie] being in a romantic relationship, that I play a character. I've got my partner at work, I have my team, and I love my life. I really do love what I do, and so I think that's also great. I don't have to have a partner for things to be full. You know, I feel like my character is very full with what she has in her life.
I love a good fictional romance as much as anybody, but as Missy Peregrym pointed out, Maggie is a full-fledged character with the relationships that she has currently. Her friends stepped up for her when she needed them in Season 7, and I don't see that changing even with the addition of a new team member she still has to get to know.
Plus, her brief stint as Ella's guardian showed that her life is incompatible with a typical family dynamic, and there was never any question of her leaving her job at the Bureau to be a mom. She doesn't need a love interest to be interesting.
There's nothing wrong with rooting for romance between procedural characters, and as anybody who has ever read my coverage of One Chicago elsewhere in the Dick Wolf TV universe knows, I'd be lying if I claimed that I never had my favorites. But Missy Peregrym pointed out an important truth: a character can be fully-formed without a love interest, especially when the core of her character is in her work, and that's the case for Maggie Bell at this point.
New episodes of FBI are now airing on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on CBS after spending seven seasons on Tuesday nights. The time slot change came after the cancellations of FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International, with the show now airing ahead of Watson Season 2.
As for Benson and Stabler over in the Law & Order corner of the TV universe... well, at this point, it remains to be seen if Law & Order: Organized Crime is renewed for Season 6 and/or whether Christopher Meloni has the time to keep showing up on SVU, so Bensler fans who have been waiting for 27 seasons will just have to keep on waiting for the time being.
