NCIS (season 19)
The nineteenth season of the American police procedural television series "NCIS" premiered on September 20, 2021, on CBS, for the 2021–22 television season. "NCIS" revolves around a fictional team of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which conducts criminal investigations involving the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The series stars Mark Harmon, Sean Murray, Wilmer Valderrama, Katrina Law, Brian Dietzen, Diona Reasonover, David McCallum, Rocky Carroll, and Gary Cole. The season is the first with Law and Cole following the departures of Maria Bello and Emily Wickersham during the previous season. Harmon departed the  series as a regular after the fourth episode, "Great Wide Open" but still appears in the title sequence. Episodes. The number in the "No. overall" column refers to the episode's number within the overall series, whereas the number in the "No. in season" column refers to the episode's number within this particular season. "U.S. viewers (millions)" refers to the number of viewers in the U.S. in millions who watched the episode as it was aired. <onlyinclude> </onlyinclude> Crossovers. On January 3, 2022, it was announced that a crossover with the first season of spin -off "" would be taking place on March 28, 2022, with Wilmer Valderrama and Katrina Law announcing they were traveling to Hawaii for filming. Showrunners of both series had previously mentioned crossing over and CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl had stated that discussion about a crossover would start after "NCIS: Hawaiʻi" finished its first batch of episodes. Diona Reasonover and Gary Cole also made appearances on the "NCIS Hawaiʻi" episode of the crossover. The series were previously connected in the of "NCIS: Hawaiʻi" when it was revealed that "NCIS: Hawaiʻi" protagonist Jane Tennant was recruited to NCIS by Leroy Jethro Gibbs . Vanessa Lachey appeared as Tennant in the "NCIS" episode of the crossover. On April 29, 2022, it was reported that Jason Antoon would be appearing in the nineteenth episode of the season as his "NCIS: Hawaiʻi" character, Ernie Malik. Production. Development. On April 15, 2021, it was announced that CBS had renewed "NCIS" for a nineteenth season. The season is set to bring back the series' typical "Case of the Week" format after having more story arcs during the previous season. Production on the season began in July 2021. Series regular Brian Dietzen wrote an episode of the season. On  January 5, 2022, it was reported that production on the season had been suspended for at least a week after a cast or crew member tested positive for COVID-19. Casting. In February 2021, it was reported by "The Hollywood Reporter" that series lead Mark Harmon had entered discussions to return for "a handful of episodes" for a nineteenth season after he was told that CBS would end the series if he left. On March 10, 2021, it was announced that Katrina Law had been cast in the final two episodes of the eighteenth season, with the option to be promoted  to series regular for the nineteenth season. When the series was renewed, it was reported that Harmon would be returning. On May 26, 2021, it was revealed that Emily Wickersham would be leaving the series after the eighteenth season. Wickersham joins Maria Bello who left earlier in the eighteenth season. On June 16, 2021, "Variety" reported that Gary Cole was in talks for a major role in the nineteenth season. On June 21, 2021, "TVLine" reported that Harmon will only appear in a small number of episodes of the season. The following day, it was confirmed that Law and Cole  would be series regulars for the nineteenth season. Law started as a series regular in the season premiere, "Blood in the Water", while Cole debuted in the second episode, "Nearly Departed". Joe Spano returned as Tobias Fornell, while Pam Dawber returned as Marcie Warren. On October 11, 2021, it was officially announced that Harmon would be departing the series, with the fourth episode, "Great Wide Open", being his last appearance as a regular. Harmon remains an executive producer and showrunner Steven D. Binder has left the door open for Harmon to appear in the future. In the seventh episode, "Docked , Margo Harshman reprised her role as Delilah Fielding-McGee, while Patricia Richardson guest-starred in the same episode as Judy Fielding. Meredith Eaton also reprised her role as Carol Wilson in an episode of the season. Marketing and release. On May 19, 2021, it was announced that the series would move from the Tuesday 8:00 PM ET timeslot that it had held for all of its previous seasons to Mondays at 9:00 PM ET, to allow " to join FBI" and "" on Tuesdays. The season airs after "The Neighborhood" and "Bob Hearts Abishola" and leads into the first season of spin -off "". On July 12, 2021, it was revealed that the season would premiere on September 20, 2021. On September 13, 2021, the promotional poster for the season was released by TVLine.