NCIS season 18: What does the reduced episode count mean?

October 28, 2020

If you did not hear the news yesterday, NCIS season 18 is going to be one of many shows at CBS to be receiving fewer overall episodes. Instead of the typical 24 here, the pandemic is causing the Mark Harmon series to drop down to 16 — the same goes with many other shows on the schedule.

Is this a bummer? Sure, but it’s understandable. Filming kicked off months later than usual; not only that, but it may be more of a challenge to film these shows with added restrictions and steps that need to be taken in order to ensure safety.

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As for how the smaller episode count could change this season, in some ways it’s going to feel reasonably similar. NCIS is a show closing in on 20 seasons of being on the air; at this point, it’s clear that it has a good idea of what works best for them. Yet, we do think that there may be fewer totally-standalone episodes and instead, more that build a larger story. The shorter order could give the writers more opportunities to revisit key story elements — there will certainly still be individual cases and the like, but the same number of big event episodes may be here that you see in a typical season. When you eliminate more standalones, that means a greater percentage of long-term story arcs.

Yet, this is just a prediction. We’ll learn more of what the future holds for NCIS when we get around to next month.

What do you think the NCIS season 18 episode count could mean for the show’s future?

Be sure to let us know below! Also, keep coming back for some other insight on the series. (Photo: CBS.)

This article was written by Jessica Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.

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