LL Cool J joins the show’s cast in a recurring role after wrapping his run on NCIS: Los Angeles.
CBS on Tuesday afternoon announced renewals for NCIS (aka broadcast’s most-watched drama), CSI: Vegas, The Amazing Race and six other series. The other programs that got the nod to return for the 2023-24 TV season are 60 Minutes (TV’s most-watched news program), the sophomore procedural NCIS: Hawa’ii, Survivor, Tough as Nails, Lingo and the true crime docuseries 48 Hours.
NCIS will return for its 21st season, along with NCIS: Hawai’i for its third season and CSI: Vegas, also for its third season. They join previously announced renewals for drama series Fire Country, The Equalizer, FBI, FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted and comedy series Young Sheldon, Ghosts, The Neighborhood, Bob Hearts Abishola and So Help Me Todd. The renewals also follow the previously announced early series order for drama The Never Game, starring Justin Hartley.
Monday’s first crossover between NCIS and its spinoffs NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: Hawai’i helped boost the CBS viewership averages in delayed viewing. The 20-year-old mothership posted the night’s top seven-day playback in viewers (11.25 million) making it Monday’s No. 1 non-sports primetime program in viewers with a best seven-day audience since Jan. 24, 2022, according to Nielsen results. NCIS: Hawai’i picked up an additional 3.19m viewers in live plus seven-day playback (10.55m from 7.36m). That’s the show’s best seven-day Monday audience ever. And NCIS: Los Angeles added 3.16m viewers (9.96m from 6.80m) in live plus seven-day playback from live plus same day ratings. That was NCIS: LA’s best seven-day viewers delivery since March 17, 2019.
When NCIS Special Agents land in the crosshairs of a hitman, it will fuel CBS’ first-ever three-way crossover between NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: Hawai’i. NCIS and NCIS: Hawai’i have crossed over twice thus far, including with their very recent season premieres. But NCIS: Los Angeles, which kick off its 14th season this Sunday at 10 p.m. ET, has yet to join in the fun.
The D.C.- and Hawaii-based NCIS teams will team up once again when CBS’s Monday night procedurals return with their new seasons in September.
Exclusives
The NCIS franchise as currently constituted will remain intact for the 2022-23 season. CBS has picked up all three series — flagship NCIS, long-running spinoff NCIS: Los Angeles and newcomer NCIS: Hawai’i — for next season. NCIS will hit its landmark 20th season in 2022-23, while Los Angeles will enter its 14th season and Hawai’i its second.
The first back orders for new fall 2021 series have gone to CBS’s NCIS: Hawai’i and FBI: International. The breakout success of the two shows, which have been among the bright spots so far this season, underscores the value of popular procedural drama franchises as arguably the best — and safest — bets on broadcast TV these days with three NCIS, three Chicago, three FBI, two 9-1-1 and two (soon to be three) Law & Order series all doing well.
Vanessa Lachey will star in NCIS: Hawai’i, becoming the first female lead of a show in the long-running franchise. Yasmine Al-Bustami and Jason Antoon have also signed on as series regulars. CBS gave a straight to series order to the spinoff, which had been in the works for several months, on April 23.
The NCIS franchise will be back to three series on CBS next season. The network has renewed veteran NCIS: Los Angeles for a 13th season. Additionally, the network has given a straight-to-series order to new offshoot NCIS: Hawaii, the first installment in the NCIS franchise with a female lead.
CBS’s newest (and, for the record, still unconfirmed) spinoff, NCIS: Hawaii, is slated to feature a woman in the starring role. A CBS rep declined to comment, but sources confirm that the character — tentatively named “Jane Tennant” — will also break ground on-screen, serving as the first special agent in charge of “NCIS Pearl.”
CBS is nearing a straight-to-series order for a Hawaii-set incarnation of its juggernaut NCIS franchise, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. CBS declined comment as deals are still being firmed up. Chris Silber, the showrunner on NCIS: New Orleans who cut his teeth on the flagship series starring Mark Harmon, would serve in the same capacity on NCIS: Hawaii.
