‘NCIS’ season 14: Where things now stand for next two seasons

Yesterday, the news first came out that Rocky Carroll, David McCallum, Pauley Perrette, and Sean Murray had inked new deals for the upcoming 14th and 15th seasons of “NCIS,” and this in itself certainly works as a cause for celebration.

So what does this mean beyond just this story at a micro-level? Well, it does ensure that next summer will be relatively drama-free. Mark Harmon had already signed a new deal that went along with the renewal of the show, and while we don’t know the contract statuses of Brian Dietzen and Emily Wickersham, we would like to imagine they’d be interested in staying on for a little while longer. Given that Wilmer Valderrama has just signed on, we’re sure that the show would like to keep him, unless this is one of those one-year arcs that we see sometimes on some other shows.

Does the timing of many of these actor contracts ending after the 15th season mean that the show is coming to a close then? Not necessarily. It’s something that will probably be explored next summer as CBS looks at the ratings, and the cast looks at what they want to do next. While there are shows like “CSI” and “Law & Order: SVU” that have went on for this long, they did so with some enormous cast changes throughout. “SVU” really only has Ice-T and Mariska Hargitay from the earlier seasons. For “NCIS,” meanwhile, you’ve still got three original cast members in Harmon, McCallum, and Perrette, plus people in Dietzen and Murray who were around in the very beginning and became regulars later. That’s a lot of time for so many people.

Ultimately, we’ll keep an eye out on what the future holds beyond season 15, but for now remember that this is one of the most-watched shows in the entire world and the popularity is definitely still there.

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