NBC’s 6-Season Crime Procedural Is the Perfect ‘Bones’ Replacement

Giovana Gelhoren is a High-Trending Topics Writer at Collider, covering the most-talked-about stars, movies, and TV shows. Before joining Collider, she was a Digital News Writer at People Magazine and served as Associate Editor at SheKnows, where she honed her expertise in celebrity coverage and entertainment journalism.

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For 12 riveting seasons, Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz solved crimes and lit up the screen in the beloved crime show Bones. The series, which first aired back in 2005, was a true testament to the power of procedurals; a formula that works and keeps viewers locked in season after season. But before Bones ever made it to the air, there’s another series that follows a similar premise, and is equally a must-watch. Starting in 2001, NBC aired Crossing Jordan, another crime drama with a forensic pathologist at the center, and unexpected crimes and mysteries at every turn.

What Is ‘Crossing Jordan’ About?

Crossing Jordan, created by Tim Kring, follows Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh (Jill Hennessy), an unorthodox forensic pathologist in Boston who’s so determined to solve her cases, she’s not afraid to ruffle some feathers. In each episode, she launches hard-core, in-depth investigations into each crime and becomes obsessed with finding the truth. But while her determination and stubbornness make her great at her job, it often ticks off the cops or her co-workers.

• Meaning over drama, honesty over aesthetics.
• The discipline to stay present when the department is at its worst.
• A tolerance for weight that does not get put down at the end of the day.

• Each episode covers roughly one hour of the same emergency-department shift, in order.
• Noah Wyle has now won the lead drama actor Emmy for it twice, in 2025 and again in 2026.
• It reunites the ER team of Wyle, John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill, thirty years on.

• Reliability above brilliance, every single shift.
• Faith in a structure that is visibly imperfect.
• The stamina to treat the hundredth patient like the first.

• Fifteen seasons and 331 episodes, from 1994 to 2009, created by Michael Crichton.
• It holds the record for the most Emmy nominations of any drama series, with 124.
• George Clooney, Julianna Margulies and Noah Wyle all broke out of County General.

• A willingness to feel all of it rather than seal any of it off.
• Colleagues who become family, with everything that costs.
• Comfort with mess, in the OR and everywhere else.

• Shonda Rhimes’ series passed ER to become the longest-running primetime medical drama
  on US television.
• It is on season 22, with ABC having already renewed it for a twenty-third.
• Ellen Pompeo has played Meredith Grey across three decades of television.

• Thinking harder than anyone else in the room, then defending it.
• A high tolerance for being disliked while you are right.
• Interest in the puzzle that outlasts your interest in being comfortable.

• Eight seasons built on Sherlock Holmes: House and Holmes, Wilson and Watson, and an
  apartment at 221B.
• Hugh Laurie taped his audition in a hotel bathroom in Namibia while shooting another film.
• By 2008 it was the most-watched television show on earth, with an audience around 82
  million.

• Humor that never curdles into cruelty.
• The honesty to admit you are still learning how to do this.
• People you can lean on, and the willingness to be leaned on.

• Nine seasons from Bill Lawrence, filmed largely inside a real decommissioned hospital in
  North Hollywood.
• Working doctors have repeatedly named it the most accurate medical show on television.
• Zach Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke returned for an ABC revival that premiered in
  February 2026.

Beyond the cases, Jordan has a checkered past of her own, and has walls up to protect herself from doing any more damage. In fact, her driving force in the series is the one crime she’s never been able to solve: her mother’s murder when she was a child. In addition to Jordan, the show also features her sarcastic yet disciplined boss, Chief Medical Examiner Garrett Macy (Miguel Ferrer); Assistant Medical Examiner Nigel Townsend (Steve Valentine), who is just as passionate about his job as Jordan, but with an eccentric edge; and Detective Woody Hoyt (Jerry O’Connell), a Boston PD detective who serves as the total opposite to Jordan on the field, which ends up sparking a romantic connection between them.

Crossing Jordan, much like other procedurals like Law & Order: SVU or NCIS, saw many soon-to-be Hollywood stars at the beginning of their careers. Among them were Kathryn Hahn as later recurring character Dr. Lily Lebowski, Mahershala Ali as Medical Examiner Dr. Trey Sanders, and Leslie Bibb as Detective Tallulah Simmons. Some notable guest stars throughout the seasons include Josh Duhamel, Sebastian Stan, and the late Chadwick Boseman.

‘Crossing Jordan’ Is Darker and Edgier Than ‘Bones’

• Image via NBC

• Image via NBC

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While the premise alone might have viewers thinking that Crossing Jordan and Bones are shockingly similar, think again. While both TV shows have a female forensic expert in the lead, they differ in tone, focus, and narrative. For starters, while Bones, despite the crimes and dead bodies, still manages to be lighthearted, with humor and an exciting chemistry between Booth (Deschanel) and Brennan (Boreanaz), Crossing Jordan is much more somber and emotionally raw. Instead of seeing investigations as exciting puzzles, the show doesn’t shy away from portraying the reality of the deaths, and the feelings of guilt, grief, and morality that come with them.

The more realistic and less chipper tone is reflected in every aspect of the show, including the unstable dynamic between Jordan and her team. While Bones thrives by showing the forensic team as a well-oiled machine and chosen family, Crossing Jordan has the forensic team often at odds, creating friction between characters and highlighting Jordan’s emotional and biased tendencies by doing so. The same goes for Jordan’s relationship with Woody, which, instead of being Booth and Brennan’s enticing slow-burn, portrays their relationship as flawed, turbulent and divisive.

Therefore, while NBC’s Crossing Jordan is certainly a great replacement for Bones fans looking for another bingeworthy procedural, the show is singular in its own way. With an erratic and impulsive lead, the TV show follows crimes and investigations with a twist, seeing the protagonist work through her own struggles, move past her mistakes and find the truth, no matter how much it costs her. Crossing Jordan has a darker edge to the classic procedural, but it’s well worth the watch.

Crossing Jordan

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  Jill Hennessy

  Jordan Cavanaugh

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  Miguel Ferrer

  Garrett Macy

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  Steve Valentine

  Nigel Townsend

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  Ravi Kapoor

  Mahesh ‘Bug’ Vijay