How will NCIS: New Orleans season 4 handle Shalita Grant’s exit?

NCIS: New Orleans season 4 has a major challenge moving forward, and it revolves very much around how the show progresses onward without one of their own in Shalita Grant. At the end of Tuesday night’s new episode, the character was written off so that Percy could pursue a new opportunity. In turn, Grant herself wanted to exit to pursue other jobs; she has not publicly commented on her departure since it first happened.

Now, it’s pretty darn clear that there is no directly replacing Grant, who has been a part of the show since the first season in some capacity. That shouldn’t be the priority for the series — trying to cast some sort of NCIS agent who can double as a Christopher LaSalle love interest. Instead, what we would hone on if we were the producers of this show would be figuring out a way to just bring in someone who is a new shot of energy to the team and makes them differently than they usually do.

Basically, look at things this way: You need to find someone capable of transforming a negative into a positive. You can’t create the dynamic that was there, but you can make something that is new and exciting in its own way.

Are the ratings for the CBS series going to be hurt in turn without Grant? Let’s put it this way — we don’t think the drop-off will be severe, but it’s hard to find a situation where the show doesn’t lose a viewer or two at least over someone leaving. Change is really tough for procedurals given that so much of the reason to watch them is about comfort. You become accustomed to some of the cast members and feel like they are a part of your extended TV family.

It’s ultimately going to be tough to judge the ratings performance of NCIS: New Orleans the rest of the way with Grant’s exit in mind, mostly because of the fact that so much of it could be based around other factors, such as a smaller pool of viewers being around in the first place because of it being spring. The more accurate test for the future surrounding Grant will likely come during season 5, when an official replacement-of-sorts is named and the series gets back most of their fall viewers. Hopefully, we’ll see the series move forward — we’re going to miss our favorite City Mouse but the show must go on. There is no season 5 renewal official as of yet; nonetheless, we’re confident about the opportunity to see that happen at some point.

Related – Be sure to check out more news on the next new episode

If you missed our video from last night discussing this exit be sure to check that out below; meanwhile, subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube for even further updates on the subject.

What do you want to see moving forward on NCIS: New Orleans season 4 and are you going to miss seeing Shalita Grant? Share right now in the attached comments!

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