Ncis Season 21 Is Not Coming To Cbs In September 2023 And Will Season 21 Be Its Last? (Exclusive)
NCIS is entering into uncharted territory. The show will be without its lead, Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon), for the first time, and will have to rely on the power of the titular ensemble to make up for his absence. ABC is confident the show can keep going, and has renewed it for yet another season, but it will be a much longer wait than usual.
NCIS season 21 will not be premiering in September, or the rest of the year. It has been pushed back to 2024 due to the ongoing writers and actors strike, and the fact that neither group will resume work on the show until their conditions are met.
When is NCIS season 21 coming out? (Release date predictions)
It’s certainly a noble cause, and one that we hope gets rectified before long, but it will have an impact on the way season 21 shakes out. For one, the show will be delayed by at least a handful of months, with the earliest possible return date being January. If the strike goes on for another month, however, its more likely that the show will be pushed back to May, which would greatly reduce the number of episodes.
Condensed seasons are nothing new when it comes to strikes, but the upcoming TV season will test the maxim. There will be, at most, half the usual number of NCIS episodes in season 21. If the show returns in May, that number will be even shorter, and wind up closer to a third of the usual number. This is due to the fact that the writers still need several weeks after the strike ends to develop scripts, and the actors need several additional weeks to shoot them.
On the bright side, NCIS fans will have a new franchise entry to watch during the fall season. NCIS: Sydney will premiere in October, giving fans a taste of what the law enforcement agency looks like outside of the United States.
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NCIS: Will Season 21 be its last?
Given that we’re now over 20 years into the series, and it has lasted beyond Mark Harmon’s exit (something we initially didn’t think would happen), it is hard to imagine it ending. But the reality is that shows can’t last forever. Two NCIS spinoffs have already ended: New Orleans in 2021 and Los Angeles in May 2023. We’re closer to the end of NCIS than we are to the beginning, and it’s only a question of when, not if, we see the final season.
