We’re used to seeing the intrepid team of naval special agents on CBS’ crime procedural “NCIS” working together to solve the toughest cases and bring down the worst villains. But even they may be stumped when faced with the gargantuan challenge of coming up with a deserving story to encapsulate the unique feat of producing 500 episodes of television.
But the team can rest easy since that job fell to “NCIS” showrunner and executive producer Steven D. Binder, who wrote Tuesday’s episode, “All Good Things” (with José Clemente Hernandez directing). He shares that ideas began popping up in his mind when the show’s 22nd season was wrapping up last year. “I started thinking ‘What questions should I be asking?’ I knew it had to be something big that resonates with the fans and should be worthy of the 500th,” he says.
With its 500th episode, the show will rank among the longest-running scripted, live-action American prime-time series, behind “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and “Law & Order.” But how “NCIS” began its journey to this rare milestone is a worthwhile story in and of itself.
A scene from the 500th episode of “NCIS,” from left: Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama), Jessica Knight (Katrina Law), Parker and Timothy McGee (Sean Murray).
(Michael Yarish / CBS Entertainment Inc.)
In April 2003, CBS’ popular navy procedural drama series “JAG” was used as a backdoor pilot to introduce a team of highly skilled special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, led by no-nonsense supervisory special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon). Working under Gibbs was snappy special agent Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), quirky forensics specialist Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette) and endearing chief medical examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard (David McCallum).
“NCIS” premiered Sept. 23, 2003, with Gibbs, DiNozzo, Abby and Ducky, as well as special agent Caitlin Todd (Sasha Alexander) joining the Washington, D.C., team. However, the series didn’t burst out of the gate as the juggernaut hit it would become. Instead, its freshman season ranked an unspectacular No. 26 among all 2003-04 prime-time broadcast programs, but it was enough to keep it on the air as the audience slowly started to grow. By Season 3, the series was regularly landing in the top 20. And by Season 6, it grew into a solid top five show, and finally, in Season 10, “NCIS” was the No. 1 broadcast series on television.
It’s become a huge international hit, licensed in over 200 territories around the world, subtitled in 35 languages, dubbed in 12 languages. “NCIS” is now the No. 1 TV franchise globally in terms of total minutes viewed.
Additionally, the series has spawned numerous spinoffs, set in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Hawaii, as well as one focused on fan-favorite characters Tony and Ziva David (Cote de Pablo). Currently airing is a prequel series, “NCIS: Origins,” which follows a younger Gibbs (Austin Stowell, with Harmon narrating) in his early NCIS days, and the franchise’s first international spinoff, “NCIS: Sydney,” streaming on Paramount+.
Clearly, “NCIS” has hit on a winning formula resulting in enduring success and one of the factors for that, according to David Stapf, president, CBS Television Studios, is comfort. “You know what you’re going to get and it feels good and you love it so you get that weekly dose or, nowadays, a daily dose because it’s everywhere,” he says.
In 2009, “NCIS” celebrated its 150th episode with a cake-cutting ceremony. From left, series regulars Rocky Carroll, David McCallum, Cote de Pablo, Mark Harmon, Sean Murray, Pauley Perrette, Michael Weatherly and guest star Robert Wagner.
(Sonia Flemming / CBS)
And in an era when time slots aren’t as do or die for a broadcast series’ success, the fact that, except from 2021 to 2025, “NCIS” has consistently aired on CBS Tuesdays at 8 p.m., shouldn’t be dismissed. “I am a believer that time slots matter, but viewers will watch the show everywhere,” says Amy Reisenbach, president, CBS Entertainment. “They watch it on linear and they watch it on Paramount+, where it’s consistently been a top streaming performer.”
Like any long-running series, cast members come and go, and those departures can sometimes alter a show’s future. “NCIS,” however, has weathered a myriad of cast changes and the audience continues to come back. The best example is when Harmon decided to step down in 2021 — Gibbs decided a life fly fishing in Alaska was more his speed. But it was nearly impossible to conceive of “NCIS” without Gibbs or Harmon (who continues as an executive producer). What would the future hold for the show and franchise?
“It’s honest to say that losing Mark Harmon was definitely a little nerve-racking,” says Reisenbach. “He had been with the show since the beginning and had been so synonymous with the show but … the DNA has remained the same.”
Adds Stapf, “It’s a testament to the writers as well but you’re always nervous on a show that’s working when you change one little aspect because it is that alchemy that makes this show work.” He credits the writers for bringing in new, fleshed-out characters that do more than fill gaps on the team. For example, once the steely Gibbs was gone, Gary Cole’s special agent Alden Parker was markedly different with his laid-back leader vibes and quirky hobbies such as talking true crime and mixing cocktails on his online show.
But Gibbs hasn’t been relegated to the past and his name still comes up occasionally, including in the 500th episode case, though getting there for Binder was a journey. “On the case side of things, I wanted something that encompassed the totality of the show,” he says. However, having revisited a case from the show’s very first episode, “Yankee White,” for a 2024 celebration of the franchise’s 1,000 episodes, that idea was out. “So, I thought, ‘Well, can we go back to episode number two?’”
The answer was yes and this week’s installment nods to that 2003 episode. The team meets up with a desperate young man named Billy Fuentes (Austin Marques), a Marine’s son, who as a boy, Gibbs promised that NCIS would always be there for him if he ever needed them. “We even got the same actor, which was great,” says Binder.
Though the case is connected to the past and some Easter eggs pop up, don’t expect it to be a lighthearted greatest hits episode. “This is an event episode and one that’s going to change the DNA of the show and how the show operates from here on out until we’re done,” says Brian Dietzen, who has played chief medical examiner Dr. Jimmy Palmer since the first season.
Part of the big event began at the end of last week’s episode, when a stunned NCIS director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) tells Parker that NCIS is being shut down. Tuesday’s episode picks up that thread with the future of the team in jeopardy and plays out differently from the “NCIS” norm. “I thought it might be nice to play with the format a little bit, and that just gives the episode some energy,” teases Binder. “You have to keep it fresh and keep it new, but you always have to keep it within the same vein so that the next episode won’t be vastly different,” says Dietzen. “As an actor, it’s a challenge to do, but it’s a challenge that’s a really fun one to accept.”
Rocky Carroll as Leon Vance in “All Good Things,” Tuesday’s episode that picks up on the news that the future of the team is in jeopardy.
(Robert Voets / CBS)
A huge component of “NCIS” that has remained consistent from day one is that it’s more than a case-of-the-week procedural. “We have a character-driven procedural which, when we started, this kind of a show was not really a thing,” says Sean Murray, who has played special agent Timothy McGee since the first season. The actor cites how fans loved learning years ago that McGee was also moonlighting as a writer of the fictional “Deep Six” novels that feature heroic characters loosely based on the NCIS team (think Tibbs instead of Gibbs, for example).
Carroll, who has played Vance since the show’s fifth season, admits he didn’t think he’d be in the character’s shoes too long given most shows don’t last as long as “NCIS” has. He signed onto the show partly to reunite with Harmon, whom he previously worked with on the CBS medical drama “Chicago Hope.” “I literally thought to myself, ‘Well, I made it to the tail end of the series. If it goes seven or eight seasons, I’ll get two or three seasons out of it,’” he says, adding with a grin. “That was 18 seasons ago.”
And while the original main cast that started on “JAG” so many years ago is long gone (though they occasionally turn up for an episode or two), newer cast members have now become the vets. For example, Wilmer Valderrama joined in Season 14 as special agent Nick Torres, Diona Reasonover’s forensics scientist Kasie Hines joined in Season 15 and at the end of Season 18, Katrina Law first appeared as special agent Jessica Knight.
For Valderrama, he had initial reservations about joining the series and questioned what he could bring to such an established show. “It was in that first meeting where I realized very quickly that what ‘NCIS’ does really well is that it evolves with the times and with its audience,” the actor says. “I realized there was an opportunity there to do something very unique, to light the screen with different colors that I hadn’t painted with before.”
Wilmer Valderrama, who plays Nick Torres on “NCIS,” joined the show in Season 14. (Robert Voets/CBS)
Diona Reasonover joined the cast of “NCIS” in Season 15, playing forensics scientist Kasie Hines. (Michael Yarish/CBS)
Reasonover had the arduous task of replacing fan favorite Perrette, who left the show after 15 seasons in 2018. Like Carroll, a long-running gig was the last thing on her mind when she began playing the energetic, joyful Kasie. “I didn’t know if [the producers] just wanted to have a quick blip of somebody else [to fill Abby’s forensics role] and then move on to someone different,” she says.
But that turned out not to be the case. And in another example of the show reflecting the times, Reasonover is proud of the fact that the “NCIS” universe has had several queer characters including Kasie. “It’s so nice because it just feels like real life and I always think that that’s what people relate to,” she says.
Thanks to his breakout role as Fez on “That 70’s Show,” Valderrama was already well-known before joining “NCIS” and he’s noticed which role fans recognize him for has changed. “At the end of this season, I will have made 200 episodes of ‘NCIS’ and I did 200 of ‘That 70’s Show,’” he says. “I would say it’s like 57% Torres, but I still get Fez a lot since so many people grew up with that guy.”
Since neither the love from fans nor the ratings are diminishing for “NCIS,” which was renewed in January for a 24th season along with “Origins” and “Sydney,” is the universe done expanding or could we get more spinoffs?
“The door is always going to be open because we know how successful ‘NCIS’ is and that the fans have continued to enjoy new iterations,” Reisenbach says.
