CBS's Newest NCIS Is Built To Solve The Franchise's Hardest Problem

Published Aug 27, 2026, 12:15 PM EDT Cher Thompson is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, where she covers everything from explosive reality TV moments to cast interviews about the twists and turns of scripted dramas. With a background in creative writing, marketing, and teaching, Cher knows how to spot both the storytelling genius and the guilty pleasures in pop culture. Her work blends wit with insight, making readers feel like they’re chatting with a friend who just happens to know way too much about TV. Despite being one of the longest-running franchises on the network, CBS' NCIS franchise has been struggling in recent seasons. Kicking off in 2003 as a spinoff of popular '90s military legal procedural JAG, NCIS was once the king of the spinoff. During a time when procedural spinoffs were popping up season after season for franchises like NCIS and CSI, it felt clear that if an NCIS franchise show hit the air, it would be successful. Producing NCIS: Los Angeles in 2009 and NCIS: New Orleans in 2014, the franchise began to grow as the flagship series continued to ramp up. Although the original spinoffs of NCIS lasted for years, the more recent spinoffs have struggled to find their footing in a crowded TV landscape. With the advent of streaming, the market has become more crowded than ever for procedurals, and the NCIS formula hasn't entirely been working to capture audience attention in the way it has in the past. Since the end of NCIS: Los Angeles in 2023, no NCIS spinoffs have managed to last for long. NCIS: Hawai'i was canceled after just three seasons, while the highly anticipated NCIS: Tony & Ziva on Paramount+ was canceled after its first. While there are two NCIS spinoffs currently airing along with the flagship show, NCIS: Sydney and NCIS: Origins, both shows have reduced episode orders in the coming season, which may be worrisome. Thankfully, the upcoming NCIS: New York seems to be CBS' answer to fixing the long-running franchise's biggest problem. What Went Wrong With Some Of NCIS's Previous Spinoffs Although there have been some tremendously successful spinoffs in the NCIS franchise, like NCIS: Los Angeles which spanned 14 seasons, there have also been some less-than-successful attempts. Some shows, like NCIS: Red, an attempted spinoff that never got off the ground, don't find their way to the air at all after audience reception isn't enough to proceed. Others, like NCIS: Hawai'i, manage to take off, but struggle to find their way without the same dedicated audience as the flagship series has. In both cases, the spinoffs themselves weren't the actual issue. The quality was there, but the interest didn't manifest. NCIS has become a franchise that relies on its spinoffs to reach across an entire night for the network. This fall, the NCIS block on Tuesday nights will be a massive stretch for CBS, bringing NCIS, NCIS: New York, and NCIS: Origins together, and in the past, NCIS nights have been a massive pull for the network. The franchise's attempt to bring a streaming spinoff to life with Tony & Ziva, which was highly-anticipated but quickly fizzled out, sadly wasn't a successful enough swing to move the franchise away from network. With some spinoffs not working, NCIS has struggled with franchise-building. NCIS: New York Has A Lot Of Potential To Be The Franchise's Next Big Hit MovieStillsDB Thankfully for the network and franchise as a whole, NCIS: New York may be a savior when it comes to ensuring that the long-running franchise re-establishes itself across multiple shows. The newest member of the NCIS family does something incredibly different than previous spinoffs, bringing a well-known cast member back from NCIS: Los Angeles to lead the series. Sam Hanna, played by LL Cool J, will be the lead of the NCIS field team in New York, while Scott Caan will play his second-in-command, Nick Schaeffer. The new series has a different sense of character recognition, which could prove helpful. The other bump that NCIS: New York will have is its timeslot. The NCIS block on Tuesday nights this fall will feature the flagship show kicking things off at 8 p.m. ET, followed by New York at 9 p.m., and Origins at 10 p.m., which gives the newest series the unique chance to hold its ground. Rather than getting the later spot in the schedule, NCIS: New York will get the run off from the flagship show, which means its metrics will probably be similarly strong to its parent series. NCIS: New York has the potential to revitalize NCIS spinoffs. TV Show(s) NCIS First TV Show NCIS Cast Mark Harmon, Michael Weatherly, Pauley Perrette, Cote de Pablo, Sean Murray, Rocky Carroll, Brian Dietzen, Wilmer Valderrama Created by Donald P. Bellisario, Don McGill Latest TV Show NCIS: Sydney Upcoming TV Shows NCIS: Origins, NCIS: Tony & Ziva