Warning: spoilers are ahead for the sixth episode of FBI Season 8 on CBS, called "Parental" and available streaming next day with a Paramount+ subscription.
CBS' FBI has technically been part of the connected Dick Wolf TV universe going back to its second season, but the current Season 8 is doing just fine in the 2025 TV schedule without weekly ties to the NBC's One Chicago and Law & Order sides of the Wolf world. Still, when "Parental" included the mention of "Hudson University" in New York City, I had to flash over to Law & Order: SVU regularly featuring a fictional college of the same name.
That's not to say that FBI's Hudson University is the same as SVU's Hudson University, which is pretty good news for any undergrads in the FBI-verse's version of New York City. The school admittedly wasn't as central to the storyline of "Parental" as it was to a Jubal-centric episode of Season 7, but here's what went down in the latest episode.
What Happened At Hudson University In "Parental"
A woman by the name of Mimi Werrick was a murder suspect in the latest episode, but the team discovered that she was a continuing education student at – where else? – Hudson University, and her phone location confirmed that she'd been on campus rather than committing murders across the city. In fact, she was a victim herself, having her infant stolen from her and being told that the child had died when she'd really been sold and adopted out to another family.
Mimi wasn't the killer that Maggie and OA were looking for, but she did send them in the right direction. I also just got a kick out of her attendance at Hudson University actually working as an alibi, which generally isn't the case when Hudson is involved on Law & Order and SVU. The things that happen on SVU's Hudson campus are pretty exclusively bad.
FBI's Hudson Isn't Law & Order's Hudson
There's a reason why Maggie and OA didn't run into Law & Order's Lt. Brady or SVU's Captain Benson when their investigation briefly included Hudson University, and that is because the two shows produced by Wolf Entertainment don't feature the same college despite the name.
That's not a shocker after showrunner Mike Weiss clarified ahead of Season 8 that former SVU star Juliana Aidén Martinez would be playing "a brand new character" as an FBI series regular rather reprising her NBC role as Detective Kate Silva. Still, the FBI corner of the Wolf Entertainment franchise has technically existed in the same TV world as Law & Order, thanks to Chicago P.D.'s Tracy Spiridakos crossing over as Detective Upton back in 2020 and becoming the link between all of the shows.
If we're going by technicalities from half a decade ago, then technically there should only be one Hudson University. Realistically, however, the universities are not one and the same, and showrunner Mike Weiss told CinemaBlend this in no uncertain terms:
There is no crossover from NBC to CBS. There is a bright line between those two universes.
That may be all for the best, since there would be some doppelgangers between FBI and Law & Order beyond Juliana Aidén Martinez. Both Jeremy Sisto and Alana De La Garza were series regulars with the NYPD on Law & Order before switching to playing federal agents on FBI. Crossovers aren't set to happen as Season 8 continues.
There are still episodes left to look forward to before FBI goes on its winter break ahead of the 2026 TV schedule, though! Keep tuning in to CBS on Mondays at 9 p.m. ET for the latest episodes of FBI's eighth season, ahead of Watson at 10 p.m. ET. You can also revisit earlier episodes streaming on Paramount+.
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