When “NCIS” premiered on CBS during the fall television season of 2003 (initially as “Navy: NCIS), there was good reason to expect it would be a solid performer for the network. Created by noted TV hitmaker Donald P. Bellisario (“Magnum P.I.,” “Quantum Leap”) and Don McGill, the military procedural entered the marketplace during a moment of extreme war hawkishness in the United States, which was taking out its 9/11 frustrations on Iraq for reasons we now know were extremely dubious. Many viewers were amped up about anything relating to Americans in uniform, and they already loved crime-of-the-week dramas, so surely this would hit one if not both sweet spots.
“NCIS” also had the good fortune to land prime Tuesday night real estate at 8 PM, where ABC and NBC were struggling to make some direly unfunny sitcoms work (like “8 Simple Rules” and “Whoopi”). The WB had solid niche performer “Gilmore Girls,” while Fox would have the ratings juggernaut “American Idol” returning in the winter, but until then “NCIS” was well positioned to win its time slot as a meat-and-potatoes hour-long headed up the eminently likable Mark Harmon.
This was probably more than enough to guarantee “NCIS” would hit the ground running, but there was one more element working in its favor: it was a spinoff of an already established Bellisario-created hit. 22 years later, you might not remember this show so well (especially if you jumped on the “NCIS” bandwagon later in its to-date 22-season run), but it was a solid performer at the time, which made it ideal for expansion.
NCIS Is The Spawn Of JAG
When Donald P. Bellisario launched “JAG” (short for Judge Advocate General) in 1995 on NBC, it was a ratings loser that the network couldn’t cancel fast enough. Bellisario, however, believed in the potential of the military legal drama starring the appealing likes of David James Elliott and Catherine Bell, so he brought the series to CBS, where it struggled until it got shifted to that good old Tuesday, 8 PM slot. Within a couple of seasons, it was a reliable ratings performer.
Though “JAG” did feature action at times, it was mostly a courtroom show, so it’s possible that Bellisario looked at the success of “Law & Order” and decided an action-oriented procedural with gun-toting special agents would make a fine complement. He gave four core “NCIS” characters — Jethro Gibbs (Harmon), Anthony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), Abby Sciuto (the now-retired Pauley Perrette), and Donald Mallard (David McCallum) — a test run during Season 8 of “JAG” in the episodes “Ice Queen” and “Meltdown, and the rest is television history. “NCIS” is now the longest running scripted program to ever air on CBS.
What happened to “JAG”? When it gave up its time slot to “NCIS” in 2003, it moved to Friday at 9 PM, where it just ran out of ratings juice. Considering how spinoff-happy CBS has been with “NCIS” (even though some of these spinoffs have since been canceled, like “NCIS: New Orleans”), perhaps a revival could gain traction 20 years after its cancellation. It’s worth it if only for the acronym fun of “NCIS: JAG.”
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