‘NCIS’ season 14 spoilers: Jennifer Esposito joins as regular; Sarah Clarke exits

There’s a bit of breaking news from the world of “NCIS” covering two different extremes: A new arrival, and then also a surprising departure.

Let’s just go ahead and get the bad news out of the way now. Per a report from TVLine, Sarah Clarke is exiting the CBS procedural after just two episodes in the role of Tess Monroe. This would not be a big deal if we were talking about someone who just joined for a brief guest role. The early indication was that she and Duane Henry (who played Clayton Reeves on the show last spring) were going to be series regulars moving into the new season.

Now, let’s turn to the good news. Former “Blue Bloods” and “Mistresses” star Jennifer Esposito is going to be coming aboard the show as a new regular, playing the role of Alexandra “Alex” Quinn. She is an NCIS agent who decided to leave for the Law Enforcement Training Center, and is now going back out into the field thanks to some persuasion on the part of Gibbs (Mark Harmon). In a statement per the aforementioned publication, executive producer Gary Glasberg passed along the following message:

“We couldn’t be happier to have Jennifer Esposito joining us for Season 14 … She embodies everything that we hoped for in the character of Quinn and we can’t wait to have her come be a part of our team.”

This is the second major addition to the show announced this offseason, as former “That 70’s Show” star Wilmer Valderrama has also been cast as a new regular. These big changes come after the departure of Michael Weatherly, who was with the show from the beginning.

Update: We are now hearing per Deadline that Henry has been promoted to series regular.

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