‘NCIS’ Is Officially Correcting Its Most Obvious Franchise Oversight

For a franchise that’s spent more than 20 years building one of television’s biggest procedural universes, NCIS has managed to avoid one of the most obvious crime drama settings imaginable. Los Angeles got 14 seasons, New Orleans had its turn, Hawai’i, Sydney, and even the franchise’s earliest days have all become part of the expanding NCIS mythology. Yet New York City — arguably the country’s most iconic backdrop for law enforcement stories — has remained strangely absent.

This fall, CBS will debut NCIS: New York, led by LL Cool J as longtime fan favorite Sam Hanna, who returns to his hometown to head a new NCIS team alongside Scott Caan’s Nick Schaeffer. It feels like NCIS is correcting a glaring omission that has existed since the original series premiered in 2003.

Why ‘NCIS’ Waiting This Long To Go to New York Never Quite Made Sense

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Few television cities are more synonymous with crime procedurals than New York. For instance, Law & Order built an empire there, Blue Bloods turned the city into a character in its own right, the FBI franchise continues to mine its endless supply of stories, and CSI eventually made its way to the East Coast as well. Meanwhile, NCIS zigged where everyone else zagged.

Having a series set in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Hawaii, and even Sydney allowed the branch to develop unique personalities rather than be compared to its rivals. Each place introduced its own culture, investigative methods, and some form of visual elements that empowered each spin-off to differentiate itself from the others and avoid becoming a mere replica of the main show. Nonetheless, New York always remained an unfulfilled area.

New York has one of the busiest ports in the world, making it a perfect setting for stories featuring the Navy and Marine Corps. Given the presence of military installations, international shipping, intelligence operations, and federal investigations, it’s surprising that the franchise took more than two decades to establish a permanent presence there.

Sam Hanna Gives the Franchise the Perfect Reason To Make the Move

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The timing also works because the series isn’t introducing audiences to another brand-new team from scratch. Instead, CBS is building the show around one of the franchise’s most recognizable characters. After spending 14 seasons on NCIS: Los Angeles, Sam has become one of the longest-running agents in the franchise. His appearances on NCIS and NCIS: Hawai’i after Los Angeles ended proved there was still life left in the character, but those guest spots also raised an obvious question: Where would Sam eventually land? The answer turns out to be home.

Having Hanna return to New York gives the new series an emotional anchor beyond its weekly investigations. It’s a homecoming rather than a reset, allowing the franchise to introduce fresh characters without asking viewers to invest in an entirely unfamiliar world. Caan’s Nick serves as Sam’s new partner, while Jennifer Beals leads the field office as Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robyn Wells. Rounding out the team are Special Agents Addison “Addy” Ross and Wyatt Hill, along with tech specialist Sean Sullivan. It’s a new ensemble, but one built around a familiar foundation.

‘NCIS: New York’ Arrives at the Right Time for the Franchise

Image via Sonja Flemming / ©CBS / courtesy Everett Collection

The flagship series continues to draw a loyal audience, while recent additions like NCIS: Origins and NCIS: Sydney have demonstrated that viewers are still willing to follow the brand into new corners of its universe. At the same time, familiar faces continue returning, with Michael Weatherly set for an extended return as Tony DiNozzo in Season 24. Against that backdrop, NCIS: New York feels like the next logical step.

Scheduling the new series immediately after the flagship also opens the door for something NCIS hasn’t been able to capitalize on recently: seamless crossovers. With both shows operating in the present day and under the same network schedule, characters can move between series far more naturally than they could with Origins or Sydney.

More importantly, New York offers something no previous NCIS series has fully embraced. While the franchise has often prioritized distinctive settings over familiar ones, there’s something undeniably fitting about finally planting its flag in one of the country’s busiest and most strategically important cities. It’s a location that naturally complements the franchise’s military focus, rather than one chosen simply because it looks different. After more than two decades, NCIS is finally heading somewhere it arguably should have visited years ago.