“It was really a show that was out to get eyeballs.”
The long-running CBS police drama NCIS made its debut in 2003. The Major Case Response Team of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, which looks into crimes involving the US Navy, US Marine Corps, and their families, is the subject of the program, which focuses on the personal and professional life of special agents. The third longest-running American primetime drama series, after Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order, is NCIS.
NCIS co-creator Don McGill has said he’s not surprised that the show was never considered for an Emmy award.
The enormously popular police procedural, which debuted on CBS on September 23, 2003, has four spin-off series under its belt and is now the top broadcast drama on the network.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter to celebrate the show’s twentieth anniversary, McGill, who co-created the series alongside Donald P. Bellisario, said the show never really intended to win awards.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily the kind of show that was out to get awards,” said McGill. “It was really a show that was out to get eyeballs, and so I’m not surprised that it wasn’t ever really in Emmy consideration.”
This is clearly a sentiment the show’s executive producer Mark Horowitz agrees with. The producer likened the series to chocolate cake.
“I sometimes fondly refer to NCIS as chocolate cake. Everybody knows what chocolate cake tastes like, but you still want the chocolate cake,” said Horowitz.
Commenting on the show’s popularity with viewers, Horowitz said: “You could absolutely say that the show is popular amongst people who perhaps are politically conservative or live in more rural areas.
However, we’ll also visit a college campus where everyone, even those from Southern California, will be watching the performance. Naturally, I believe that the center states enjoy greater popularity than the coasts do.
Awards or no awards, the program keeps making spin-offs; the most recent installment in the series, NCIS: Sydney, is scheduled to debut on Tuesday, November 14, at 8pm on CBS.
The show will now air on Tuesdays, with episodes being made accessible for Paramount+ Showtime customers to stream and download. The episode will be available to Paramount+ Essential subscribers one day after it airs.
NCIS airs on CBS in the US. Seasons 1-20 are streaming on Disney+ in the UK.