Fall TV Preview 2016: Details on New Seasons of CBS’s ‘NCIS’ Shows

Yahoo TV Staff
Scott Bakula as Special Agent Dwayne Pride, LL Cool J as Sam Hanna in ‘NCIS: LA,’ and Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in ‘NCIS’ (Credit: CBS)
Scott Bakula as Special Agent Dwayne Pride in ‘NCIS: NOLA,’ LL Cool J as Sam Hanna in ‘NCIS: LA,’ and Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in ‘NCIS’ (Credit: CBS)

When the three NCIS shows return this fall for new seasons, fans can expect new missions, new faces, new tragedies, new relationships, and new… roommates?

NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and NCIS: New Orleans never fail to surprise. Every week, the teams tackle compelling cases, chase down bad guys, and work through twists and turns to carry out justice. But they are also human beings who like to have fun, crack jokes with each other, and struggle with demons from the past.

We asked the executive producers of all three shows to give us a sneak preview of their upcoming seasons. NCIS showrunner Gary Glasberg teased two new team members to fill Tony DiNozzo’s shoes, NCIS: L.A. executive producer Scott Gemmill hinted at a new side of Nell Jones (Renee Felice Smith), and NOLA EP Brad Kern revealed that Tom Arnold will play an important figure from Pride’s (Scott Bakula) past. Read for more of their answers to our fall TV questionnaire!

Related: Fall TV Preview 2016: The Scoop on 58 Returning Shows

NCIS preview from EP Gary Glasberg:

What’s coming up: Season 14 explodes out of the gate introducing new team members, Wilmer Valderrama and Jennifer Esposito, to the NCIS family. Valderrama’s deep cover agent Nick Torres is forced to resurface and, with him, comes a case that targets a Supreme Court nominee and threatens our national security.

Jennifer Esposito and Wilmer Valderrama (Credit: Adam Taylor/CBS)
Jennifer Esposito and Wilmer Valderrama (Credit: Adam Taylor/CBS)

A guest star that will surprise you is…With Tony DiNozzo leaving the show, I bet you thought you’d never see Robert Wagner playing DiNozzo Senior again. Not true! RJ will absolutely be back and you should prepare for some real fun with the team.

Something you’ll learn about a character is… Special Agent Alex Quinn (Esposito) returns to being a field agent after years as an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Why did she leave NCIS back in the day? Prepare for some extraordinary emotion as we peel back the psychological layers on this fascinating new addition to our team.

One thing you’ll see on this show that you probably won’t see on the others is… NCIS takes great pride in being as authentic as possible. So when we did an episode about Wounded Warriors at Walter Reed Hospital’s MusiCorps we flew in the real musicians and treated these heroes with the honor and respect they absolutely deserve.


NCIS: New Orleans preview from EP Brad Kern:

(Credit: Skip Bolen/CBS)
Vanessa Ferlito as FBI Agent Tammy Gregorio, Lucas Black as Special Agent Christopher LaSalle, Shalita Grant as Sonja Percy, and Scott Bakula as Special Agent Dwayne Pride in ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ (Credit: Skip Bolen/CBS)

What’s coming up: Although Pride and his NCIS team successfully stopped a DHS mole from attacking the NOLA port at the end of last season, the fact that his team was infiltrated will bring the FBI down from D.C. to review Pride’s entire operation and cause one of the NCIS agents to leave.

A guest star that will surprise you is… Vanessa Ferlito will join the show as a series regular and play a FBI agent sent down from D.C. to both review and work with Pride’s NCIS team. In the second episode, Tom Arnold will guest star as a friend from Pride’s past who can’t help but cause Pride problems whenever he reappears.

The strangest research we’ve done for an episode is… Actually, after all of the Naval, terrorist, hacker, and espionage research we’ve done, we’re convinced that CIA, NSA, and DOJ are all constantly monitoring every Internet search we do now!

One thing you’ll see on this show that you probably won’t see on the others is… The one thing you’ll see on NCIS: New Orleans that you’ll never see on any other show is, frankly, New Orleans! From unique stories, characters, and locations, we like to think we treat NOLA as if it’s one of our stars!

NCIS: Los Angeles preview from EP Scott Gemmill:

What’s coming up?: Season 8 sees the NCIS: Los Angeles team thrust out of their individual comfort zones with everything from leadership shake-ups, marriage proposals, and new roommates, to potential career-ending injuries and personal tragedy.

Something you’ll learn about a character is… We will learn that there’s much more to Technical Analyst Nell Jones than her skills with a smart tablet. In fact, the Nellverine is a bit of a bad ass.

(Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS)
Renée Felice Smith as Nell Jones, Daniela Ruah as Kensi Blye, Eric Christian Olsen as Marty Deeks, and Barrett Foa as Eric Beale in ‘NCIS: LA’ (Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS)

The strangest research we’ve done for an episode is… Every week the writers wind up on another government watch list because of the stories they’re researching — be it learning how to make untraceable automatic weapons from parts sourced on the Internet, to retrieving radioactive material from the machinery in a hospital blood bank. Eventually the entire writing staff will be incarcerated because they have become security threats.

One thing you’ll see on this show that you won’t see on the others is… The NCIS: LA team is an Office of Special Projects (OSP) unit that uses state-of-the art technology and the latest spy craft to go prevent threats to this country both domestically and around the globe. Nowhere else on television are you going to find yourself traveling from the bikini beaches of Malibu to the brutal Syrian desert in pursuit of the bad guys. NCIS: LA does it all.

NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans premiere Sept. 20, and NCIS: Los Angeles premieres Oct. 2 on CBS.