Nikita is an American action thriller drama television series that aired on the CW from September 9, 2010, to December 27, 2013, in the United States.

The main cast in various seasons features Q, Lyndsy Fonseca, Shane West, Aaron Stanford, Melinda Clarke, Xander Berkeley, Noah Bean, Tiffany Hines, Ashton Holmes, Dillon Casey, and Devon Sawa.

Division, created and supervised by an organization called Oversight, is responsible for black operations including espionage, sabotage, and assassination.

Under the leadership of its first director and founding member, Percival "Percy" Rose, Division has gone rogue and performs under-the-table murder-for-hire.

Percy's black boxes are hidden in secret locations around the world, under the protection of Guardians, high-ranking Division agents.

Division fakes the recruits' deaths, erases all evidence of their past lives, and molds them into efficient spies and assassins.

Once she graduated from recruit to field agent, she broke Division rules by falling in love with a civilian, to whom she became engaged and planned to run away.

At the end of the season, Nikita manages to foil Percy's plan to take over the CIA and gain its top-secret funding.

In season two, Nikita and Michael focus and press their efforts against Oversight, seeking to destroy the group, which will also cripple Division at the same time.

Division has changed, with Percy being locked up for his actions in season one, and Amanda taking control of the organization, with Oversight supervising her.

Nikita and Michael manage to expose and/or kill most of Oversight, with the help of Seymour Birkhoff, a former Division head technician, who left the organization after Percy was imprisoned.

The final black box has fallen into the hands of Gogol's leader, Ari Tasarov, who is later revealed to be Amanda's lover and exposes her as a traitor.

With the help of the last of the Guardians, Percy escapes his prison and manages to overthrow Amanda's control of Division, sending Ari and her into hiding, along with the last black box.

Percy also manages to kill all members of Oversight and puts a plan into place to use plutonium to gain membership of an unknown group of powerful people.

Lyndsy Fonseca portrays Alexandra "Alex" Udinov, a former sex slave and drug addict who was arrested after a robbery and later became Division's newest recruit.

Other recruits include Jaden (Tiffany Hines) and Thom (Ashton Holmes) but their characters are later killed off by Nathan (Thad Luckinbill) and Alex respectively.

During the 2010 Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles on July 29, 2010, executive producer Craig Silverstein said he was approached by Warner Bros. who owned the rights.

[9] The series is a mix of a weekly missions and counter-missions, along with a story arc running through the first season that explores Nikita's relationships with Alex and Michael.

[9] While presenting its 2010–11 season schedule on May 21, 2010, the CW officially confirmed the pick-up of the series and announced its intention to air Nikita after The Vampire Diaries on Thursday nights.

[10][11] In October 2010, Entertainment Weekly announced that the series would receive some tweaking to attract more of a female audience, including a new character and potential love interest for Nikita.

[21][22] The final season consisted of just six episodes and was produced to complete the storyline and make it more desirable for a Netflix audience.

[24] Executive producer Silverstein said casting Q was a simple and quick process, because they wanted someone who was beautiful, and could fight, and who you could believe holding a gun at the same time, and she was perfect.

[28] In October 2010, Noah Bean gained a recurring role as Ryan Fletcher, a CIA case officer and analyst.

[48] The following is a table for the seasonal rankings, based on average total estimated viewers per episode, of Nikita on the CW.

"Rank" refers to how Nikita rated compared to the other television series that aired during prime time hours.

[59] In France the series premiered with high ratings in its 11:20 p.m. timeslot, the first episode drew an audience of 2.4 million viewers.

[69][70] Sky Living secured the rights to air Nikita in the United Kingdom as the centerpiece of the channel's autumn schedule.

[citation needed] A 3D action game based on the TV series titled Nikita Spy Training was released on iOS and Android.