NCIS season 16 is nearing to its finale, but it's not yet confirmed whether there will be a 17th season for the hit naval series. CBS has not yet made any announcements as well, but if ever, reports said NCIS season 17 will likely be released this September 2019.
NCIS follows the story of special agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service tasked with investigating crimes involving both the Navy and Marine Corps. The current season is still doing very well, and it is possible it will be renewed once 16th installment ends, the EconoTimes reported. CBS president Kelly Khal also believed the series would continue to return because it has millions of viewers around the world.
"It's pretty simple - viewers everywhere love NCIS," Khal said, and added the naval series speaks to viewers of all ages in all parts of the country and all over the world. If ever, we can expect NCIS season 17 to premiere by September 2019 as the preceding seasons of the series aired during that month. Once confirmed, the upcoming season may just offer 14 episodes.
Also, a report from Express said that NCIS is one of the most-watched worldwide from 2009 to 2017 - beating Game Of Thrones and The Walking Dead. The series was also listed to be the fourth most popular program in the U.S. from 2017 to 2018, with an average audience share of 47 million as per Nielsen.
If NCIS season 17 will be given the thumbs up, we would expect series star and executive producer Mark Harmon to return as Leroy Jethro Gibbs. There were previous rumors he will be leaving the series, but he said that he would be staying "until the end of the show."
Other cast members to reportedly return on NCIS season 17 include: David McCallum (Dr Donald Mallard), Diona Reasonover (Kasie Hines), Brian Dietzen (Dr Jimmy Palmer), Maria Bello (Dr Jack Sloane), Emily Wickersham (Ellie Bishop), Wilmer Valderrama (Nick Torres), and Sean Murray (Timothy McGee).
Meanwhile, CBS recently teased a big revelation for the Tuesday, Feb. 12 episode of NCIS titled She, and it will reportedly be the "biggest secret of all." The episode will feature the team finding a 9-year-old girl - Lily Burke (Sunnie Pelant) - hiding in a storage unit.
She is believed to be the daughter of a Navy recruit who disappeared 10 years ago - prompting the team to open up an old case about missing persons. During the process, Bishop (Emily Wickersham) found notes that Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) kept on the case long after NCIS stopped investigating.
