Brian Dietzen’s Dedicated Career After His Tragic Death md20

The upcoming spinoff NCIS: Tony & Ziva has generated interest in the titular characters’ possible NCIS return, but it was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 that the two already have a secret connection to the MCRT that the flagship simply hasn’t exploited to its benefit. However, there’s still some hope that this unexplored link could come up in NCIS season 23.

ScreenRant attended 2025’s NCIS: Tony & Ziva Comic-Con panel, moderated by Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo’s former NCIS co-star Brian Dietzen. The panel included a few revelations about Tony (Weatherly) and Ziva’s (de Pablo) characters in the spinoff, but a more subtle exchange also revealed where the NCIS: Tony & Ziva stars currently stand with their past colleagues from the MCRT.

NCIS Barely Mentioned Any Updates About Tony & Ziva After They Left MCRT

The Flagship Series Loses Track Of Them Altogether

Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David were essentially the NCIS flagship’s power couple, to the point that Michael Weatherly’s popularity earned him his own series, Bull. Despite the couple’s importance, however, both characters go largely unmentioned by their former NCIS colleagues after leaving the show. And it’s not as though fans wouldn’t have appreciated the occasional update, even in passing.

It’s not technically an issue to let go of characters after they depart a series, but it feels particularly notable because of how their exits play out. Ziva is believed to have exploded while Tony resigns to take care of their daughter Tali, whom he didn’t know existed until after Ziva’s alleged death. That’s not bad for water cooler conversation.

Not only is it odd that the MCRT doesn’t mention Tony and Ziva much after their departures, but they then make the fairly noteworthy discovery that Ziva was actually alive the whole time. The last time they see her is before she leaves to reunite with Tony and Tali in Europe, a situation that practically begs for future status updates.

We’re certainly going to get those moments now, as the NCIS: Tony & Ziva Comic-Con trailer confirms previous reports that the spinoff would cover their missing years. But the fact that their fates were never even mentioned in NCIS makes it seem like they lost touch with the MCRT after they left. San Diego Comic-Con has now revealed otherwise.

Michael Weatherly & Brian Dietzen Reveal That Tony & Ziva Are Still Connected With MCRT

At Least One Former Colleague Has Kept In Touch

Tony and Ziva’s return to the screen has naturally sparked interest in the possibility of a future NCIS: Tony & Ziva crossover, and the NCIS SDCC 2025 panel reveals a connection that could help set up their return to the MCRT. Specifically, Brian Dietzen and Michael Weatherly suggested Jimmy Palmer and Tony DiNozzo have kept in touch with this exchange:

Dietzen: Has Tali been getting all the presents that Jimmy’s been sending her from America?

Weatherly: You did give Tali the gifts that you sent. Nice. She liked them.

It was a brief comment, but treating it as canon in the series would actually establish a lot of unmentioned backstory in the years since Tony left. Jimmy knowing where to send Tali’s gifts means that he’s keeping up with Tony and Ziva enough to know where they live, so the MCRT is likely already caught up on the spinoff’s events.

That relationship would presumably go both ways. If it’s assumed that the MCRT is up-to-date on David and DiNozzo’s lives, then Tony and Ziva should also know a bit about what’s been transpiring in recent seasons of NCIS. And that’s just from Jimmy’s correspondence. There’s no telling if they’ve stayed in contact with Vance (Rocky Carroll) and McGee (Sean Murray) as well.

Although it’s confirmed that Jimmy Palmer won’t appear in NCIS: Tony & Ziva, this reveal could still set up Tony and Ziva’s flagship appearance. And, if it’s canon that Palmer and DiNozzo have been corresponding, “TiVa” and the MCRT could reunite without recapping the spinoff’s flashback events, making their cameos spoiler-friendly for those not caught up on the new Paramount+ series.

How NCIS Can Benefit From Leaning More Into Nostalgia

Tony & Ziva Could Easily Boost The Flagship’s Ratings

It seems safe to say that NCIS is still enough of a powerhouse that the franchise isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but that doesn’t change the fact that the flagship series’ ratings have been showing a somewhat steady decline in viewership recently. There appear to be plans in motion to address this, but leaning into nostalgia should be a no-brainer.

Given that season 22 contained the lowest-rated episode of NCIS ever, the producers should be taking advantage of any hook they can that might bring more eyes back to the show. For instance, NCIS season 23 will follow in NCIS: Origins‘ footsteps by featuring more character-focused episodes, allowing each character’s storylines more chances to shine apart from the team.

But declining ratings mean that old viewers are leaving, so the logical next step, if CBS wants them back, is for the network to provide something that they already know fans want. Cameos from past actors who left or are from spinoffs that have been canceled are extremely marketable, and bringing back Tony and Ziva should be easier now than ever.

CBS and Paramount have been losing subscribers after this year’s cancellations. Firing Stephen Colbert made things worse, especially when they still have to pay him for almost another full year. NCIS is one of the network’s potential saving graces right now. Failing to bring back Tony and Ziva would be leaving money on the table when it’s needed most.