Michael Weatherly left NCIS (Navy: Criminal Investigation) in 2015 after 13 seasons. He wanted new television challenges after working closely with Mark Harmon for more than 300 episodes, so he went to film Bull, another case series where he was the absolute protagonist. Cote de Pablo had left before in 2013, which was ready to return in 2020 with a four-episode arc. As the public has not yet forgotten his characters, Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David, CBS Studios is now preparing a spin-off set in Europe to help the Paramount streaming service.
Free-to-air television series in the United States, with honorable exceptions, have audiences that are the shadow of what they had been at the beginning of the century. Streaming platforms that are not Netflix, even though they produce content with recognizable talent, have problems penetrating consumers. This is why it makes sense that, if there is a franchise like NCIS that can still gather more than 7 million viewers in the live broadcast of the episodes in the US (and up to 10 million when adding the delayed audience ), an attempt is made to take direct advantage of this success.
Screenwriter John McNamara, who has signed series such as the fantastic The Magicians or Aquarius with David Duchovny, is writing the 10 episodes of the first season already commissioned by the Paramount Global platform. As is usual in these cases, Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo will have more power than they had on NCIS: the two will be executive producers with McNamara, which means they have a say in making both logistical and creative decisions on the spin-off. off.
The project, for now, is titled NCIS: Europe, is sold as a series full of action and poses an unusual starting point for the franchise: the characters of Tony and Ziva will find themselves on the run across Europe, according to what they indicate. American media, after his security company is attacked. Who is chasing them? And what is the relationship between the iconic NCIS characters like after this time away from their country?
This will not be the first blow of effect around these characters. Let us remember that, in theory, Ziva had died in an explosion in Israel. Weatherly’s departure was later justified because her job did not allow her to care for his daughter as she deserved. Years later, Ziva turned out to be alive, participated in one last mission with Gibbs’ team, and was able to reunite with Tony in Paris, where she lived with her daughter Tali.
It will not be the first blow of effect around these characters. Remember that Weatherly left NCIS with the excuse that his character had to take care of his daughter after Ziva’s death and, years later, it was discovered that de Pablo’s character was alive and he reunited with Tony and his daughter in Paris.
“We have talked about this story for years and now with John McNamara at the helm, we are prepared,” explained the protagonists in a press release, where they promised that this NCIS: Europe would be “full of action” and that it would be a roller coaster fueled by “love, danger, tears and laughter.”
The decision by CBS Studios and Paramount Global to produce the spin-off for Paramount appears to have two reasons: turning NCIS fans into subscribers to the studio’s streaming service and, with a 10-episode season, allowing Weatherly and de Pablo are not tied to the series for 10 months a year, as is often the case with NCIS, which produces up to 22 episodes per season.
The NCIS franchise is in a good place. The original NCIS, which premiered in 2003 as a spin-off of JAG: Red Alert, is currently airing season 21 with NCIS: Hawaii, in its third season, as a programming companion. Due to the Hollywood writers’ strike that affected programming, the CBS channel even imported NCIS: Sydney, the Australian spin-off, with good audience data in American primetime.
And, after ending NCIS: New Orleans in 2021 after 7 seasons and NCIS: LA in 2023 after 14 seasons, it has two projects underway focused on its most beloved characters: this spin-off of NCIS: Europe focused on Ziva and Tony and NCIS : Origins, a prequel about Gibbs’ beginnings in the Navy’s criminal investigation unit in the ’90s.
