NCIS Season 18: Why Did Bishop Stop Working at NCIS?

By Mohit Kamboj On Jul 23, 2022

NCIS is coming back for its 18th season with Special Agent Gibbs and his team. Here’s everything you need to know about the new season.

We haven’t seen Special Agent Gibbs and his team in a while, but season 18 of NCIS has finally made it across the pond and will start airing this week in the UK.

Even though COVID-19 caused a lot of delays last year, the new series was finally able to go into production, and it started airing in the US in November.

With the 400th episode coming up and a special episode about traveling through time still to come, season 18 of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service looks like it will be full of surprises.

David McCallum, Sean Murray, Wilmer Valderrama, Emily Wickersham, and others will be back to look into more Navy-related cases, but one cast member will be leaving the show.

Here is all the information you need about season 18 of NCIS, including how to watch it in the UK and when it will be on TV.

Spoilers for Season 18 of NCIS

With the show’s 400th episode coming up, NCIS is planning something big for its 18th season: a flashback episode with a young Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and Ducky (David McCallum).

Read More:

The milestone episode, which was supposed to air in the spring but was moved because of COVID-19, will take fans back to the beginning of Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs’s career and to his longtime friendship with retired medical examiner Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard.

According to CinemaBlend, season 18 will pick up where the last season left off and won’t talk about the coronavirus pandemic.

Fans should also expect to say goodbye to Jack Sloane (Maria Bello), whose storyline will end in the first eight episodes of NCIS season 18. In July, Deadline reported that her storyline will be finished in the first eight episodes.

CBS said earlier this year that the 17th season of NCIS would only have 20 episodes because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which stopped production on the show.

In September, the cast and crew did their first table read for series 18 via Zoom. Star Wilmer Valderrama wrote on Instagram, “The first table read for #NCIS’s season 18 feels like the start of a road to progress, as we get closer to bringing our show back to your homes.”

The Cast of NCIS Season 18

Mark Harmon (The West Wing, St. Elsewhere) will be back as special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, along with David McCallum as Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard, Sean Murray as Timothy McGee, Wilmer Valderrama as Nicholas Torres, Emily Wickersham as Eleanor Bishop, Brian Dietzen as Dr. Jimmy Palmer, Rocky Carroll as Leon Vance, and Diona Reasonover as Kasie Hines.

Maria Bello, who has played Dr. Jacqueline “Jack” Sloane since season 15, will be in the next series. She will leave after eight episodes, while Cote de Pablo, who plays Ziva David, is unlikely to show up this season because she flew to Paris at the end of season 17 to be with Tony (Michael Weatherly) and their daughter.

How to Watch Season 18 of NCIS Online

The CBS live stream lets people watch new episodes as they air on Tuesday nights. Online viewers can watch episodes as soon as they air by going to the CBS website or app and logging in with their TV provider. You can also watch a CBS Livestream on services like Hulu Plus Live TV and YouTubeTV.

After each episode airs, you can watch it for free on the CBS website and app for a limited time, but there will be ads. Unlike the live stream, you don’t need a TV provider to watch it.

There are also episodes of NCIS and NCIS: New Orleans on CBS All Access, along with the 398 episodes that aired before Season 18. (though only the most recent episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles).

The free trial for CBS All Access lasts for seven days. This gives NCIS fans a week to watch the show online for free. After that, the service costs $5.99 a month, or $59.99 a year, with “limited” ads, or $9.99 a month, or $99.99 a year, without ads.

If you were to join one of these duos for a day, who would it be and why? #NCIS pic.twitter.com/Vr4tXP8E2S

— NCIS (@NCIS_CBS) July 20, 2022

Filming

The first episode of season eighteen that was shot was the twenty-first episode of season seventeen that was supposed to be made but couldn’t be because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The intended season seventeen episode twenty-second, which would have been the 400th episode of the series, was filmed and aired second, keeping it as the 400th episode. On September 9, 2020, filming for the 18th season began, and the show still took place in Los Angeles. The last scene of season 18 was shot on March 29, 2021.

When Will NCIS Season 18 Come Out?

The latest season of the long-running detective show NCIS started airing in the US in November, and now it’s finally coming to the UK!

The 18th season of NCIS will start airing on FOX UK on Friday, January 22, 2022, at 9 p.m.

Trailer

Read More:

Frequently Asked Questions

Will There Be a Season 18 of NCIS?

NCIS usually gets a full order of 24 episodes, but the coronavirus pandemic cut seasons 17 and 18 down to 20 and 16 episodes, respectively.

Is NCIS Season 18 on Netflix?

Seasons 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 of NCIS are no longer on Netflix, and they won’t be added any time soon. The hit CBS show NCIS is back for its 19th season, and if you want to catch up on Netflix, the US is still very far behind on the show.

Why Did Bishop Stop Working at NCIS?

Wickersham’s long Instagram post doesn’t say anything about why she decided to quit “NCIS” after Season 18. The most likely reason is that she was tired of playing the same character for eight seasons and 172 episodes and wanted to try something new.

Is Tony Going to Return to NCIS?

Many fans had hoped that Tony and Ziva would get back together when de Pablo filmed some episodes of Season 17, but this didn’t happen because Weatherly had to work on Bull.

For more information on upcoming movies and more, check our website by clicking here.