‘NCIS’ season 11 spoilers: Show had to rewrite for Cote de Pablo’s exit
Just to give you an even greater sense of how sure that we and everyone else was that Cote de Pablo was going to be back in some sizable capacity for season 11 of “NCIS,” almost everything that had been put down on paper earlier this summer was done with the thinking that we would have Ziva David around. Even though negotiations went on and on, there was confidence that we would see her back again as a series regular.
Then, the talks broke down, and the return of Ziva is now only going to be for two episodes. For executive producer Gary Glasberg, this placed him in what has to be a stressful situation. Not only is he losing someone who is practically a family member at this point, but he had to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new story. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, he does his best to explain trying to fix a messy situation:
”I literally had to lock myself away and everything I was planning on had to be blown out and I had to start all over again. Again, it’s not what we had hoped for. This family — this NCIS family that exists between [the characters] — is so special and so unique, and this was Cote’s decision and we have to respect that … but some really fantastic work is going to come out of what occurred. We have some really terrific stuff planned for the year.”
For Glasberg, he stressed that one of his major goals is to “honor” all of the characters that viewers have come to know and love over the years, whether it be Ziva or some of the folks who are sticking around like Tony, Gibbs, or Abby. The last thing he or anyone else associated with the show wants to do is make you as a viewer feel cheated that Cote is leaving, which is why there are so many promises for closure to the Tony / Ziva story.
We’ve got more on the “NCIS” season 11 premiere stories, and you can read some of that and more just by checking out the link here.
Photo: CBS
Emanuele Fabiola de Souza
August 3, 2013 @ 11:20 pm
estou ainda meio que confusa com a saida de cote nao entendo essa decisao que ela teve que tomar assim tao repentinamente sendo que ela mesma que dava a maior atencao ao casal tony e ziva. e eu torcia tanto para os dois ficarem juntos e enfrentar o gibbis com a tal regra dele de nao ter envolvimento entre parceiros de trabalho. deve ter cido muito estressante para o escritor eu nao queria esta na sua pele
Karen Janczy
August 3, 2013 @ 3:57 pm
Maybe the EP’s should do the contract negotiations and not the lawyers for CBS…
PSGenXer
August 3, 2013 @ 10:43 pm
I know right? Bet the EPs knew how important Cote and Ziva were and wouldn’t have messed up like the lawyers! At least if Cote had gotten a 1 year contract we could have gotten real closure to the story line not whatever they’re scrambling for at the last minute.