From the moment NCIS: Sydney was announced, I’ve been wondering when the procedural would visit the Outback. As one of the most well-known locations in Australia, it seemed like only a matter of when rather than if Michelle Mackey and her team would be drawn into a case around those parts. Well, at some point on the 2025 TV schedule, this is finally happening, and Olivia Swann, who plays Mackey, opened up to CinemaBlend about how filming in the Outback was “incredible” despite the brutal heat.
NCIS: Sydney Season 3’s fourth episode, titled “The Truth is Outback,” will air on CBS before 2025 is over, though a specific release date hasn’t been announced yet. When I asked Swann about her experience filming in the Outback, she answered with the following:
It’s hot, but actually slightly more bearable heat than Darwin, for example. Darwin is muggy, Darwin is humid, you cannot escape that. But the heat in the Outback is much drier, so you can kind of deal with it. But also, it’s such an incredible place and a location that we’ve never seen before on the show, so it gives this expanse. It adds danger because there’s an element of ‘anything can happen here,’ and you’re so alone. It’s so vast that there’s that threat of something could happen and no one would know. So it was such a cool experience, and the visual of it alone, I think, will create an incredible [episode].
For context, NCIS: Sydney Season 2’s final two episodes chiefly took place in Darwin, and while the dry heat in the Outback is by no means a picnic, Olivia Swann found it more tolerable than Darwin’s muggy conditions. Beyond that, the actress, who also starred on Legends of Tomorrow, welcomed getting to film in the Outback because of its inherent danger. Unlike the metropolitan confines of a city like Sydney, if something bad goes down in the territory that makes up the most of Australia, it’s not exactly easy to call for help.
Earlier this month, NCIS: Sydney showrunner Morgan O’Neill told TVLine that “The Truth is Outback” will see the team flying to the Outback to “ investigate a U.S. Navy fighter pilot who has disappeared over our equivalent of Roswell.” I only hope this investigation goes better than how the events of Darwin unfolded in Season 2. At least in real life, the Sydney cast and crew had enough resources to ensure they’d be safe rolling cameras out there.
NCIS: Sydney airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS after NCIS and NCIS: Origins. Stream episodes afterwards with a Paramount+ subscription, and count yourself lucky you don’t have to watch them in the Outback’s dry heat… or at least I hope you don’t have to do that.