NCIS fans, we hear you. It’s August, the dog days of summer when there’s nothing new on TV. So you flip the channels and ponder details you found insignificant back in May.
An NCIS fan group on Reddit was trying to figure out if this will be the final season for their favorite show. And, if true, what would that mean to its spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles.
NCIS kicks off its 19th season on Monday, Sept. 20. There is significance to the date. CBS shifted the series from its regular Tuesday nights, where it dominated. The reason? New spinoff NCIS: Hawai’i follows, and CBS wanted to put some heft of the franchise behind the newbie.
NCIS: Los Angeles stays on Sunday nights. It heads into season 13, Oct. 10.
A Reddit user who goes by the name TakenAccountName37 posed these thoughts:
“Obviously, these things depend on ratings,” the Reddit user wrote. “So CBS will monitor it as it goes, but since NCIS is headed into its 19th season I think that if this was its final one then it would have been announced by now since the season starts nearly a month from today.
“That being said with LA, I do not know if it would get the same respect. It has lasted a long time, too, but it got a late renewal last time around. We saw how CBS did the New Orleans installment so we shall see. I hope that both will be around. What are your thoughts about this?”
Would the Network Want to Celebrate a Final NCIS Season All Year?
It would make sense that if CBS planned on pulling its top-rated show, it would give it an extended farewell. The network would announce it ahead of time, if nothing for a pure marketing ploy, to make sure viewers made the switch from Tuesdays to Mondays. It’ll need an extra oomph in its new time slot, anyway, given that it’s now going head-to-head with some heavyweights. There’s Monday Night Football on ESPN. ABC counters with Dancing with the Stars. Fox Sports 9-1-1, the network’s top-rated drama. And NBC counters with The Voice. A viewer can watch only so many shows.
Plus, you have the whole mystery surrounding Mark Harmon and his character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs. It’s expected that Harmon won’t be in as many episodes in season 19. Harmon and the network negotiated the amount before CBS announced NCIS had been renewed.
And. NCIS is shifting the cast again. Emily Wickersham, who played Ellie Bishop, left the show at the end of season 18. Katrina Law, who the show introduced late in the season, was promoted to full-time cast. And the show added Gary Cole to play an FBI agent. Cole and Harmon are in the same age range. They’re known for playing the same kind of tough-minded characters. So you can see how fans assume Cole will be the boss in season 19.
A user named whispering_unicorn wrote: “Yeah unless they are able to produce a new genuinely likable character that we are able to bond with quickly, someone like Ziva or Bishop where as soon as you meet them you like them, then I think NCIS is coming to an end.”
Stay tuned.
