NCIS actor and Executive-Producer Mark Harmon has just secured a further two-year deal which will take the highest-rated action series into its fifteenth season…
It’s officially the most popular action show in America (the highest-rated action show for seven consecutive years) and as it ends its thirteenth season, it looks as if NCIS will be around for some time to come. CBS announced Monday that Mark Harmon – who plays mainstay leader Leroy Jethro Gibbs and is one of the franchise’s executive producers – has inked a further two year deal to stick with the ratings juggernaut. Harmon has been with the show since it launched and though the series tends to skew towards a familiar template and a more of an older demographic than some networks would normally aim for, it’s proved an undeniable success that has often increased its ratings rather than finding them sliding like many long-running series. Indeed, the series continues to pull in a weekly domestic audience close to 20 million in an era where half that would still be considered a decent return.
Most shows only secure a year-by-year renewal, so the two year announcement is another sign of ongoing high confidence in NCIS and its team. The deal with Harmon has wider implications for securing the continued success of the show as the series will be losing another of its original stars, Michael Weatherly (who plays Tony DiNozzo) at the end of the current run. Weatherly announced his surprise departure earlier this year, but it seems unlikely they will kill off the very popular character, so the door may be open for him to return for appearances in the future.
