Entertainment
CBS’s Ambitious ‘NCIS’ Formula Change Gives Its Newest Series a Major Advantage
The NCIS franchise has never exactly struggled to find a new corner of the map. After more than two decades, CBS has sent its investigators from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, Hawaii, and beyond, building one of television’s most durable procedural universes in the process. But NCIS: New York has something its predecessors can’t quite manufacture: a city that can do some of the storytelling for it.
That starts with CBS making the unusually important decision to actually film the new series in New York City. NCIS: New York isn’t simply going to slap a few recognizable skyline shots between scenes filmed somewhere else and call it a day. Production has been underway across the city, with LL Cool J, Scott Caan, Jacqueline Byers, and Shane Harper photographed filming in places including Brooklyn and Central Park.
‘NCIS: New York’ Is Actually Filming Where It’s Set
That distinction matters more than it might sound. Television has a long history of asking viewers to accept one city as another, and the NCIS franchise is hardly an exception. NCIS: Los Angeles, for instance, was built largely around production in Los Angeles and the Paramount lot, while NCIS: Origins has likewise used Paramount’s Los Angeles facilities and Southern California locations.
NCIS: New York is taking a different route. The series is being produced in the city it calls home, and recent set photos have already shown the cast working in real New York locations, which gives the spinoff an immediate visual identity before viewers even know whether its new characters will become as beloved as the franchise’s veterans.
New York is not exactly a city that needs help making an impression, and a case unfolding in Brooklyn can feel different from one unfolding in Manhattan, and a chase through Central Park doesn’t need a line of dialogue explaining why the location matters. The danger with any spinoff is that familiarity can become sameness, but NCIS: New York has the opportunity to make it feel different because its surroundings are different.
CBS Is Spending More to Give Its New ‘NCIS’ Spinoff a Real Identity
Filming in New York also represents a meaningful commitment from CBS. Location production is not the easy, interchangeable option for a network procedural, particularly when a series could theoretically recreate plenty of streets, offices, and city exteriors somewhere cheaper or more production-friendly.
CBS is nevertheless putting NCIS: New York on the ground. The series began filming in the city in July, with production moving through locations such as Brooklyn and Central Park. New York’s production infrastructure and tax incentives can help offset some of the expense — the state offers a production tax credit for eligible television projects — but choosing to build a series around the city still requires a commitment to location work that a studio-based production doesn’t.
CBS has placed this show directly in the middle of an all-NCIS Tuesday, with the original NCIS at 8 p.m., New York at 9 p.m., and NCIS: Origins at 10 p.m. The strategy makes obvious business sense because viewers who already know the franchise are being given an entirely new hour without leaving the universe. But that also puts pressure on the spinoff to justify its existence. If NCIS: New York were simply another version of the same show with a different sign on the office door, viewers could reasonably wonder why they needed it. The New York production gives CBS a much better answer.
LL Cool J’s Return Makes the New Setting Even More Important
The other major piece is Sam Hanna. LL Cool J isn’t playing a brand-new character who needs to establish himself from scratch. He spent 14 seasons as one of the defining faces of NCIS: Los Angeles, and Hanna has also appeared elsewhere in the franchise. Now he’s returning to his hometown to lead a new team alongside Caan’s Nick Schaeffer.
Hanna already has history with viewers, but putting him back in New York gives that history somewhere meaningful to go. This isn’t just another assignment in another city. He’s returning home, and the series is following him there. Jennifer Beals, Byers, Harper, and Devin Druid round out the new field team, giving the show plenty of fresh personalities around its returning lead.
The result could be exactly what the franchise needs from its newest branch. NCIS doesn’t need another city in name only as each new series needs a reason to exist, and New York provides one. The city gives the series a visual language that can’t be copied simply by changing the establishing shot. CBS’s willingness to film there gives that choice some weight, while Hanna’s return provides the franchise connection longtime viewers need. When NCIS: New York premieres on October 6, 2026, there may be a question of whether New York can make this one feel like its own thing.
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