NCIS is an American long-running primetime television series created by Donald P. Bellisario and Don McGill for CBS about Navy criminal investigators. The show is a spinoff of JAG (1995-2005), which in addition to the parent series’ military theme and occasional Spy Drama also leaped on the Forensic Drama bandwagon started by CSI. NCIS stands for "Naval Criminal Investigative Service"; like JAG, it is based on a real organization within the Department of the Navy, and also much less action-packed in real life than the Hollywood-style fictionalized version the show depicts. The organization is the criminal investigative arm of the Navy and Marines, though it is a civilian law enforcement agency, unlike the Army's CID.
NCIS (Navy NCIS for its first season) depicts a team of investigators assigned to deal with criminal activity involving Navy personnel and Marines. That means that the entire gamut of crime—from Serial Killers to fraud to international espionage to unauthorized absences—can turn up. This Major Cases Response Team was led by Leroy Jethro Gibbs (played by Mark Harmon), a retired Marine gunnery sergeant who Always Gets His Man, for eighteen years, and later, former FBI agent Alden Parker (played by Gary Cole) and contains a rather colorful collection of detectives and lab workers.
A classic example of a Sleeper Hit, the show was largely ignored at the beginning of its run, but has considerably gained viewers since then (although it is now on a downwards trend in the U.S.). In 2015, ratings-wise it was the number one scripted show on U.S. network television and the most watched show in the world.
NCIS has been on the air since September 2003 and, as of February 2024, is in its 21st season, thus far surpassing the already long run of its parent show and making it the 7th longest-running scripted American primetime television series in U.S. TV history. NCIS was renewed for season 21 on February 21, 2023, which premiered on February 12, 2024.
Recent episodes can be viewed free on CBS's site here.
It has six spinoff series of its own:
- NCIS: Los Angeles, which starred Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J and ran from 2009 to 2023.
- NCIS: New Orleans, which ran from 2014 to 2021 and starred Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap and Star Trek: Enterprise fame. Shortest run for a NCIS series.
- NCIS: Hawaiʻi, which premiered in September 2021.
- NCIS: Sydney, premiered throughout Australia on October 10, 2023. For North American viewers, it premiered via CBS/Global on November 14, 2023.
- NCIS Origins was ordered by CBS on January 2024. A Prequel series, it will depict a younger Gibbs (played by Austin Stowell) becoming an NIS (later NCIS) agent under Mike Franks.
- NCIS Europe (nickname, title to be announced) was ordered by Paramount+ in February 2024. It follows Tony, Ziva, and their daughter as they go on the run across Europe after the former's security company is attacked.
Although neither Los Angeles or New Orleans have reached the heights of the parent program, they have both become successes in their own right.note Time will tell how well Hawaiʻi does, but it has begun airing its third season.
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Season-specific trope subpages:
- Season One
- Season Two
- Season Three
- Season Four
- Season Five
- Season Six
- Season Seven
- Season Eight
- Season Nine
- Season Ten
- Season Eleven
- Season Twelve
- Season Thirteen
- Season Fourteen
- Season Fifteen