A birthday post on social media featuring The Young and the Restless alum Shemar Moore has fans begging for the actor to return to his former show. We approve.
Shades of Criminal Minds
Joe Mantegna has played Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi on Criminal Minds since the OG series’ third season. Rossi, Shemar Moore’s Derek Morgan, and the rest of their crew handled the darkest, deadliest FBI cases in the U.S.. The criminals they chased, hunted, and caught were mostly serial killers.
After Moore left the mothership in season 11 (he made a couple more appearances in subsequent seasons), he moved on to another series, S.W.A.T., which is about to end after its eighth and final season. While CBS canceled Criminal Minds after its 15th season, Mantegna later revived his Rossi character on the reboot called Criminal Minds: Evolution. With Moore busy on his CBS cop drama, he hasn’t appeared on the streaming version of his former series. Not yet, anyway.
CM fans were overjoyed when Mantegna posted a great photo of himself with Moore on Instagram. We’re not sure how recent the photo was taken, but it celebrated the soap vet’s birthday (which was on April 20). Mantegna simply wrote in the post, “Happy Birthday to my Golden Boy.”
The post, which has over a hundred thousand likes and counting, had fans rejoicing over the photo featuring two actors playing characters from one of their favorite TV shows. One supremely excited fan wrote, “OMGGGGGGG THE REUNION OMGGGG🥹🥹🥹❤️❤️.” Meanwhile, another took the time to be grateful and gush over Moore’s character. “YEEESS!! OUR DEREK MORGAN STAN HEART CAN’T TAKE IT ❤️ Thank you for this, Joe 🥹.”
Yet another fan wrote what we were all thinking, “Please tell me that since SWAT is cancelled, he is returning to Criminal Minds!!” Forget using their real-life names, one CM worshiper wrote, “Derek Morgan and Papa Rossi!!!” And there were a lot of fans pulling for Moore, finding his way back to the show that helped make him a primetime TV star. “Bring him back to Criminal Minds Joe, PLEASE!!!!! 🥺❤️🔥”
As for S.W.A.T., CBS announced its cancellation earlier this year. Unless Moore can find another last-minute reprieve, the two-part series finale airs Friday, May 16, 2025. Meanwhile, another season of Criminal Minds: Evolution kicks off on Paramount+ on Thursday, May 8, with one episode. Each episode after that drops weekly, with the season finale on July 10.
