‘NCIS’ season 11: Showrunner Gary Glasberg extends deal for flagship, ‘New Orleans’ spin-off
Have you enjoyed “NCIS” under Gary Glasberg? We hope so, since you’re going to be seeing a heck of a lot more of him as showrunner under the new deal that the man signed with CBS TV Studios.
Thanks to this extended deal (first reported by Deadline), Glasberg will continue to develop projects for the studio until 2016. This likely continues the flagship “NCIS” show so long as it lasts until that point, and also the “NCIS: New Orleans” spin-off that he and Mark Harmon are currently producing for the upcoming pilot season. This idea is going to surface during a two-part episode that airs during the February sweeps, and if the executives at the network like what they see, the show could be picked up for the fall. (The last “NCIS” spin-off, “NCIS: Red,” went nowhere and was not picked up.)
Glasberg has also went through a pretty tumultuous past few months, having to deal with some hefty fan outrage over Cote de Pablo leaving that was really not his fault. Thanks to negotiations between her and the studio that failed to properly work out, he had to scrap all of his plans for season 11 and come up with a way to send Ziva off at the 11th hour that at least provided some sort of fan service to those who have enjoyed the character for so long. So far, the post-Ziva era has not been kind to him; Tuesday’s episode was not terrible by any means, but the ratings were down sharply from her exit. (We’ve got some full analysis for you here, including if she was the only factor on it.)
While you may wonder the merits of another “NCIS” show when a network should be gearing towards a younger audience, the truth here is that CBS is having itself a pretty miserable season. There has already been one cancellation in “We Are Men,” “Hostages” is disappointing mightily, and even “The Millers” and “The Crazy Ones” are not the breakout hits that the network was probably hoping they would be early on. Even moving “Person of Interest” to Tuesdays is only bringing in slightly better ratings there than in years past.
You can take a look at the future of “NCIS” proper at this link, where we’ve got a promo for you for the episode airing on Tuesday night.
Photo: CBS
Lorraine64
October 14, 2013 @ 11:00 pm
Personally I can’t say I’ve been particularly impressed by NCIS during Gary Glasberg’s reign, and I firmly believe that it was only the Ziva story line and potential Tiva that drew in the huge numbers of viewers mid season 10. A season which I felt suffered from poor writing and cheap jokes at the expense of character, particularly with regard to DiNozzo; sloppy mistakes – both in terms of wardrobe continuity as a result of mistakes and re-editing (i.e. “Chasing Ghosts”), and dialogue (e.g., Tony says Le Grenouille blew up his car, when we have been lead to believe it was Trent Kort) not to mention so many missed opportunities: next to no pay off following the tremendous season 9 finale explosion, and similarly no pay off following the “Tiva car crash”. What a waste of an amazing stunt by an incredible sfx team! It should be remembered that if everyone always “gets lucky” then there is no jeopardy. (How different SWAK would have been if they had all gotten lucky and Tony had not contracted the plague. Doesn’t matter how many times I see that ep, my heart is always in my mouth when Brad announces that Tony is infected.) And courtesy of season 10 there is now one episode that I can in all honesty say I hate. I found “Hit & Run” incredibly disappointing. Abby is a quirky, but brilliant and strong woman, who of late has become silly, weak and at times downright irritating – very sad.
So far this season, the decision to leave much of Ziva’s story in “Past Present and Future” to the fans’ “imagination” left the majority of those fans desperately unhappy. Whilst I firmly believe that at times less is indeed more, there are limits. I very much hope that Gary Glasberg and the writers do indeed have enough imagination to think outside the box and Mr Glasberg is prepared to take a few risks. Whether or not you are a Ziva fan, Cote de Pablo’s importance to the series should not be underestimated and her departure cannot be compared to that of Kate’s. Sasha Alexander had been with the show for only two years and there was a much greater team dynamic in those days, with a lot more emphasis on Gibbs and Tony – something that has much diminished during the last few seasons. I believe that purely introducing a new character and then returning to “normal” will be insufficient to maintain viewers. However, on a positive note I was delighted that this week (episode 3) finally saw a brief glimpse of the old DiNozzo – first time in too long that we’ve seen Tony as a competent agent, skilfully firing his gun (something we’ve not seen since season 9) and I loved it! Definitely a step in the right direction. I love NCIS and have seen every episode multiple times and I just hope that Gary Glasberg and the writers have the vision to really pull something out of the bag. Maybe Mr Glasberg should re-watch the early seasons of NCIS and take a look at a spot of the best of NCIS fan fiction for inspiration!