NCIS’ Michael Weatherly has been growing his hair to the “pompadour” look he sported back in 2003 for a March episode that explores the origins of his Agent DiNozzo. Among the reveals: the first Gibbs-DiNozzo head slap.
Michael also says the season’s final episodes introduce doppelgängers that mirror our faves. “There will be a massive disturbance in the squad, which will begin to crack,” he says.
NCIS Exclusive: Brothers & Sisters’ Sarah Jane Morris to Play [Spoiler Alert]
Sound the alarm, someone may be trespassing on Tiva!
NCIS has tapped former Brothers & Sisters actress Sarah Jane Morris to join the cast for a major arc, sources confirm to me exclusively.
Jane will play Erica Jane “EJ” Barrett, a new NCIS agent who shakes up the team dynamic. More specifically, look for sparks to fly between EJ and Michael Weatherly’s Tony.
Morris’ first episode is slated to air this spring.
Will NCIS agents Tony, Ziva et al have a new boss come fall 2011?
It’s a provocative question, given that NCIS lead Mark Harmon’s deal with the forever-popular procedural expires after this season. The answer, thankfully, is simple: Probably not.
Noting that contract renegotiations are “the nature of the business,” CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler said on Friday at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, “We are very confident Mark will continue on with the show. He’s very happy, and we’re thrilled to have him.”
Especially since NCIS, now in its eighth season, just this week notched its largest audience ever, flirting with 22 million total viewers. Similarly, lead-out NCIS: Los Angeles netted its best numbers since its September 2009 debut.
Speaking of the franchise’s vitality: Is Tassler receiving pitches from NCIS/NCIS: LA boss man Shane Brennan yet for a second spin-off? NCIS: New York, perhaps?
Tassler laughed when TVLine put forth such a scenario. “No, no, no,” she said. “Not yet!”
NCIS is about to go digging around in Tony DiNozzo’s (Michael Weatherly) past.
Executive producer Shane Brennan confirms to me exclusively that a Spring episode will delve into DiNozzo’s life before he became an NCIS agent (and the object of Ziva’s unrequited lust).
“The episode will reveal much about DiNozzo’s past as a Baltimore cop,” previews Brennan. “And yes, we’ll hear the first words exchanged between DiNozzo and Gibbs. It’s a memorable first meeting.”
NCIS, which currently ranks as TV’s most-watched scripted hour with an average of 21.3 million viewers, has been on a bit of an origin-episode kick this season. This fall, the show flashed back to the early days of Rocky Carroll’s Vance.
Whose backstory do you want NCIS to explore next? (That noise you hear is the sound of millions of fans screaming, Abby’s!”)
If your head is still reeling, and your heart still pounding, from last night’s episode of NCIS, you’re not alone. The first episode in the two-parter exploring the history between NCIS Director Vance (Rocky Carroll) and Mossad Director Eli David (Michael Nouri) was info- and action-packed. Fan favorite writer Jesse Stern has spent all season working on these two hours. Last night, we watched as Eli ventured off Israeli soil for the first time in 12 years to attend, in-person, Vance’s review of international case files with contributions from all living NCIS directors (RIP, Jenny). He wanted to be there to defend himself when the truth was finally revealed about Vance’s first NCIS mission in Amsterdam 20 years ago. Having an emotional reunion with Ziva and luring out the remaining three members of a Palestinian terror network that wants to assassinate him was just a bonus for him. For viewers, however, those scenes of the joint NCIS-Mossad protection detail running through an ambush scenario in the hotel parking garage, Ziva confronting her father about why he wasn’t begging her forgiveness for leaving her for dead in the desert, and the actual ambush itself, were the highlight of the episode. (Watch them below.)
Eli never made it to the hearing, and the episode ended with Gibbs unable to reach Eli and Vance after a blast went off at the safe house they retreated to (RIP, Hadar). NCIS exec producer Shane Brennan promises the Nov. 23 conclusion will not disappoint. “Vance isn’t gonna wake up at the end of next week’s episode and say it was all a dream,” he jokes. “It’s a cleverly-woven piece of fabric. There are no loose threads to pull at the end of this episode.” That means we’ll finally find out what happened in Amsterdam to shape Vance and set him on-course to become the director of NCIS. (The episode has extensive flashbacks to that pivotal time and, through the magic of makeup and computers, actor Rocky Carroll was able to play Vance at age 27. We’ll have exclusive behind-the-scenes shots on Monday with commentary from Carroll and Brennan.) Brennan tells EW that we’ll also resolve another of the series’ great mysteries: “The infamous paper that was shredded — answered next week,” he says, referring back to the season 5 finale when Vance became director. “The famous last scene that shocked the hell out of everyone, when he walked into his office and shredded one sheet of paper, called everyone in, and shuffled them around the world.” The text Eli sent Vance earlier this season, “I found him,” will also be part of the revelation.
Two more teases: There will be at least one more death. (I’m betting on mini-Ziva, especially after we found out that she was sleeping with Malachi. And why wouldn’t she be? He’s smokin’.) And the tension you felt watching last night’s episode as they escorted Eli to and into the hotel is just the starting point. “I think of episodes and stories in moments because people remember the moments,” Brennan says. “They talk about them the next day. They don’t say, ‘Ah, the show was about such and such.’ They say, ‘Ah, there was this great moment.’ If you get five or six moments in an episode, great. In next week’s episode, there are probably a dozen moments that are memorable. The tension is cranked up from the beginning and it doesn’t let you go… And yet, we still manage that wonderful NCIS humor.” (I loved Tony suggesting that the room full of ex-NCIS directors might want to applaud him last night.)
What did you think of part 1? What’s your prediction for how part 2 plays out? The safe house bomb was an inside job? Who else doesn’t want Amsterdam revisited?
Can we expect a really big Tiva moment on ‘NCIS‘? – Michaela
In a word, yes. In 50 words: “Like Tony, ‘Tiva’ fans have been teased by several references this season to a mysterious man Ziva is acquainted with in Miami,” ‘NCIS’ executive producer Shane Brennan tells me. “This ‘Miami Man’ could be Washington-bound before the end of the season, and his arrival is sure to cause a stir for the NCIS team – particularly Tony.”
TV’s number one drama, NCIS has a pair of explosive (pun intended) episodes coming up (Nov. 16 and Nov. 23 on CBS) that will focus on Israeli weapons expert Ziva David (Cote de Pablo). We caught up with de Pablo to find out what’s in store for Ziva, and whether we should be worried about the future of our favorite Chilean actress on NCIS.
We hear there are two big episodes coming up for your character, Ziva. What can you dish about the episodes?
It’s a two-part episode where the whole Israeli team comes back from Israel, including Ziva’s father. So obviously that’s going to be a big thing for Ziva because she finally gets to confront her father for sending her away on, basically, what I would call a suicide mission. They get to see each other after all of that and there’s conflict.
Is Ziva’s dad going to let her know that he’s sorry for what he did?
These characters are able to justify [their actions] because they come from a country that’s at war. You learn to sympathize with her dad, who’s played so beautifully by Michael Nouri. The audience will get some answers, but there’s more to come.
Rumor has it that the two-part episode will deal with bombs and bombers. Is stuff going to be blowing up left and right?
Stuff is going to be blowing up, and not only that, but it was a crazy episode to shoot because there were sooo many stunts for me. And so that was a little hard. I had a big fight sequence, I had to shoot a lot—there was a lot of gunfire—and there was one huge explosion in which a whole kitchen blows up and I’m in the middle of it! Needless to say it was fun, but incredibly challenging.
Ziva is a weapons expert, so that means she can create bombs herself, can’t she?
Oh yeah! For sure. We’ve never done it on the show so I think its something we’re going to explore. In that particular episode, Abby (Pauley Perrette) asks, ‘can anyone make this type of a bomb?’ and all of the Israeli’s that are in the room raise their hands. It’s kind of funny the way we are all very well taught in the art of making them.
For years, NCIS fans have been waiting for ZIva and Tony (Michael Weatherly) to become a couple on the show. Is that ever going to happen?
You know what? I have no idea. But people love that tension between these two characters. It’s great and we definitely play around with it, because we both love it. We enjoy working with each other and there’s an innate chemistry between us.
How does it feel, as a Latina, to be playing one of the biggest badasses on TV, in terms of strong, female characters?
I don’t know how it feels as a Latina, but I’ll tell you what it feels like as an actor: fantastic! I’m an actor playing a role and I think it’s fantastic that people can play any type of role—and that I am playing this particular role—it’s awesome. We get a lot of Latinos in this show that don’t play Latin and the first thing they say is how cool it is that I’m playing an Israeli character.
You’ve been on this show for a long time now. Are you planning to stick around for as long as the show does?
We’ll see. You can say, I want to be here forever, but the truth is you can only enjoy every day as it comes and hopefully get the most of it. As of now, I’m in my sixth year and it’s been an awesome journey. We’ll see if I’m lucky enough to come back next year. I would love it.
“NCIS” IS TUESDAY’S #1 PROGRAM IN VIEWERS WITH ITS LARGEST AUDIENCE SINCE JANUARY
“NCIS: Los Angeles” and “The Good Wife” Win Their Time Periods in Viewers and Demos
CBS Wins Six Straight Tuesday in Viewers and Adults 25-54
CBS won its sixth straight Tuesday in viewers and adults 25-54 as NCIS delivered its largest audience since January and NCIS: LOS ANGELES and THE GOOD WIFE won their time periods in viewers and demos, according to Nielsen preliminary live plus same day ratings for Oct. 26.
NCIS was first in households (11.9/19), viewers (19.88m), adults 25-54 (5.6/14) and second in adults 18-49 (4.1/11). Compared to last week, NCIS added +470,000 viewers (from 19.41m, +2%). NCIS was the night’s #1 program in viewers and adults 25-54 with its largest audience since Jan. 26.
NCIS: LOS ANGELES was first in viewers (16.02m), adults 25-54 (4.6/11), adults 18-49 (3.4/09). Compared to last week, NCIS: LOS ANGELES added +20,000 viewers (from 16.00m).
THE GOOD WIFE was first in households (8.2/14), viewers (12.54m), adults 25-54 (3.4/09) and adults 18-49 (2.4/07) for the fifth straight week. Compared to last week, THE GOOD WIFE added +370,000 viewers (from 12.17m, +3%).
CBS was first on Tuesday in households (9.9/16), viewers (16.15m), adults 25-54 (4.5/11) and second in adults 18-49 (3.3/09).
Bruce Boxleitner (Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Babylon 5) will guest-star on NCIS during fall sweeps, TVGuide.com has learned exclusively.
Boxleitner will play Vice Admiral C. Clifford Chase, a high-ranking Navy official who turns to Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and the rest of the NCIS team when his friend is killed. Chase believes the motive behind the murder could have national security implications.
Best known for his roles as operative Lee Stetson on Scarecrow and John J. Sheridan on Babylon 5, Boxleitner, 60, has also appeared on such series as How the West Was Won, Bring ‘Em Back Alive, Chuck, Cold Case and Heroes. He also starred as the title character in Tron, a role he is set to reprise in December’s Tron: Legacy.
NCIS airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on CBS. Boxleitner’s episode, “Broken Arrow,” is scheduled to air Nov. 9.
Check out an exclusive first look at Boxleitner’s character below: Spoiler Picture
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