NCIS season 15: Mark Harmon opens up about Pauley Perrette’s departure

While Pauley Perrette’s departure from NCIS later on this season is pretty well-known, there hasn’t been too much discussion about it just yet on the show. That does make a certain degree of sense given that we’re still many months away from her actually exiting and there are some other priorities that the show has had to address of late. That includes the series introducing Maria Bello as Jack Sloane and the impending arrival of McGee and Delilah’s baby, who may be born on the show later this month.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, Mark Harmon did share some of his own thoughts around Pauley’s exit — something that is probably very significant to him given that she is one of the few remaining original cast members on the series at this point:

“Oh, we’ll miss her. I’m really aware, and we’re all aware that audiences grow to love characters, and it’s a big deal. And we honor that. Fifteen years is a long time. People do what they do, and they move on and they do other things and that’s part of life.

“It’s given us, as a show, an opportunity to rebirth, to rejuvenate, to try new things, to grow … We adjust.” 

There clearly are no plans for NCIS season 15 to be the final year of the show — we do think that the show is likely more than halfway through its run at this point, but there still may be a perception that they’ve got a little bit of life left in the tank. The ratings, (while they may not be what they once were) are still good enough in order for the show to secure another season.

How do we think Abby should be written out?

We would hope that it would be a fitting send-off and a chance to celebrate the character, one where she can go off and live out a happy existence somewhere else. We like to think that this will be more in the vein of Michael Weatherly’s exit and less in the vein of what happened with Cote de Pablo’s exit, which was rather sad given that this character was just sent off into hiding until she (supposedly) died.

Let us know what you want to see from the exit of Perrette later this season in the comments section below! 

Meanwhile, be sure to head over here to preview the next new episode of NCIS and like us on Facebook to get some more news regarding the show and many others we cover. (Photo: CBS.)