The 2026 TV schedule recently marked the end of NCIS Season 23, but the show definitely isn't done for good. CBS' long-running procedural is coming back for Season 24 this fall and will be joined by three spinoffs next season as well. It’s hard to believe the flagship show is still going strong after all this time, and even Mark Harmon is OK admitting his shock over the once-struggling series still being on the air.
Some may not remember (or even know this), but NCIS is actually a spinoff of the military legal drama JAG, which ran for 10 seasons and ended in 2005. NCIS has gone on to become even more successful than its predecessor, spawning a whole franchise, but the Mothership took a while to really find its footing.
It’s known that NCIS struggled very early on, and Harmon, who played Leroy Jethro Gibbs for the first 18 seasons before departing at the beginning of Season 19, recently recalled the struggles. While appearing on Brian Dietzen and Diona Reasonover’s Partners & Probies podcast, Harmon shared what it’s been like seeing NCIS grow and evolve into what it’s become after not knowing how well it would do all those years ago:
At a time when this show was really struggling, I mean, different network, ratings were just barely hanging on, just barely to get that next order of six or whatever it was. That it’s grown into what it has become is what, as an actor, you don’t ever even think about.
The fact that NCIS struggled for ratings early on is not so surprising, as even some of the most popular shows in TV history don't start as overnight success stories. And, of course, the show also had the added burden of being a spinoff an already successful series that could've overshadowed it. Who knew that over 20 years later, NCIS would still be going, and Harmon would be narrating and executive producing a prequel series centered on his character?
Obviously, Harmon had no idea that it would grow into this massive phenomenon. Heck, even Dietzen even revealed that during the early years, whenever Harmon was asked how long he sees the show going, he would just say that he’s hoping for another season.
That being said, even with NCIS heading into its 24th season, it's hard to say when the end will come. Sure, the show is a staple of CBS, which clearly has a lot of confidence in the franchise since it surprise-ordered yet another spinoff for the 2026-2027 season, NCIS: New York starring LL Cool J. However, the future isn’t always set in stone.
I can only imagine how Harmon and maybe even many others who worked on NCIS in the show’s early years feel seeing what the series has evolved into, given those earlier hurdles. To this day, fans are loving the show, and they may even be rewatching it with a Paramount+ subscription. While it's unknown just how much longer NCIS will go on, at least fans can look forward to Season 24 later this year. Who knows, maybe it’ll go for another 20 years?
