Gibbs is put in a tough spot when he has to handle an assistant rookie assigned to his team by Vance to investigate a bank robbery case.
The Slow Rise of 'NCIS'
The Slow Rise of 'NCIS'
How the six-season-old 'JAG' spin-off became one of the most watched series on television
"NCIS" may not be one of those cool shows that gets tons of press like "Gossip Girl" or "Grey's Anatomy." It doesn't have a revolving door of hip guest stars like "Ugly Betty" or "30 Rock." But "NCIS" has quietly become one of the most popular shows on television, frequently besting "Dancing With the Stars," and even managing to get a sizable audience against "American Idol," a show other networks do everything they can to steer clear of.
The military drama's recent ratings success is particularly unusual for a show that has been on the air for six seasons. By this point in a show's life its viewership has usually begun to falter, but, year over year, the little show that could has seen its ratings increase, climbing from a top-30 show to a top-20 show, and this season to a top-five show, averaging around 17 million weekly viewers.
"This show has always had a really solid core audience," executive producer Shane Brennan said during a recent phone interview. "And what we've managed to do over the last few years is bring new people to that." Part of bringing in that new audience has meant appealing to viewers on the East Coast and West Coast, not just Middle America, the part of the country where the show performs best. "Every story we follow has some connection to the Marine Corps or with the Navy," Brennan said. "But when I took over the show, the sense I got was that there was room for more emotion in the show, more character development." It's this character development that Brennan said has helped it climb in the ratings: "We're taking this group of people who the audience has grown to love and we're suddenly giving them more."
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One of the many relationships to move into the forefront has been the brotherly rapport between DiNozzo and Special Agent Timothy McGee, aka Probie, the show's resident computer expert. Sean Murray, who plays McGee, said that while he enjoys the action scenes and mystery-solving on the show, he has more fun doing the character-driven scenes. "The relationship stuff is what's fun to play," he said, particularly the scenes with Weatherly. "For all the hazing, there's a lot of love there."
The show's other differentiation point is its liberal use of humor. "It's always weird when I read about our show and it's a 'somber procedural' or a 'sober military drama,'" Weatherly said. "We're about as far away from somber and sober as you can get." Also, unlike other procedurals, "NCIS" doesn't go as deep into cases as some similar shows. "An audience is used to seeing a procedural where you've got a murder or a robbery or a crime being committed," Brennan said. "There isn't usually a lot of room for (a) the humor, and (b) the characters. It therefore makes 'NCIS,' a very different procedural."
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Did anyone notice what Gibbs did at the bar at the end of the show? I think that little bit speaks volumes on what Gibbs thinks of Agent Lee.
