Steven Prusakowski
In its fourth season it appears Emmy voters are on the lookout for FBI: Most Wanted. The CBS crime procedural walked away with two Emmy nominations, the first for the series. The nominations came for Outstanding Stunt Performance and Outstanding Stunt Coordination For A Drama Series, Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie.
The nominations have them facing off against streaming series (Disney+’s The Mandalorian and Prime Video’s The Boys) which often have the luxury of time and bigger budgets to produce their stunt sequences. Working on network television often demands tighter deadlines using a nine-day schedule to shoot each of its 22 episodes per season. Since each stunt can take hours to shoot, if not executed properly it can throw off the entire timing of the shoot.
In addition to schedule concerns, many of these stunts to not allow for a redo. These stunt teams are performing without a safety net, so to speak. If the van flip does not work the first time it can be a complete loss. So the pressure is on the stunt team as the looming airdate deadline can be missed if a reshoot is required. To pull off these feats both safely and effectively requires a great deal of planning by Stunt Coordinator Declan Muley explained Executive Producer Ken Girotti.
“All the teams work to make sure we have the time to consider all the potential pitfalls.” said Girotti. “We’ve pushed a schedule to facilitate stunt planning or specific safety builds or even just to make sure there’s enough time to have more meetings or surveys to make sure it’s all ready to go before the day. Declan is an integral part of the family and he has elevated everything about the show.”
The stunts are not only exciting and timely, they are dangerous. “We rely heavily on storyboards, deep planning and adequate rigging time to pull this stuff off,” explained Giroti. “The sheer number of departments involved demand this. There were multiple site surveys of the past season’s van flip location and Declan rehearses and records all complex fight sequences off set.”
“Declan also served as second unit director on a car chase sequence (below) which included a moving shootout and precision stunt driving. The sequence itself was almost two television acts long!” The results are left on the screen. On wrong move and the shot is ruined, or even worse someone is injured.
Below you can see another precision-required stunt featured on FBI: Most Wanted, where the special effects crew flipped a full-sized ambulance on its side launching it over a static camera.
FBI: Most Wanted is nominated for stunt coordination along with broadcast shows including ABC’s The Rookie and fellow CBS series S.W.A.T. You can watch more of the amazing stunt work and all the FBI: Most Wanted crime drama on CBS.com.
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