When you are offered a contract that pays you about 17 million per year, it’s a lot easier to sign.

Yes – I loved that! And the whole bit with Gibbs saying to Vance “just watch”. And the Tony/Saleem scenes in Truth or Consequences were just brilliant. I’m still peeved MW didn’t get an Emmy or People’s Choice nomination just for that.

I liked the way Tony handled Eli David’s interview/interrogation in Aliyah. That was classic.

Michael Weatherly said in reference to Cote leaving NCIS that it was the right move for her. CBS loses a lot of their actresses.

That is my understanding – that it’s the production company that hired her, not CBS itself, and CBS is just paying for the final product.

I’ve wondered if Cote’s contract for the Dovekeepers is with Roma Downey and Mark Burnett’s production company, leaving CBS out of the negotiations on her salary. Roma Downey sounded very pleased to have her on board. Still, even having Cote on CBS, helps CBS improve it’s image with disgruntled fans..

I don’t remember the details but Eli had his agents spying on Ziva and there were a whole series of photos showing Ziva entering and leavingTony’s apartment at least one night a week. Ziva never explained what was going on. This was in season 4 episode 1 , Shalom

I don’t think that Tim gets that much chastisement. He’s a pretty sensitive guy and I see Tim as getting a lot of support from Gibbs. Abby has never received a head slap, she’s way too sensitive Ziva has received a few. Tony has received a lot because he got out of line more. I can tell you that the guys in my family got into a lot more trouble than the girls.

I wasn’t directing the last paragraph specifically at you, Liz – I think you and I are both on the same page here, we’re just coming at it from different directions. :)

I wonder how much of the BBT vs. NCIS disparity is due to the fact that the NCIS cast negotiates directly with CBS, whereas the BBT group negotiates with Warner Brothers, which then sells the show to CBS.

I also wonder if Michael Weatherly’s new production company deal with CBS is a way to get around raising his salary (or at least raising it by a lot). Presumably that would come out of a totally different budget than salaries.