NCIS season 17
The seventeenth season of NCIS, an American police procedural drama television series, originally aired on CBS from September 24, 2019 through April 14, 2020. The season was produced by Belisarius Productions and CBS Television Studios. The season only contained 20 episodes, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first, and so far only, season in the series to not end in the usual May. It’s also the first season to not feature Joe Spano as Tobias Fornell.
NCIS revolves around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
In May 2020, CBS renewed the series for an eighteenth season.
Cast and characters
Main
- Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS Supervisory Special Agent of the Major Case Response Team assigned to Washington's Navy Yard
- Sean Murray as Timothy McGee, NCIS Senior Special Agent, Second in Command of MCRT
- Wilmer Valderrama as Nick Torres, NCIS Special Agent
- Emily Wickersham as Eleanor "Ellie" Bishop, NCIS Special Agent
- Maria Bello as Dr. Jacqueline "Jack" Sloane, NCIS Senior Resident Agent and Operational Psychologist
- Brian Dietzen as Dr. Jimmy Palmer, Chief Medical Examiner for NCIS
- Diona Reasonover as Kasie Hines, Forensic Specialist for NCIS
- Rocky Carroll as Leon Vance, NCIS Director
- David McCallum as Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard, NCIS Historian and former Chief Medical Examiner
Special guest star
- Cote de Pablo as Ziva David, former Mossad Officer and former NCIS Special Agent
Recurring
- Laura San Giacomo as Dr. Grace Confalone, psychotherapist
- Megan Gallagher as Jennifer Leo, Under Secretary of the Navy
- Don Lake as Phillip Brooks, Navy Captain
- Louise Barnes as Mira Sahar Azam / Sarah, Gibbs's neighbor and terrorist
- Mouzam Makkar as fake Mira Sahar Azam
- Jack Fisher as Phineas, Sarah's son
- Usman Ally as Victor Mir, NCIS target
- Damon Dayoub as Adam Eshel, Mossad Agent
- Elayn J. Taylor as Odette Malone, owner of Ziva's private office and former CIA Operative
- Kate Hamilton as Faith Tolliver, Jack Sloane's biological daughter
- Karri Turner as Micki Kaydar, Phineas' aunt
Guest
- Devale Ellis as Dante Brown, Kasie's childhood best friend
- Patrick Duffy as Jack Briggs, retired Navy Lieutenant Commander
- Kevin Kilner as Patrick Norian, NSA Access Manager
- Lisa LoCicero as Elena Devol, Torres's girlfriend
- Camryn Grimes as Laney Alimonte, Marine Corporal
- Ellen Geer as Esther Daniels
- Daphne Zuniga as Stacy Gordon, Navy Commander
- Christopher Lloyd as Joseph "Joe" Smith
- Scott Menville as Army Sergeant Donald Ptorias
Episodes
Production
NCIS was renewed for a seventeenth season on April 11, 2019.On March 13, 2020, CBS announced that the filming of season 17 had been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Storylines planned for what would have been Episodes 21–24 are confirmed to have been integrated into the Season 18 episodes "Everything Starts Somewhere" and "Sunburn." Executive producer Frank Cardea teased a "very surprising ending" that was altered due to the pandemic. Fans have speculated that this was either the exit of Maria Bello's Jacqueline Sloane or an on-screen reunion of former main cast members Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo as Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David, though neither theory was confirmed.
This is the first of two seasons not to feature Joe Spano in his recurring role as Tobias Fornell, though he is mentioned numerous times in the season's eighth episode, "Musical Chairs." The fact that the opening arc of the next season would conclude the episode's arc regarding Fornell and his daughter, which began in the Season 16 finale, has led to speculation that this story was intended to be the basis for the unproduced final episode of Season 17.