Getting a pilot for a TV present ordered is difficult sufficient to do, and it solely will get tougher for stated present to make it by its first season with out being cancelled. Lasting a number of seasons? Even more durable. However operating for over twenty years? That’s a uncommon feat, albeit one which NCIS has pulled off on CBS. Debuting in 2003 as a derivative of JAG, the procedural is now airing its twenty second season on the 2024 TV schedule, with many actors and behind-the-scenes expertise coming and going from it over the many years. Shane Brennan is a kind of individuals, and the manager producer shared that there was a particular episode that had NCIS followers freaking out, however made him understand that the collection was “going to be protected.”
Brennan stopped by Off Responsibility: An NCIS Rewatch to speak with hosts Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo about his work on each NCIS, which the actors starred in as soon as upon a time as Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David, respectively, in addition to its first spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles, which he created. After discussing when he grew to become positive that Los Angeles can be round for some time, he then went over how he got here to the identical realization on the flagship present, and it stemmed from an episode he wrote. Brennan began off by saying:
On NCIS, I knew that that was going to occur on the season finale of Season 5. Judgement Day Half 1 and a pair of… I knew NCIS was in for a long term as a result of the finale for that season aired on the East Coast. It completed airing as I used to be getting on a aircraft in LA to fly again to Australia for the hiatus, and CBS publicity phoned me within the within the lounge room at LAX and stated, ‘The present’s simply completed airing on the East Coast and the fan discussion board, it is exploded. There have been 10,000 feedback already and so they hate you.You’ve got simply fired everybody. The brand new director’s are available in and fired everybody. What are you doing to the present?’ And I stated, ‘No, it will be superb.’
Each elements of “Judgement Day” aired on Could 20, 2008, and the primary half ended with the dying of Lauren Holly’s Jenny Shepard, who’d been the NCIS Director because the begin of Season 3. However what Shane Brennan is particularly referring to above is how on the finish of the second half, Rocky Carroll’s Leon Vance, who grew to become the brand new Director, broke up Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ group by making Tony DiNozzo an agent afloat, transferring McGee to the cyber crime division, and terminating Ziva’s liaison standing and sending her again to Israel. As for Gibbs, he was given a file containing the names of the brokers who would comprise his new group, though it wasn’t till the Season 6 premiere that we discovered their identities. (Enjoyable reality, Carroll was additionally pranked by Mark Harmon through the capturing of this scene.)
That was sufficient to get so many followers filed up on-line that it caught the intention of CBS’ publicity division. However the enjoyable didn’t cease there, with Shane Brennan persevering with:
So I fly for 15 hours, I get off the aircraft in Melbourne, I activate my cellphone; a dozen calls from from publicity, I phoned them again. ‘There are actually 50,000 feedback and everyone seems to be freaking out. You are going to need to put out a press release.’ And I assumed, 50,000 individuals simply watched an hour of TV and have been so concerned, engaged in it that they really went on a discussion board and wrote one thing, even when it was, ‘We hate you, what are you doing to our present?’ They have been engaged. And I knew at that time this present’s going to go for ceaselessly. As a result of I knew what was, I knew what I used to be doing. I used to be teasing everybody. I used to be making an attempt to get them to get offended and to come back again. And our numbers saved going up afterwards, in fact, however all of them got here again to see what was going to occur. That is what you probably did on the finish of the present. So I knew at that time, I knew the present was going to be protected. I did not suppose the 22 seasons. I used to be considering, yeah, it will in all probability run for an additional 10 years.
After all, it didn’t take lengthy for the gang to get again collectively early on in NCIS Season 6, however months earlier than that, seeing what number of followers have been passionately reacting to how “Judgement Day” ended satisfied Shane Brennan that the procedural would proceed operating for a very long time. Nevertheless, like he stated on the finish, he had no concept the present would nonetheless be on the air to at the present time. Brennan caught round NCIS as an govt producer till 2015, splitting his time these final six years with NCIS: Los Angeles, which ended up operating for 14 seasons.
Brennan stays concerned on the earth of NCIS because the creator of NCIS: Sydney, which is returning for its second season on Friday, January 31, 2025. Similar to with the flagship present and NCIS: Origins, new episodes will first air on CBS, then change into streamable with a Paramount+ subscription. Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo can even be taking heart stage for the upcoming spinoff NCIS: Tony & Ziva, which might be solely accessible on the identical streaming platform.