Bright Lights, Big Bureau: Comey Okays New TV Series to Boost FBI's Image

Comey has granted the producers of "Inside the FBI: New York," a new USA reality show, access to the bureau's New York offices. The series was created by Dick Wolf, the man behind “Law and Order,” and Marc Levin, who created the show "Brick City.”

“We have to care what people think of us,” Comey said during an April 12 interview at the Newseum in Washington, DC, where the series was premiered. “The faith and confidence of the American people is the bedrock."

Explaining why he would involve the agency in a reality show, Comey said that he “worries sometimes that people don’t know us.” He added that “we did a lot last year that confused people.”

“I don’t know if the people actually appreciate the pressure that we are under in preventing something from happening here in the homeland,” an agent tells the camera at the end of the preview for the show.

The series was filmed for an entire year, from September 2015 through September 2016, so it is unlikely to include the events surrounding Comey’s infamous October 2016 letter to Congress about the reopening of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton, which many on the left have blamed for Clinton’s election loss.

The show is set to premiere on April 27, and Comey hopes that it will help people understand that the agency is not partisan.

“If you see the world through sides, the FBI doesn’t make a lot of sense to you,” Comey said.

“We are not on anybody’s side. We really don’t care."