How To Be As Successful As NCIS: 101

NCIS, circa 2003-present

In the veritable quagmire that is television these days, it's hard for most shows to really get off the ground. If (hoorah!) you successfully got season 1, it's now all down to do the audience like your show enough to justify your renewal for another season? And if they don't, you get cancelled; if they do, hoorah, you have a season 2. You have some momentum - now you just have to keep it going from there.

   But often most shows still don't manage it, and even when they do it's a rare show that makes it past the golden 7-season mark - even rarer those that do make it to 10+. And given things such as Sky+, the number of online sites (reputable and otherwise) that post links to shows the hour after it concludes airing on TV, and the current balance shift from broadcast TV to online releases, overnights for broadcast shows are nothing close to what they used to be.

   That's what makes NCIS a truly exceptional exception to the rule.

   Having recently concluded its thirteenth season, and following renewals through to season fifteen, NCIS is still the biggest hitter for broadcast TV. Game of Thrones, Orange Is The New Black and The Walking Dead (and the late Breaking Bad) might be the real circle jerk shows of the modern era, but NCIS is still the king. And with the on-season about to begin and with plenty of new TV shows hoping to get a sniff at a run as long as NCIS's, perhaps it's time to see what they would need to do to achieve that.

   So how can you be as successful as NCIS?

FORMAT

The simplest part of NCIS's success is its format: it's nothing more than another glorified cop procedural. Procedurals are preferable for broadcast TV looking to attract both a hardcore fanbase and a considerable casual viewership, since for the most part they offer everyone the fair chance to dip in and out of any point in a season and not really feel like they've missed anything. It's difficult for broadcast TV to sell a serialised show that people have to focus on week-in-week-out, when that approach lowers the ratings because casual viewership is harder to obtain. No one's flicking The 100 on midway through season 2 and understanding what's going on if they haven't seen it before, but you can stick a season 6 episode of NCIS on and not really need to know much about the character growth before then to enjoy it. The format works, and it's why so many broadcast networks love it. Because we, as TV fans, eat it up.

NETWORK

A show's survival depends on not only the network it chooses, but ensuring it receives the full support of that network. NCIS was a great fit for CBS, which loves its cop procedurals like a mother loves her newborn. It's natural, then, that it nurtured the show's growth into what it is now, especially when they had to make some controversial decisions including whether to acquiesce to star Mark Harmon's demands they axe producer and co-creator Donald P. Bellisario  (which they did).

CHARACTERS

Leroy Jethro Gibbs

But for a show to be successful it has to have a slew of interesting characters, and NCIS has them in spades. There's Leroy Jethro Gibbs, the boss: he's secretive, single-minded, determined and loyal, but, in contrast to a number of lead stars these days, he's humourless, impatient and uses his own reputation and fear as motivational tools - all elements of his Marine background.

   There's Senior "Very" Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, notable A) for his quirky surname, and B) for being the handsome womaniser: he's serious when he needs to be, but even then he provides 90% of the comic relief.

   Then there's Donald "Ducky" Mallard, the well-spoken British Medical Examiner. He's old, he's eccentric (he talks to the dead), he's a friend and mentor to everyone.

   Then there's Abby Sciuto, the forensic scientist. She's a Goth, so sets herself apart immediately by style, she's every bit as eccentric as Ducky (she names her forensic equipment), she's emotional towards all the characters and she's recognisable for the Caf-Pow drink that she demands in practically every episode.

   And then there's Timothy McGee. He's DiNozzo's understudy (kind of). He's tech-savvy, more reserved than DiNozzo, chronically unlucky in love, slightly shy and eager to please - but tough enough when his field role demands it.

LEFT: Kate Todd
RIGHT: Ziva David

   Finally, we have Ducky's assistant, Jimmy Palmer. He's been present in a recurring role since the very first season, only upgraded to main cast from season 10 onwards. He's stuttery and a little socially awkward (even his glasses make him look unsuited to social situations), but he's solid people.

   The third field agent is a female, but that role has changed more often than any other: in seasons 1-2 it was Caitlin Todd, from 3-11 it was Ziva David, and from seasons 11-present it has been Eleanor Bishop. Kate was a very reserved, religious lady who pitted her wits against DiNozzo's blatant womanising; Ziva is a much tougher character comfortable with her sexuality and easily a match for the rest of the team with her advanced combat skills. I haven't seen far enough ahead to meet Bishop yet to speak to her, unfortunately.

But in these short descriptions you see a complete contrast in personality and skillset that defines each character and makes them as individually interesting as their dynamic is as a whole. So once NCIS knew its characters, CBS needed to cast them properly.

Timothy McGee

CASTING

And boy did CBS cast them well.

   I don't think I need to explain here, since I've spread pictures of all the aforementioned characters around this roundup and you'll see how each actor or actress easily meets the personality requirements for their character.

CHARACTER CONTINUITY

This section comes in two parts: personality continuity and character tenure.

Abby Sciuto

   Firstly, the latter. American shows are built around a strong core cast and survive less time than British shows when that cast is split. You have to remember, a successful show that runs for five seasons has asked its cast to devote five years of their careers to that show. Often actors or actresses prefer to diversify at some stage, and that creates voids that shows have to fill. Case in point, the original ER cast signed initial five-year contracts - George Clooney left ER midway through season five in an explosive arc, but Noah Wyle stayed until the end of season 11. Eleven years is a huge amount of time to spend in one TV role considering most shows will never get that far.

   But NCIS has kept Gibbs, DiNozzo, McGee, Abby, Ducky and Jimmy for thirteen seasons. And, DiNozzo aside (following Weatherly's departure in season 13's finale), it will probably keep them for two more seasons at least. Keeping a core cast for so long is an incredible feat, and is certainly a huge factor in the show's lengthy success. DiNozzo's departure will be keenly felt, but those who say NCIS will flounder because of it forget that every other current character (who started the show in a main or recurring cast capacity in season 1), who the fans love and cherish - and have loved and cherished for thirteen years - still remains. That loyalty from the actors has been returned with loyalty from the fans, and in any future shows that last as long as NCIS, you'll be hard-pushed to find as stable a cast as this.

Jimmy Palmer

   (On the subject of loyalty to a show, props to a number of the Law and Order: SVU cast, two of whom stayed from seasons 1-15, while Ice-T has starred from seasons 2-present [season 18 is filming now] and Mariska Hargitay from seasons 1-present.)

The second point is personality continuity, which NCIS manages to do a lot better than most shows I've seen (at least up to season 6 where I'm currently at). Small things such as Abby's reliance on Caf-Pow (and numerous failed attempts to quit caffeine), or sporadic mentions of her bowling with nuns in her free time, or McGee's sideshow as a crime novelist, his dinosaur use of a typewriter and his love for video games, or Ziva's simple cross-season misuse of American idioms (i.e. smurf war when she means turf war), or Gibbs' passion for building boats in his garage - not to mention how he headslaps DiNozzo regularly ... All quirks or passions of our characters that the fans love, which are either mentioned or depicted in scenes throughout the show that keep our characters grounded and real and separate in their likes and dislikes. That's a huge secret of success that isn't really secret, but which in plenty of long-running shows is never kept up.

TIMESLOT

8pm Tuesday. For thirteen years. Doesn't get any easier to score hordes of viewers (season 13 averaged 16.6m, or 20.2m if you listen to Wikipedia) than a nice early timeslot in the midweek, and NCIS will hold that timeslot until the very end.

RATINGS

Ratings for NCIS's first season averaged out to just under 12m. Back in 2003, that put the show 26th in the viewer rankings, but today it would be considered an exceptional return for a new show. NCIS's ratings, however, only increased over time, and from seasons 6 to the latest season 13, it's been as high as 20m and as low as 16.6m, never dropping out of the top 5 rated shows since season 6. Of course, we don't see ratings that high beyond NCIS or its spin-off shows anymore because of the shift towards online releases - the one other exception being Empire, whose USP in cameo-ing the biggest names in music help it draw in ratings that average out to roughly NCIS's starting point of 12m.

   But a key factor in this huge viewership is:

TENURE

Dr Donald "Ducky" Mallard

NCIS is the second-longest-running scripted primetime US broadcast television show currently airing, concluding its thirteenth season with 306 episodes. It is only behind Law and Order: SVU, which has so far completed seventeen seasons and 389 episodes. Part of the gloss on NCIS's name comes from the fact that it has been so long on our TV screens that it's reached a level in TV which few ever will. Shows have to be doing phenomenally to get past the seventh season stage (where contracts are renewed and shows become infinitely more expensive), and it's a testament to the fan loyalty, the actor loyalty and the clever and consistent writing that NCIS will, before its demise, at least reach the fifteen-season mark by the end of 2018.

FRESHNESS

I'm only up to the end of season 6, so I could be commenting a little too early, but so far everything still feels very fresh. Not only do characters such as Gibbs, DiNozzo and Abby (specifically these three more than the others) feel very niche in terms of how they have been written compared with most TV characters these days, but the writing always manages to lead you into a typical TV cliché (let's say a prison riot) and subvert it (see 6x12's "Caged" for a very good example of this). The side characters are more complex than in other shows (look at FBI Agent Fornell, Gibbs' mentor Mike Franks or CIA Agent Trent Kort), and character-centric episodes (such as two episodes where DiNozzo has been framed for murder) are always varied and intelligently written.

   Like I say, it could be I'm speaking too soon - I'm not even halfway caught up yet - but at least for now the characters feel so fresh that they really leave an impact on the viewer.

Final thoughts

So that is all a show really needs to be as successful as NCIS has been. My preview of the fall schedule shows that I'll be reviewing will be released Sunday, and then my posts will be switching to the TVR Roundup Facebook page, so please like so that you're able to follow my on-season roundup from the beginning.

Beyond that, thank you everyone and see you on Sunday!

Sam