NCIS season 17: When could first promo with Cote de Pablo air?
There’s a good chance that you’re craving more NCIS already. How could you not given the Cote de Pablo surprise at the end? It feels almost like the writers gave us a cookie with her big arrival, only to then take away the rest of the batch. (Hopefully, they’re baking a fresh batch by the time the show premieres…)
We’re assuming that for the better part of the summer, CBS will be doing what it can to remind people of their big reveal They’ve already got a Ziva-centric TV Guide cover out there, and there could be more Easter eggs, teases, and all sorts of other goodies coming. It’s one of their most exciting finale reveals in history, so who could blame them wanting to take a few victory laps with it?
The first promo is an excellent way to do just this — think of it as a chance to set the stage, show a little more Ziva, and hope that the ratings spike to be the best premiere in years. (Consider this an article tease — we’ll be talking about possible premiere ratings soon.) Promos typically aren’t longer than 20-30 seconds, but you can do a lot in that span of time to get people amped-up about whatever you’re planning.
Now, we just gotta figure out when the first promo could actually air.
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The best guess: Early September
This tends to be when CBS unveils them. It’s a few weeks before the premiere episode airs, so there’s enough time for promotion and not too much time that viewers forget about it. It’s in the pocket and you get some NFL interstitial coverage to boost your audience as much as possible. Early September also = plenty of time for CBS and the NCIS editing team to put together the most awesome promo imaginable.
Could CBS release the promo a little early?
Consider this special circumstance. Sure, past seasons of NCIS had some good things to promote, but not Cote de Pablo returning for the first time in years. CBS knows this; everyone from the executives down to show staffers know it. They’re going to want to make a bigger push than they have in years. That’s why we would welcome a promo in August with open arms — get the word out a little bit early so that maybe some old-school fans catch up. We know there are viewers who stopped watching when Ziva left, and others fell off a year or two later. There is still a loyal NCIS audience out there, but there are probably two or three million live viewers CBS could stand to pick up. That’s more than just pocket change; it’s a potential avalanche of coin and viewer goodwill. They should embrace every means possible to pick these viewers up.
Here’s a funny way to look at it — this NCIS promo could be so significant that CBS may announce when it airs in advance. Think in terms of a promo for a promo.
On a completely different note…
If you missed the stories about NCIS and Pauley Perrette yesterday, we’ve got a primer for you here. Visit that, and also let us know what you think NCIS should do with their first promo below. (Photo: CBS.)