Get ready for a lot of NCIS this fall. Not only are the flagship series, NCIS: Origins and NCIS: Sydney’s new seasons part of CBS’ 2025-2026 TV season, the spinoff NCIS: Tony & Ziva will also premiere exclusively to Paramount+ subscription holders around the same time on the 2025 TV schedule. I knew a lot of people were excited for this latest entry in the procedural franchise given how many people were fans of Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David when they were on the original NCIS. However, that may be underselling it considering that Tony & Ziva has already broken a Paramount+ record months ahead of its release.
The first NCIS: Tony & Ziva trailer came out earlier this month, and word’s come in from Nielsen (via Deadline) that it ended up collecting 93 million views across broadcast, social media and digital platforms during its first five days of availability. To break down the numbers more, it was viewed 26.5 million times on YouTube and social media sites like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X, plus 13 million on digital, which includes Paramount+. That 39.5 million total makes it the most viewed Season 1 trailer for a Paramount+ series in those categories.
That’s a pretty big deal on its own, but it gets better. There’s also the 53.5 million views that the NCIS: Tony & Ziva trailer raked in on broadcast, starting with when it was attached to the NCIS Season 22 finale. So all told, this has become the most-watched trailer for an NCIS show since this franchise began in 2003. Granted, that was a time when the aforementioned social media sites and YouTube existed, but still, this is quite the accomplishment.
Like I said earlier, this is a testament to how much people are looking forward to seeing Tony and Ziva being paired back together onscreen for the first time in over a decade. Although both Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo would later briefly reprise their roles on NCIS years after their respective exits as series regulars, the time has come to see them back in the spotlight. Ironically though, while the show is called NCIS: Tony & Ziva, the title protagonists are not back to working at the law enforcement agency.
Instead, this spinoff will follow Tony and Ziva going on the run in Europe after Tony’s security company is attacked to figure out who’s after them. We’ll also get to see them parenting their daughter Tali, who was introduced in the NCIS Season 13 finale and is played in this series by Isla Gie. The rest of the cast includes Amita Suman, Lara Rossi, Maximilian Osinski, Julian Ovenden, James D’Arcy, Nassima Benchicou, Terence Maynard and Emmanuel Bonami.
Behind the scenes, Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo are executive producing alongside showrunner John McNamara, Laurie Lieser, Christina Strain, Shelley Meals, and Mairzee Almas. McNamara has said that there’s only one season of 10 episodes planned for NCIS: Tony & Ziva, but if the show experiences the same kind of success that the trailer did, I have to think that Paramount+ will want to at least conversations for Season 2 going.
