'NCIS' Is Going to 'Take It to the Limit' When it Returns For Its 22nd Season

Season 21 of NCIS ended with the case being tied up in a nice little bow but a  cliffhanger as to whether or not Special Agent Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) would be returning for Season 22 because she was offered her dream job—Chief REACT Training Officer—by Director Vance (Rocky Carroll) and she accepted it and it is all the way across the country.

“There was some closure and some cliff, a mixture,” showrunner Steven D. Binder told Parade at the CBS Fall TV 2024 Party of the Season 21 finale. “A lot of things were resolved, and some new things were opened up, some character cliffhangers, but we wanted to resolve the case. Cliffhangers are titillating but also aggravating. We were less aggravating and gave the audience some peace.”

At the point in time we spoke to Binder, the writers’ room for the new season hadn’t opened yet, so he had no specifics to reveal. But he did add, “We don’t have a slogan yet but take it to the limit I would say is what I want to do with the characters for Season 22."

Here's everything we know so far about the NCIS 22^nd season.

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When is the NCIS Season 22 release date?

NCIS will premiere its 22nd season on Monday, Oct. 14 at 8 p.m. ET/PT but after the premiere episode, the regular timeslot as of Oct. 21 is at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

What time will NCIS air?

NCIS will premiere 8 p.m. ET/PT on Oct. 14 but move to its regular 9 p.m. ET/PT timeslot on Oct. 21.

Is there a trailer for NCIS Season 22?

Production has just begun, so no, no trailer yet, but check back. As soon as one is released, we will post it.

Which NCIS cast members are returning for Season 22?

Gary Cole (Special Agent Alden Parker)

Sean Murray (Special Agent Timothy McGee)

Sean Murray Looks Back on 21 Years and 1,000 Episodes in the NCIS Universe

Wilmer Valderrama (Special Agent Nicholas “Nick” Torres)

Brian Dietzen (Dr. Jimmy Palmer)

Diona Reasonover (Forensic Scientist Kasie Hines)

Katrina Law (Special Agent Jessica Knight)

Rocky Carroll (NCIS Director Leon Vance)

What happened in the NCIS Season 21 finale?

The episode opens with Director Vance informing Knight that she is being offered the position of Chief REACT Training Officer, which would take her out of DC to California and Camp Pendleton. She asks him if she can have a day to decide, but when Jimmy finds out, he goes ballistic and breaks up with her.

Meanwhile, three dead bodies were found on a Navy ship that was about to be towed out to sea and sunk to become an artificial reef, so the NCIS team was called in. At first, there seemed to be no connection among the deaths, so the team was busy trying to identify them. Finally, one of the men was identified and Knight and Parker were headed to his apartment to search for evidence, when they realized there was a clue on the ship that they had missed.

They find a unisex watch and as they are about to leave the ship, they get locked into the engine room and since the ship has a steel hull, they have no cell phone reception. To make matters worse, Parker is seriously injured, so Knight tries to swim out of a hatch to rescue him. The team arrives just in time to pull Knight out of the hatch and get Parker to the hospital.

When Parker finally wakes up and the team is headed back to the office, Vance tells Knight that he has to have an answer and she says yes as Jimmy and the team look on.

That said, if this is a new photo -- it's a relatively new post -- it looks as if Law is back.

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Are there any spoilers for NCIS Season 22?

As earlier mentioned, Parade spoke to showrunner Steven D. Binder at the CBS Fall TV 2024 Party to ask him what we had to look forward to in Season 22.

“I would like to see some unusual pairings, characters that aren’t usually together finding ways to put them together,” he said. “I think that would be interesting for the actors for sure, for the writers, and hopefully, for the audience. I’m just riffing now, but you don’t usually see the director and Jimmy Palmer in an episode together, things like that.

“The second thing I want to do is … there’s the cliché where an actor says, ‘My character wouldn’t do that,’ I want to do that – extreme things, not just like, ‘My character wouldn’t eat pasta.’ I want to put these characters in situations that make them do things they wouldn’t normally do but because of the situation we see them doing it. That would also be interesting to see and to write and to play.”

Will Mark Harmon return to NCIS?

"We always ask that question," Binder said. "When the writers get together we ask ourselves, 'Is there a way?' And then as we’re going through the season, ‘Do any of these stories lend themselves to Mark’s [return]?' We’d love to see him back on the show. [In the meantime,] we don’t want to give shape to what he’s been doing. When he comes back, we don’t want to find out that he’s been at an Airbnb in Anchorage this whole time. It needs to fit the circumstance and we don’t know what the circumstance is so I want to leave him nebulous. He’s out there..."

Parade also spoke to Harmon about a potential return.

“I have been asked [about returning] a lot, but I’ve always let the writers do what they want to do,” he said at a Television Critics Association press tour panel for NCIS: Origins, which he will executive producer and narrate. “I was OK with the storyline. I didn’t know where it was going when they started it but that’s about trust and working with people you’ve worked with a long time.”

Related: Mark Harmon on Leaving Gibbs Behind on NCIS and His Return for Origins

What does NCIS stand for?

When the series premiered, it was originally called Navy NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which was later shortened to NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and then, once everyone knew what NCIS stood for, the series simply became NCIS.

How to watch and stream NCIS Season 22 on TV and online

New episodes of NCIS will air Monday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS—following the premiere which is at 8 p.m.—and stream next day on Paramount+.

Where can I catch up on previous seasons of NCIS?

Previous seasons of NCIS are available on Paramount+, Netflix, and in reruns on USA Network.

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