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‘NCIS’ Star Wilmer Valderrama Responds to Season Premiere Date: ‘You’ve Been Warned’

NCIS fans, you’ve been warned by Nick Torres himself. You’ve got 70 days to prepare for the new season.

And with that new season comes some more provocative, possibly more dangerous storylines, as if NCIS needs to up the ante. That’s all according to Wilmer Valderrama, aka Nick Torres. He posted Monday:

“You’ve been warned. See you MONDAY NIGHTS at 9pm! You know what 9pm means?… We get to be provocatively dangerous. #NCIS.

NCIS, after 18 years of dominating Tuesday nights, with its 8 p.m. Eastern time slot, is moving to Monday and back an hour. It’s going head-to-head with Monday Night Football, so maybe NCIS needs some more provocative danger to keep its audience.

CBS announced the season premiere dates for its fall lineup. The network switched NCIS to Monday night to help it launch the new franchise, NCIS: Hawai’i. Meanwhile, NCIS: Los Angeles remained on Sunday nights. It’s premiere date for 2021-22 is Oct. 10.

NCIS Season 19 Should Answer Immediate Questions

And after that NCIS finale, fans are anxious to see how season 19 unfolds.

Maybe there will be immediate answers to what happened with Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon). His boat blew up in a middle of a lake as the finale ticked down its final few seconds. The last scene showed Gibbs start swimming away from the debris, but no one knows whether Gibbs staged is own death or whether someone else blew up his boat.

And if someone blew up the boat, why? That would be a major plot shift. There already are reports that Harmon, as Gibbs, likely will be in only a handful of episodes.

Then there will be a dynamic shift with Nick Torres. The NCIS finale also focused on Torres and his relationship with Ellie Bishop (Emily Wickersham). Bishop probably broke Torres’ heart when she accepted an undercover assignment that needed her to trash her NCIS career in order to be believable on her next job. Torres figured out what she was doing and confronted her about it.

They shared a kiss, then she walked away. Wickersham did leave the show, but NCIS does like to bring back characters for an occasional storyline. But whatever happens, Torres may not be himself to start season 19, unless there’s a time jump.

There also are questions as to how two new characters will figure into the show.

Katrina Law, who was added late in season 18, joined the cast full time as Jessica Knight. And NCIS also will bring in Gary Cole, who will portray FBI agent Alden Park. He’s not replacing Gibbs, per se, but his character could be a huge focus of the new season.

Before season 19 production began NCIS showrunner Steven Binder discussed the new characters with Deadline.

“We haven’t shot a single frame quite yet, but with the addition of Gary Cole and Katrina Law to the cast, this is already shaping up to be one of the best seasons yet,” Binder said. “Going into season 19, we are excited to have new characters and stories to tell that adds to and reenergizes the world we’ve come to love over the 400+ episodes.”

Stay tuned. You’ve been warned.