Where are NCIS actors now? Two of the departed ended up with a whole new show together
NCIS starts its 24th season on CBS this October. Not one member of the 2003 launch cast is still a regular on it, which raises the obvious question of where they all went.
Two of them went to the same place. Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo reunited as Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David in NCIS: Tony & Ziva, a 10-episode Paramount+ spinoff that premiered September 4, 2025, and ran through an October 23 finale. It was canceled after one season on December 19, 2025.
The spinoff that lasted one year
Tony & Ziva was a passion project for both stars, created by John McNamara, and it put the couple in Paris raising their daughter Tali before an attack on Tony's security firm sent them running across Europe. It debuted at No. 8 on Nielsen's streaming chart with 371 million viewing minutes, then fell off in the following weeks. Eighty percent of its audience was 50 or older.
In their joint statement on the cancellation, the pair thanked the crew, the network, and the fans who, as they put it, got to see the couple reach their ending:
"finally got to see Tony and Ziva find their happily ever after" — Weatherly and de Pablo, joint statement, December 2025
Six months later, CBS announced Weatherly would return to the mothership for a season-long arc in season 24. Tony is back in Washington running his private security company, Salus Mondiale, and Weatherly says the arc will not retcon the spinoff. CBS has said nothing about de Pablo.
Mark Harmon never really left
Harmon's Gibbs retired in season 19 in October 2021, but he stayed on as an executive producer and narrates the prequel NCIS: Origins. In summer 2026 CBS confirmed he will take a season-long on-camera role on Origins — his first regular acting work in the franchise in five years.
Pauley Perrette quit acting altogether
Abby Sciuto's exit after season 15 in 2018 ended a 352-episode run and came with a very public falling-out with Harmon over an on-set dog incident. Perrette followed it with the CBS sitcom Broke, retired from acting in 2020, and survived what she described as a massive stroke in 2021. She now produces documentaries, including 2023's Studio One Forever, and told Hello! in 2024 the retirement is permanent: "I want to be me all the time."
The rest of the original lineup
- Sasha Alexander — Kate Todd was shot dead in the season 2 finale in 2005 after 49 episodes; Alexander left over the shooting schedule and went on to Rizzoli & Isles.
- David McCallum — Ducky Mallard's actor died September 25, 2023, at 90. Season 21 wrote the character out with a tribute episode, and Weatherly returned for the funeral.
- Emily Wickersham — Ellie Bishop exited in season 18 in 2021, then came back for an episode in March 2026 and told Us Weekly the door was left open.
- Sean Murray — still there. McGee joined in episode seven of season 1 and has outlasted everyone.
Season 24 premieres in October, with Weatherly having started filming on July 14, 2026.