Jason Priestley & Cindy Sampson Preview ‘Private Eyes’ Return in ‘West Coast’: What’s Different?

Last seen, private investigators Matt Shade (Jason Priestley) and Angie Everett (Cindy Sampson) finally answered the question that Private Eyes fans had been asking for five seasons: “Will these two ever get together?”

The result: They did! Then fans were left wondering: “Will we get to see these two again?”

Five years later, the answer is: We will!

Private Eyes West Coast continues the adventures of Angie and Shade, but this isn’t simply a sixth season wearing a new hat. Since Private Eyes ended its run in 2021, they got married, had a baby, closed their Toronto P.I. firm and moved to Victoria, British Columbia. Shade’s hockey memoir is a success — despite what the online trolls think — and they’re both trying to figure out what to do with the time in between caring for their cute but demanding infant son, Declan.

When Shade and Angie finally do get a date night out, murder rears its ugly head again. “Angie is like, ‘Oh yay, I’m so happy! Like, I couldn’t be happier that a murder just happened,’” Sampson says with a laugh. “What a beautiful date. Date night with murder? Exactly what Angie’s looking for.”

And just like that, they’re back in business, surrounded by a completely new supporting cast and a new city where they have none of the connections that helped them navigate Toronto.

For Priestley, slipping back into Shade was surprisingly easy. “It was like putting on your favorite pair of slippers,” he says. “It was really comfortable and it just felt right.”

Shade, however, isn’t exactly thrilled about returning to P.I. work. But he’s also determined to be a different kind of husband and father than he was before. “He really wants to be entirely present,” Priestley says of Shade, who spent much of his earlier life on the road as a hockey player. “Obviously with his new wife, he wants to be there and be present and help her and support her.”

That evolution mirrors Sampson’s own life. Like Angie, she returned to work while raising a young child, giving her an unusually personal connection to this version of the character.

“I feel like Angie 2.0 is super grounded and grown-up,” Sampson says. “In the original series, she was this feisty lone wolf. And I feel like she’s really just softened into motherhood.”

The West Coast setting adds another new ingredient. Priestley, who grew up in Vancouver, says Vancouver Island offers a slower pace and a colorful collection of characters, from fishermen and artists to mystics. Sampson calls Victoria “the most beautiful summer” she’s ever experienced, recalling one day when production actually stopped because a pod of orcas was passing by.

And apparently audiences will get plenty of chances to explore that new playground, from wilderness disappearances and surfer mysteries to stolen baseball cards and a freediver who may have been accosted by a mermaid.

The best news for fans: The new adventures are already continuing. Private Eyes West Coast has been renewed for Season 2 before its premiere, with production planned for 2027. Sampson has high hopes. “We should probably get to at least six or seven [seasons],” she jokes. “Then we can retire, because Jason and I are so old.”

Private Eyes West Coast, Series Premiere, Monday, October 5, 8/7c, The CW