‘NCIS’ season 12 spoilers: More confirmation on likely guest stars
The “NCIS” filming cycle will not kick back in for a few more months, but it’s never too early to start sharing details, right?
What we have for you today is not necessarily earth-shattering news, mostly because you may have heard whispers about it before. However, isn’t it nice to have a little bit of validation from time to time? That is what we have courtesy of Gary Glasberg’s new comments per TVLine about a pair of long-awaited guest characters:
“I look forward to introducing [Gibbs’ second ex-wife], and I look forward to meeting Bishop’s husband … We’re already playing with some ideas that I think are going to be fun for people.”
Glasberg has said in the past that he wanted these appearances to happen, and this is probably all of the confirmation that you needed that this was actually going to be happening. We already know Gibbs pretty well, and so it’ll be interesting to see if there is anything further that can come from meeting another woman in the past.
The Bishop story is what we are a little more interested in right now. It’s no secret that the character was poorly-received by many, and not just fans who were upset over Ziva leaving. We do, however, feel like Bishop is worth saving if the right story is presented for her. The problem was mostly trying to establish a new character on the fly last season, and it took away the months of preparation that the writers would have otherwise had if they had started to cultivate the character months before season 11 production started. Hopefully, finding out more about her will give her more dimension and push her in a positive direction.
Are you excited to see these stories play out, and do you have any potential guest stars in mind for the show? Share your thoughts with a comment, and head over to the link here to get more TV updates via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Also (and as teased yesterday), we’re going to be doing a Q&A article next week to discuss some hot topics related to the show. You can find out more about how to submit a question here.
Photo: CBS
marysue
June 16, 2014 @ 1:42 pm
I too, like many found this season 11 very bumpy. GG as others have said should have had a “Plan B” in case Cote didn’t sign on. He was over confident that she would and then got the shock of his life when she didn’t and panicked. While I prefer Ziva over Bishop anyday I hope that Season 12 will give us better storylines and they will find a way to make Bishop have more banter with the guys and just write her character in better. Ziva, McGee and Tony had that and that is something I really miss. I still hold out hope that Cote will return at some point but she has already done one movie and an actress like her won’t be going too long without before another project comes up. So it will be a wait and see. Regardless of the negative press that EW has received, she was pretty brave to come on board to try to fill Cote’s very big shoes. I don’t envy any actress trying that on for size. Cote has set the bar pretty high and will always be a tough act to follow.
Cyndy
May 31, 2014 @ 5:49 pm
The fans would love to know even surprise us w the return of Ziva David as the chemistry of the characters is greatly missed & the action packed drama we all miss & love of NCIS , we know Gibbs was like her dad when she went missing w/o a call Tony & McGee went looking for her , there’s a lot of NCIS missing , coffee moments , Gibbs rules, elevator meetings, slaps to the head , no MTAC gatherings or hardly no Abby, jimmy & ducky you all tore the storyline up Ty & give us a amazing season
JD
May 31, 2014 @ 9:24 am
If they replace Emily Wickersham with a decent actress, the Bishop character might stand a chance. Emily W. is the worst casting choice ever. No depth and basically no acting ability whatsoever. They must have been smoking something when they hired that girl!
Lorraine64
May 30, 2014 @ 1:20 pm
Sadly I have no particular interest in either another of Gibbs’ wives or Bishop’s husband. I have honestly tried to like Bishop, but IMHO the writers tried too hard, forcing her character down our throats early on and now I’m having problems getting past that. I also believe they cast too young which has unbalanced the dynamic. Personally I would much rather see McGee’s mother and learn more about his father, diagnosed in S10 with stage four cancer and apparently now forgotten. I was surprised that the Admiral didn’t at least get a mention in the finale after the team learnt of Jackson’s death. But sadly the writers seem to have forgotten how to write depth of character and add those extra layers that made the earlier series so great. And on the subject of mothers – we’ve seen several flash backs to Gibb’s mother, isn’t it time we had one showing us Tony’s mother? Despite many mentions throughout the years, we still don’t even know how she died. My favourite episodes this season “Once A Crook” and “The Admiral’s Daughter” were written/co-written by the same writer Christopher Silber, who IMHO is the only one who seems to be able to write a well balanced episode full of smart, exciting dialogue, with a Tony vaguely recognisable from earlier seasons. Michael Weatherly had more dialogue in that penultimate episode than he had in the rest of the season put together! Sadly for the most part I feel the heart has gone out of the show. There’s no excitement, no jeopardy, no emotion. With the absence of any antagonists there’s no friction – they’ve either died, e.g., Ari; become nice e.g., Vance, DiNozzo Senior, and even Parsons, or just plain disappeared, e.g., Trent Kort and the rather interesting new female Sec Nav, Sarah Porter, who unfortunately faded away after the first few episodes. There’s no passion – Delilah was lovely but I don’t know if it was the dialogue or the acting, but there was no chemistry between her and McGee at all, with the result that when she was injured I didn’t really care. And there’s a lot more to paraplegia than just not being able to walk. GG said her injury would be treated realistically – can’t say I particularly noticed. By contrast I’ve watched SWAK a hundred times and every time Dr Pitt announces that Tony is infected with the plague my stomach drops. The result of the early writers making us care for the characters – something the current writers are now relying on. I for one watch now because I love the original characters – certainly not for the quality of the writing. And what’s wrong with Tony being the hero a little more often? When Michael Weatherly was finally given something to do in “The Admiral’s Daughter” he was awesome. Don Bellisario described Michael Weatherly as one of the most underrated actors in television, such a shame that future PTB’s and the writers don’t recognise that fact too. 90% of reviews ask for a return to the old flawed competent hero Tony and I am at a loss as to why the writers don’t give us that. Even MW himself has been quoted as saying that he didn’t enjoy portraying DiNozzo as “the idiot in the corner”. If I’m going to continue to invest an hour of my time every week for nine months of the year, I want to “feel” something, I want to be really emotionally involved, and not have those important moments left to my imagination. And a minor point I know but if, for example, Gibbs hasn’t called DiNozzo “Tony” for more than three seasons, when he finally does (I thought I was going to cry) then I wish the writers would recognise the fact, they can rest assured we probably have!
Anna690710
May 29, 2014 @ 5:33 pm
Heavens, no more Bishop please!
Awful character played by an actress who is not good enough for prime time television! Most of my colleagues have already stopped watching because of her, my husband and I wanted to watch the Ralph Waite tribute and hoped for season 12 to be a lot better than this mess called season 11 but with Barbie girl being the focus again, we’ll give up! She is not worth wasting our time!
armygreen
May 29, 2014 @ 5:23 pm
I love this show. I do like Bishop, but I also miss Ziva. Maybe you can get Christopher Eccleston to guess star on the show.
Sandi Brooks
May 29, 2014 @ 2:38 am
Lots more Tony as the skilled SFA. Less Gibbs. No Bishop wanted nor Bishop hubby. Bleh! Nothing they can do to redeem this character. Do not like her.
Liked , no loved and was intrigued by, Ziva David from moment one.
As others have stated, one and only one guest star will get us (husband, I, and our teen) to turn NCIS back on: Cote Dr Pablo. Her chemistry with MW was amazing and watching them together was special. The play with idioms and her team dynamic was fun. She was kicksss in the field and just wow to watch. Bishop is annoying and really hard to watch.
Naomi
May 29, 2014 @ 2:23 am
here’s my answer to the questions: no i’m not at all excited. and the one & only guest star i’d be interested in is cote de pablo.
Johanna
May 28, 2014 @ 6:32 pm
GG is trying again and again to sale the Bishop character… like my mum and her spinach soup. I guess GG will be as successful as my mum was :-)
sadtonyfan
May 28, 2014 @ 8:41 pm
Glasburg push push pushes more and more and more Gibbs stories. It seems inconceivable to the current producers that not every NCIS fan watches to see yet another secret from Gibbs past come to light. MW/Tony must be out of favor with tptb since his character is mostly used for the show’s light, mundane, or supporting role moments. Glasburg and co also seem to be in a desperate tizzy to fix and sell Bishop. While I don’t mind her, I’m not interested in seeing her being front and center constantly. I’ve all but given up on the idea of Tony getting a big story arc. I think they pay MW well and use him because his popularity is indispensable to their bottom line, but they obviously don’t give a crap about the character or his fans. It’s become the super Gibbs show.
sadtonyfan
May 28, 2014 @ 6:16 pm
I wonder if Tony will get a one and done or two again this season and then just be supporting cast for Gibbs, McGee, and Bishops big stories. I miss the days when Tony was important enough to tptb to get big stories. Whoopie – another Gibbs backstory.
Karbear
May 28, 2014 @ 6:14 pm
To care about Bishop’s husband I would have to care about Bishop and I don’t. They should never have signed EW before finding out how well Bishop would be recieved. It has nothing to do with a rush character. C’mon, there is NO way they did not have a contingency plan just in case Cote didn’t sign; they had to know how negotiations were going. EW does not have the acting chops for a dramatic show like NCIS and it was a bad move.
VBQ
May 28, 2014 @ 5:37 pm
Thanks for this, Matt. I agree that party of the problem is that Bishop was rushed. The thing is, they truly did not need to do that. Glasberg had initially said the would rotate agents for a few months then see which one fit. But they didn’t do that. They gave us two guest agents who were actually entertaining. Then they introduced Bishop without setting how the audience responded. Big mistake.
In my opinion this character will never fit. The team doesn’t need her skills and she is a lousy field agent. At this point I am so sick of her, I don’t want to learn more about her or her husband, and I don’t want to see any stories that focus on her.
As far as Gibbs’s ex wife goes, yawn.
Hurlman
May 28, 2014 @ 6:40 pm
And I don’t want to learn more about ANY of Bishop’s family either.
And please how long are we using the excuse – her character was rushed. I loved Ziva from 5 minutes into her scene. She added so much. Bishop is on par with ej as to her character. Oh yes, Glasberg ‘created’ both of those fiacos ! Great job there !
Bishop is dull and boring and tends to act by making faces. Is no other person on set noticing this or trying to stop her.
That girl will bring down the show.
TullaT
May 28, 2014 @ 8:01 pm
I also loved Ziva from her first scene. It’s BS when people claim everyone hated Ziva at first. Totally untrue. She fit right into the team and made connections with everyone.
The only thing I want to learn about Bishop is, when does she leave?
Lisa Liscoumb
June 3, 2014 @ 9:11 pm
It is also BS to claim that everyone loved her at first, which a lot of the pro-Ziva crowd does. I did not like her at first – in fact I disliked her intensely. She was – to my eyes – arrogant, duplicitous and untrustworthy and, no, she did not fit in to the team, she was foisted on them and had no interest in making connections unless they benefited her – witness her opening scenes with Tim and Tony when she took over Kate’s desk.
I grew to like her in the middle seasons, but starting around season 7, with the whole Rivkin arc, she started go downhill for me, and thing just got worse after Aliyah. I tolerated her during the latter seasons, and did enjoy her in a few episodes where she wasn’t the focus and they weren’t pushing the whole Tiva thing. However, the latter half of season 10 with the whole revenge plot against Bodnar made her almost totally irredeemable in my eyes.