Peter Krause's TV Comeback Is A Major Headache For Networks

46 minutes ago 14

Published Sep 17, 2026, 3:01 PM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While 9-1-1 star Peter Krause’s new NBC show sounds intriguing, its unusual storytelling style could be both a headache, and ultimately a learning opportunity, for network TV creators as a whole. Peter Krause had an impressive TV career long before playing Bobby Nash on 9-1-1. From years spent appearing in sitcoms like Seinfeld, Ellen, and 3rd Rock from the Sun to his breakout dramatic roles in Sports Night and the iconic HBO drama Six Feet Under, Krause is a TV veteran.

However, it was 9-1-1 that gave him his biggest small-screen success. While the show’s 142 episodes are dwarfed by rival procedural franchises like NCIS and Law & Order, 9-1-1 is still a major player among network procedurals, and the show has racked up a string of spinoffs including 9-1-1: Lone Star, 9-1-1: Nashville, and the short-lived medical drama Doctor Odyssey. Now, Krause hopes to transfer his star power into an ambitious action thriller.

Set to debut on NBC on September 21, Line of Fire is a conspiracy thriller with a difference. Where many hits in the genre, like Prime Video’s streaming sensation Reacher, focus on lone wolf protagonists, Line of Fire is instead about a family trapped by a conspiracy. To make matters more complicated and dramatic, each member of the family is also a member of an unrelated major law enforcement organization. With members of the Secret Service, the DoJ, the FBI, and the US Marshals, this family must turn against their own professional codes to save their lives.

Line Of Fire Combines Great Premise & Procedural Format

This premise alone is killer, but it’s not the most exciting and potentially troublesome element of the show. According to everything viewers have seen of the series so far, Line Of Fire won’t be a typical network police procedural. Instead, both its premise and its trailer promise a viewing experience more akin to a suspense thriller for streaming, borrowing inspiration from Netflix’s The Night Agent, Prime Video's aforementioned Reacher, Apple TV's Slow Horses, and Paramount’s Lioness.

Krause plays Secret Service Agent Mike Hollingsworth while Hope Davis plays U.S. Marshal Jane Hollingsworth, with Kat Cunning, Taylor Bloom, and Chris Chalk rounding out the starry cast. With a pilot episode from Rebecca Thomas, who directed an episode of Netflix’s Stranger Things, the show has clear ambitions to be more cinematic and explosive than a standard-issue procedural series. It should come as no surprise that Krause told People the series was “the most exciting” show he had ever done.

If Done Right, Line Of Fire Will Push The Boundaries Of Network TV

What makes this show so exciting is the same thing that makes some readers roll their eyes at the news of yet another NCIS spinoff. While they still reliably pull in viewers, traditional broadcast procedurals are often seen as inferior because they are repetitive and their storytelling can’t afford to be as creative, dynamic, and daring as their steaming competition.

However, if Line of Fire’s experiment works, the show could reset the bar and practically force networks to be more inventive with their shows instead of just relying on reliable old formats. The unspoken issue that divides network procedurals and streaming thrillers is rooted in the fact that network shows rely on familiarity and comfort, while streaming services instead prioritize novelty and originality.

This sometimes means streaming shows can be too wild, absurd, or ambitious to work, but it often works in their favor. In contrast, NBC releasing its umpteenth Dick Wolf procedural show is hardly likely to shock or impress any viewer in 2026. Thus, Line of Fire could be exciting for network TV if 9-1-1 star Peter Krause’s show manages to successfully blend streaming-style plotting with a network TV release schedule, as this could push the traditional side of the medium into more innovative and daring arena going forward.

Source: People