In case you haven’t heard, big changes are underway at NCIS.

A refresher: In the Season 10 finale, Tony (Michael Weatherly), Ziva (Cote de Pablo) and McGee (Sean Murray) all handed in their badges to protect Gibbs (Mark Harmon) in the wake of a Department of Defense investigation into the agency. The episode then jumps ahead four months, when Gibbs is aiming a sniper rifle with FBI Agent Fornell (Joe Spano) in his crosshairs.

Although we doubt it’s what was originally intended, Ziva’s resignation will likely stick. As fans are well aware by now, De Pablo announced over the summer that she’ll be leaving the show. Will the team (and the show) be able to go on without her? Why is Fornell a target? And what additional fallout will result from the investigation into Gibbs? TVGuide.com took these burning questions and more to executive producer Gary Glasberg and Weatherly. Here are the biggest issues the show needs to address early on in Season 11:

1. How will Ziva’s story line be wrapped up? As Glasberg has previously said, the two-part Season 11 premiere (beginning Tuesday at 8/7c on CBS) will be dedicated to writing Ziva off of the show. In the season opener, Ziva is “out in the ether” and Tony is tasked with finding her and bringing her back to NCIS. “That’s where they’re going to spend some quality time together,” Glasberg teases — even if Tony is ultimately unsuccessful in getting her to return to the organization. “People are going to get some real insight into psychologically what makes Ziva tick, and it’s insight that goes all the way back to her childhood,” Glasberg adds. “It’s insight in terms of what happened when she joinedNCIS regarding [her brother] Ari … [and] not only what’s caused her to do a lot of the things that she’s done leading up to this point, but looking forward and where her head is.” But while viewers may get “insight,” they might not walk away with a black-and-white biography. “Ziva has always been a mystery, and she remains a mystery,” Weatherly says of his on-screen counterpart.

2. Will Ziva and Tony get a happy ending? “The will-they-won’t-they is answered,” Weatherly promises. “It covered all the bases, for me.” Less clear is whether fans will get definitive answers about Tiva’s history (like what really happened in that Paris hotel room!).”The second episode is really all about Tony and Ziva, and I hope delivers all the things that the Tiva fans are going to react to and want,” Glasberg says. “There’s some really lovely moments between Tony and Ziva, and a really passionate, lovely goodbye.”

3. How will Tony deal with Ziva’s departure? “This is something that’s going to really linger with him and resonate for him,” Glasberg promises. “There’s going to be a certain maturity that’s going to come out of this for Tony.” It’s a change that Weatherly says he’s looking forward to portraying. “Tony might begin to step into a new, maybe a more authentic, version of himself, a more connected version of himself, because he’s not in a constant holding pattern emotionally,” the actor hints. “I think the floodgates open.”

4. Who’s going to replace Ziva? Technically no one, according to Glasberg. “I have no intention of trying to replace Ziva,” he stresses. “I don’t think I can replace her. What I can do is try to come up with a new character that’s organic to the team, that fills a void, that’s something different.” Translation: expect a lot of recurring characters and guest stars, at least for the first part of the season — including the recently-announced addition of Sopranos alum Emily Wickersham. “There are going to be tryouts, and that’s the fun,” says Glasberg, who makes it clear he’s not looking to force fans into a rebound relationship after Ziva’s departure. “This audience needs some time. Our group needs some time. It’s almost like they’re mourning the loss of someone. So we’re very aware of that as writers, and we don’t want to rush into something. We want to give people time to get there, and when the moment’s right, then we’ll try something.”

5. Why is Gibbs targeting Fornell? The mystery of Gibbs apparently shooting Fornell in the Season 10 finale will be solved — but not without a little backstory first. The premiere will fill in the gaps of what happened in the four months between Ziva, Tony and McGee resigning and Gibbs pulling the trigger. “We don’t pick up in that exact moment,” Glasberg says. “We actually go back to when he’s given this assignment, and then that moment pays off at the end of the second episode.” But it all ties back to the investigation by Richard Parsons (Colin Hanks), as well as the homegrown threat that Morrow (Alan Dale) referenced in the Season 10 finale. “Everything is sort of interwoven,” Glasberg says.

6. Professionally, what will the team be dealing with this season? It sounds like the team won’t have much time to sit back and mourn the loss of Ziva. “There’s a job to do and they have to stay focused, and they have to keep doing what they do and get through it and work through it,” Glasberg says. “We’re going to establish an adversary that’s going to carry all the way through the season. He comes up in the first episode.”

7. How will Gibbs deal with three of his team members resigning, and will there be any other repercussions from the investigation? “He’s got a lot of work to do in that cabin,” Glasberg says. “I think he recognizes at the end of the day how dedicated his team is.” Losing Ziva permanently will also throw Gibbs for a loop. “The fact that he’s going to be losing one of his team will not sit lightly with him.” Will Ziva’s absence mean trouble for Gibbs and Tony’s relationship? “I think this change affects DiNozzo and Gibbs in a classic father/son way,” Weatherly explains. “[Tony’s] dynamic for a long time, with occasionally jockeying for position, has always been the loyal number two, the faithful dog. I think that this change that’s going to happen will directly impact Gibbs and DiNozzo and will force a kind of reassessment of their dynamic. It’s a source of great drama.”

8. Will Tiva ‘shippers get a new romance to root for? Maybe not with the same intensity and devotion — but love is in the air for McGee this season. Fans will finally meet Delilah (Margo Harshman) in the premiere, but one person who’s less than thrilled about her arrival is Abby (Pauley Perrette). “They have a really wonderful scene together with Abby that causes this fantastic triangle,” Glasberg teases. “We’ll probably see her again a little bit later on.” McGilah has a nice ring to it!

The Season 11 premiere of NCIS airs Tuesday at 8/7c on CBS. How do you think the NCIS team will handle Ziva’s departure?

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EXCLUSIVE: CBS is looking to further expand its lucrative NCIS franchise. I’ve learned that the network is working on a planted NCIS spinoff series, which will be introduced in a two-part NCIS episode slated to shoot in February and air in the spring. Set in New Orleans, the potential spinoff is executive produced by NCIS star/executive producer Mark Harmon and executive producer/showrunner Gary Glasberg. The character-driven project, written by Glasberg and produced by CBS Studios, centers on the the NCIS New Orleans office which handles cases from Pensacola through Mississippi and Louisiana to the Texas panhandle. New Orleans was picked as a backdrop for the show because of its pedigree of a rich setting of music, fun and debauchery that makes it a magnet for military personnel on-leave. And with fun comes trouble. This would mark the second spinoff from veteran NCIS, which also spawned hit NCIS: Los Angeles. The LL Cool J-Chris O’Donnell starrer also started off as a backdoor pilot, airing as a two-part episode of NCIS. In expanding the NCIS franchise, CBS and CBS Studios are taking a page from their CSI playbook by setting every new series in a new town (Las Vegas, Miami and New York for CSI; Washington, Los Angeles and New Orleans for NCIS). With NCIS and NCIS: LA showing no signs of slowing down, CBS may very well have three NCIS series on the air next season, just like it did with the CSI franchise for almost a decade. Season 11 of NCIS kicks off tomorrow night. Glasberg is repped by CAA, Harmon by Paradigm.

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Life comes with few chances to witness a fundamental law being turned on its head.

But last season 18.5 million viewers did just that every week, tuning to “NCIS” to certify it as one of TV’s highest-rated shows and, even more impressively, make it a series whose audience after 10 seasons has expanded, not shriveled, with age.

“NCIS,” which averaged 11.8 million viewers its first season back in 2003-04, grew by more than a million viewers last year alone.

This, of course, contradicts TV’s natural order. “NCIS” (which starts its 11th season Tuesday at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS) seems to have a long-term lease on TV’s fountain of youth.

It doesn’t hurt that “NCIS” maintains an absorbing, go-down-easy recipe of drama, character and humor that no other show is able to match.

“We’ve been successful so far,” says series star Mark Harmon with some understatement, “and we keep finding ways to grow it.”

But don’t go laying too much credit for that growth, or any other metric of success, at Harmon’s feet.

He’s the star, of course, playing tormented but intrepid Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Special Agent in Charge of the military’s Major Case Response Team.

Harmon is surrounded by a sturdy troupe of actors including fellow charter cast members Michael Weatherly (NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo), David McCallum (Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard) and the wildly popular Pauley Perrette (as Goth lab rat Abby Sciuto).
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This publicity image released by CBS shows Mark Harmon …
This publicity image released by CBS shows Mark Harmon in a scene from “NCIS.” Last season 18.5 mill …

“There’s four of us who were there in the beginning, plus pretty much 90 percent of our crew,” says Harmon, citing the stability of the show’s production team as one key reason for its continued robustness.

Granted, there have been comings and goings. This summer, “NCIS” fans were shocked to learn that Cote de Pablo was exiting after eight seasons. The new season’s first two episodes give her character, Special Agent Ziva David, a dramatic send-off.

“We wish Cote well,” says Harmon. “But for those of us still here, it’s all about moving on: ‘This is what we’ve got, and we’re going to find a way to make it even better.’

“I’m not trying to shuck off our success, because it’s all earned, every bit of it. By a lot of people.”

Thus does Harmon reaffirm his one-for-all-and-all-for-one manifesto.

“I’m not the big dog,” he says flatly. “I might be a dog. But there’s a lot of dogs.”

Now 62, Harmon is an unlikely TV superstar. His manner during a recent interview is friendly but crisp, soft-spoken and firmly self-effacing. With his pretty-boy looks matured in middle age, this is the all-grown-up version of the star quarterback at UCLA who, after brief turns in law school, advertising and selling shoes, set his sights anew on acting and made good.

He forged a solid career in a succession of TV series, including “Reasonable Doubts,” ”Chicago Hope” and “St. Elsewhere,” where, nearly 30 years ago, he played the first prime-time hero to contract, and die of, AIDS.

His films include “The Presidio,” ”Natural Born Killers” and “Freaky Friday.”
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This publicity image released by CBS shows Mark Harmon, …
This publicity image released by CBS shows Mark Harmon, left, and Cote de Pablo in a scene from “NCI …

Still, the man crowned as “the greatest actor who ever lived” by “Family Guy” cartoon aesthete Peter Griffin never reached the top tier of show-biz, even as he weathered accolades like People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 1986. And, as with most actors, he has also suffered setbacks, such as his ABC private-eye drama “Charlie Grace,” which lasted little more than a month in 1995.

So when “NCIS” arrived as a spinoff of the durable but non-flashy military drama “JAG,” there was no particular reason to expect fireworks from this new venture.

“We were able to keep it afloat a couple of years because we weren’t good enough to get all the attention and we weren’t bad enough to get canceled,” says Harmon with a laugh. “And the biggest thing: We shoot in Santa Clarita,” which sits 30 miles comfortably removed from Los Angeles. “Nobody from the network wanted to drive out there!” Network execs stayed out of their hair.

“NCIS” still shoots at Santa Clarita Studios, which means a lengthy commute for Harmon and many of his cast mates.

That’s fine with him. Ten years and running on “NCIS” isn’t about to drive him somewhere else.

“I’ve been acting long enough to appreciate the kind of opportunity this show is,” he says. “It’s a machine, but it’s a machine that’s forever changing, and if we’re able to maintain what we have here, I don’t see any reason why it can’t continue for a while.”

How long? Harmon answers by explaining what it is about “NCIS” he savors the most.

“I love the drive to work,” he says. “I love getting up and looking forward to where I’m going.”

If steering his ’91 Bimmer northward from his Santa Monica home each dawn ever starts to feel punishing, “I think that will be the time to hang it up,” he declares. “But as long as we’re finding ways to do new stories and grow these characters, I’ll be there.”

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Beware of NCIS‘ newest agent — she’s got mob ties.

TVLine has learned exclusively that Sopranos grad Emily Wickersham — she played A.J.’s girlfriend Rhiannon during the HBO drama’s sixth and final season — is joining the CBS smash as a potential successor to Cote de Pablo’s Ziva.

Wickersham, whose three-episode deal with the show contains a series regular option, will play Bishop, a bright, educated, athletic, attractive, fresh-faced, focused and somewhat socially awkward new agent. She has a mysterious mixture of analytic brilliance, fierce determination and idealism. She’s traveled extensively, but only feels comfortable at home.” (CBS tends to do these trial runs to ensure the actor/actress in question is a good fit. See also: The Mentalist.)

Currently recurring on FX’s The Bridge as the stepdaughter of Annabeth Gish’s character, Wickersham will make her NCIS debut during November sweeps.

Prior to that, the show will “rotate some fun people” through the agency’s doors. “The first two episodes are all about Ziva’s departure,” EP Gary Glasberg recently told TVLine. “And then in the third episode we [begin to] introduce some different characters. And then, hopefully, when people are comfortable enough, one will walk in and be The One.”

NCIS’ Season 11 bows on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

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PREVIOUSLY ON… | In the wake of the deadly manhunt for Ilan Bodnar, DoD investigator Parsons went after Gibbs hard, citing a pattern of rule-bending behavior — while it was revealed to Vance that the CIA had in fact killed Arash Kazmi. Tony, Ziva and McGee tendered their resignations, while Gibbs got pulled into a top-secret op; in a four-month flash-forward, he was seen training a rifle on FBI agent Fornell!

COMING UP NEXT | The season picks up right where the finale left off, and over the first two episodes fills in the “missing” months, sheds light on Gibbs’ mysterious gig (“If he takes this mission, the slate for NCIS will be wiped clean,” hints show boss Gary Glasberg) and also paves the way for Cote de Pablo’s exit. (“I hope it’s as cathartic for the fans as it was for me shooting it,” says Michael Weatherly; read more about Ziva’s farewell story.) All of that “sets up the season, which has the thematic aspect of ‘unlocking demons’” both figurative and literal, says Glasberg, by introducing a “pretty interesting adversary that will carry through the season.” On the lighter side of things, giving a face to McGee’s new girlfriend Delilah (Big Bang Theory’s Margo Harshman) will tee up “terrific triangle stuff with Abby,” Palmer’s plan to adopt delivers some “twists and turns” and Glasberg has a cryptic “something fun” on tap for David McCallum’s Ducky later in the season, “But I’m going to hold off a bit before I say more about that.”

TVLINE BONUS SPOILER | Around midseason, NCIS will celebrate its 250th episode with “something that the show definitely hasn’t done before,” Glasberg teases. “It’ll be unique, I promise you that!”

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When Cote de Pablo wraps her eight-year run as Ziva David, it will by no means be the first, but rather the latest, of several major shifts that CBS’ NCIS has sustained since debuting almost 10 years ago.

As original cast member Michael Weatherly prepared to film his final scenes with scene partner de Pablo, he shared with TVLine his reflections on all that NCIS and Gibbs’ team have been through.

“I remember being with Cote at the end of Season 5, walking through the Mojave desert and into a diner and seeing Lauren Holly’s wax dummy in a pool of blood,” after Jenny Shepard had been killed by Russian hitmen. “I thought, ‘This is crazy!’” he recalls. “I didn’t see this coming at all. NCIS DiNozzo Jenny ShepardI mean, she’s the director of NCIS!

“And Mike Franks [killed by the Port-to-Port Killer in Season 8]…. Those were major changes,” the actor continues. “[Series creator] Don Bellisario leaving [after Season 4]? A major change. Again and again.”

And yet despite every shake-up NCIS has served up or survived, it stands as the most watched scripted program on TV today.

“We have great writers and a remarkable core DNA that Bellisario created,” Weatherly observes, “and somehow it’s so sturdy that it withstands all of these changes.”

As for how exactly NCIS will write out Ziva soon after its Sept. 24 opener, Weatherly is mum — “I can’t give away all the pinpoints,” he hedges with a smile — “but I found the first two episodes immensely satisfying. I was very surprised by the things I read in those scripts,” he shares.

Might those surprising elements involve some degree of payoff, if not closure, for the forever percolating Tony/Ziva romance? All signs point to yes.

“I think that for DiNozzo and for me as an actor, that ‘holding pattern’ has been incredibly fun to play — I love working with Cote, she’s awesome — but also it’s been eight years, and we haven’t dealt with it. It will be dealt with.” And with a resulting storyline for Tony that his portrayer has hailed as “the most exciting thing I’ve heard in a long time.” Says Weatherly, “I’m looking forward to seeing what the far greater geniuses have in store.”

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Any word on whether NCIS will bring back family members of the team? And if so, do you happen to know which? –Daniel
Thus far, both Ralph Waite and Robert Wagner are likely (though not double-secret confirmed) to again play pop to Gibbs and DiNozzo, respectively.

The way that TV’s most watched drama opens its 11th season is “classic NCIS,” says cast member Michael Weatherly.

In the season premiere “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” an explosion at a D.C. event results in a casualty connected to the agency, which in turn changes DoD investigator Parsons’ perspective on Gibbs & Co. “Colin Hanks (as Parsons) comes back for the first episode and really does a fascinating turn, which everyone, I think, will get a big kick out of,” says show boss Gary Glasberg.

Meanwhile, DiNozzo and McGee — without badges and with Ziva AWOL — investigate the explosion as civilians, despite the case’s threat to harm each and every one of them.

“The way that we are jumping off into this new season is classic NCIS — and by that, I mean it’s about change and turmoil, everything being turned inside-out and upside -down,” Weatherly reports, alluding to, among other things, castmate Cote de Pablo’s imminent exit from the role of Ziva. “If you’re a casual viewer, if you’ve watched every single episode, or if you, like, watched one episode with your Uncle Morty, you’ll want to watch this premiere and the first few episodes, because this season does something it’s never done before, and that is interesting.”

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Question: Anything new on the NCIS front? –Cheryl
Ausiello: If you are by chance among the McAbby fans who worry that Tim’s new computer geek girlfriend Delilah (played by Big Bang Theory brainiac Margo Hasrhman) will be some ersatz Abby, Gary Glasberg is here to set the record straight. “I’d like to believe that maybe he’s drawn to people like that and is intrigued by women like that, but I wouldn’t say that [Abby and Delilah] are that similar,” the showrunner tells us. “They have their differences, that’s for sure!”

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