CBS rebuilt its Tuesday night out of characters who had already said goodbye, and the bet paid off. On October 6, 2026, Tony DiNozzo, Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Sam Hanna were all back on the same night. The NCIS franchise averaged 5.49 million viewers across three hours, up 39 percent on last year's premiere Tuesday.
The flagship's season 24 opener, "Wayward Son", drew 6.45 million viewers. According to the numbers CBS gave Deadline as an exclusive, that makes it the show's most-watched episode in more than two years, since the season 21 finale in May 2024.
That last comparison deserves a closer look.
The two-year record crosses a change in how Nielsen counts
On September 1, 2025, Nielsen moved its press claims to a new standard called Big Data + Panel. It combines the traditional household panel with set-top box and smart TV data from 45 million households and 75 million devices. In May 2024, when the season 21 finale aired, the industry was still trading on the panel.
So "most-watched in more than two years" sets a number from the new system next to the old one. Deadline's report doesn't say which measurement the May 2024 figure comes from. The 21 percent year-on-year gain is a cleaner number, because last October's premiere was already counted the new way. The two-year record may well hold. As printed, though, it compares two different rulers.
Every percentage is measured against something different
CBS's release is a small masterpiece of choosing the comparison:
- NCIS (season 24, 8 p.m.): 6.45 million, up 21 percent year on year.
- NCIS: New York (series premiere, 9 p.m.): 5.62 million. That's up 53 percent on the same hour a year ago, when the slot held NCIS: Origins.
- NCIS: Origins (season 3, 10 p.m.): 4.39 million. That's up 20 percent on its own premiere last year in the 9 p.m. hour, and up 56 percent on NCIS: Sydney, which held the 10 p.m. slot a year ago.
- Whole night: 5.49 million on average, up 39 percent on last year's premiere Tuesday, and the top spot in Tuesday primetime.
Origins moved an hour later and grew. A new show beat the old show that used to sit in its slot. Each claim is true. None of them uses the same baseline.
Who came back, and how
Tony DiNozzo is now running NCIS. Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) died last season, and Gabriel LaRoche (Seamus Dever) took over as director. In the premiere, Tony at first turns the job down. Then he helps rescue the Secretary of the Navy's daughter, and the Secretary stops asking. Showrunner Steven D. Binder told TheWrap that Michael Weatherly is booked for a season-long arc and "will feel like a series regular". This is the first NCIS season without Carroll since he arrived in season 5.
Weatherly is available partly because his own show isn't. Paramount+ cancelled NCIS: Tony & Ziva on December 19, 2025, after one season of ten episodes, three and a half months after it premiered. Ziva is written in as living near a Boston-area boarding school where their daughter Tali now studies.
Sam Hanna has his own city. NCIS: New York stars LL Cool J as Hanna, now leading a team in New York, with Scott Caan as his partner Nick Schaeffer and Jennifer Beals as Robyn Wells, director of the field office. R. Scott Gemmill, the former NCIS: Los Angeles showrunner, wrote the pilot. Byron Balasco runs the show. CBS ordered it on April 15, 2026, less than six months before it aired.
Gibbs is on camera again. NCIS: Origins is set in 1991, so Mark Harmon returns as the present-day Gibbs, in all ten episodes of season 3, around a mystery tied to his Camp Pendleton years. We covered the deal in September: Mark Harmon quit Gibbs in 2021. He is in all ten episodes of NCIS: Origins season 3.
What the premiere numbers don't tell us yet
- Delayed viewing and streaming. These are early figures. Seven-day totals and Paramount+ viewing, where all three shows stream the next day, come later and usually add a lot to CBS procedurals.
- The week-two drop for New York. Episode two, "Family Business", airs October 13. A premiere built on a returning favourite is a sampling number, not a habit.
- How long Tony stays. "Season-long" is the commitment. Binder said he wouldn't be surprised if Tony were still there in five years, and promised nothing.
- The May 2024 baseline. Until someone publishes it with its measurement method, "best in two years" stays a press-release phrase.
In 2016, Tony left. In 2021, Gibbs left. In 2023, Sam Hanna's show ended. In October 2026, CBS's best Tuesday in years was built out of all three.