Returning Favorites: Meet the New Agents of NCIS
Cover photo of Wilmer Valderrama, Duane Henry and Jennifer Esposito by Kevin Lynch
You wanna tussle? Say the word “replace” on the Santa Clarita, California, set of NCIS. You’ll get the cast and crew worked up and ready to rumble.
They’ve been hearing it (and all its variants) a lot since January, when longtime star Michael Weatherly announced he was leaving the drama—and taking movie-quoting, lady-killing, bighearted manboy Tony DiNozzo, whom he portrayed for 13 years on four different series, with him. Everyone wanted to know: Who will replace Weatherly? Who can replace Weatherly? And what will this do to the world’s most watched drama series?
The answers were pretty simple: no one, no one and kick it up a notch. The Season 14 premiere introduced NCIS’s first two new recruits: That ’70s Show’s Wilmer Valderrama as Nick Torres and Blue Bloods’ Jennifer Esposito as Alex Quinn. He’s a former undercover agent who just resurfaced after going MIA in Argentina. She’s an old associate of Gibbs (Mark Harmon) who left active duty to teach probies at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. Both have…dah-dah-dum-dum-dum…dark pasts.
Viewers have already met the drama’s third addition, cocky MI6 agent Clayton Reeves (Duane Henry). He helped nab the guy who killed fan fave Ziva (Cote de Pablo) in May’s season finale and comes back into the fold next month when the international arms dealers he’s pursuing are tied to the team’s latest murder case. Then he sticks around on loan from British Intelligence.
“All three characters have this fish-out-of-water quality,” executive producer Gary Glasberg says. “Torres has always worked alone and is suddenly put in an office environment. Quinn knows her stuff inside and out but hasn’t been in the field for years. And Reeves is used to a different government with different rules.” The trio also has little in common with boarding-school-bred ex–police detective Tony.
Also in this issue:
• Returning Favorites: All the scoop on dozens of shows, including Chicago Fire, Supergirl, Empire, Grey’s Anatomy, Once Upon a Time, The Flash and more.
• Seth Meyers: The Late Night host picks 10 fall shows he can’t wait for—some real and some he made up!
• Presidential Debates: What to watch for when Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump finally face off.
• Plus: Younger, Shameless, Survivor, Shark Tank and the best of movies, streaming, sports and more.
