‘NCIS’ season 11, episode 3 preview: Mark Harmon, Twitter take center stage

For the next promo that we have promoting tomorrow night’s “NCIS” season 11 episode, there is one thing that you can take note of right away: The show really wants to play up the fun angle in the wake of Ziva’s leaving. We imagine that the strategy is something kind of like this: “If everyone is laughing and having a good time, maybe nobody will notice.” Sadly for them, that’s not going to happen, but you can’t really blame the network and producers for trying.

The best line of this entire extended clip comes at the tail end, when Mark Harmon’s Gibbs asks the important question for a mission that is going to have the use of social media front and center: “What’s a hashtag?” The only thing that we wonder is whether or not this is something that Harmon himself has actually said at some point, and it was then imported onto the actual show as a bit of an inside joke for the crew.

Some photos have already surfaced of Michael Weatherly’s Tony with a smile on his face (even post-Ziva), and given what we have also seen from Abby and other characters, nobody is going to seem to be that down in the dumps about her departure. The craziest part, though, of the promo below is the proclamation that the show is somehow on a roll; even for last week’s episode, the ratings were down pretty harshly from where they were at this point last year. The one silver lining that “NCIS” has coming up is that “The Voice” is not going to be airing at 8:00 p.m. all fall, and we can’t hardly imagine “The Biggest Loser” taking away the same percentage of the audience.

Even though you may have hated the exit of Ziva, are you still going to give Tuesday night’s episode a chance to see if they can still deliver some entertainment? Be sure to share your thoughts below!

Photo: CBS