Warning: SPOILERS for the first half of NCIS Season 23 are ahead!
NCIS left fans with one hell of a midseason finale to chew on, especially since Season 23 won’t pick back up for a couple months. Not only was the mystery of how Alden Parker’s mother really died finally solved, the final moments of “Heaven and Nature” brought back Emily Wickersham’s Ellie Bishop.
But following up that shocking twist isn’t the only big thing to look forward to when Season 23 resumes on the 2026 TV schedule. Jimmy Palmer actor Brian Dietzen opened up to CinemaBlend about what’s going to “fuel some pretty major storylines” going forward. However, learning this information now has me worried about one of the other leading NCIS characters.
What Brian Dietzen Said About What’s Ahead For NCIS Season 23
Ever since NCIS Season 23 began, there have been hints that the government agency isn’t exactly on steady ground currently. There have been a few mentions of possible budget cuts, and when Jimmy was testing out the AI program D.A.W.N. on Director Leon Vance’s behalf in “Stolen Moments,” Vance told him that NCIS was being evaluated. So when I asked Brian Dietzen what he could share about these plot threads continuing to be explored later this season, he told me:
Well, I can say it’s gonna be a huge topic of discussion, as it is for a lot of people across our country, across the world right now. There are budget cuts everywhere with automation with AI, all that sort of thing. People are trying to figure out if they’re gonna have a job tomorrow. So as we know and we can all see in the news, there’s no place where that’s more prolific than the United States government. So NCIS obviously is a government organization, they’re gonna go through their growing pains and their automation pains as well. So it’s gonna be a huge thing within our show that’s gonna fuel some pretty major storylines that’s gonna shake NCIS and reshape NCIS at some point this [season].
Well that sounds ominous. I get NCIS taking inspiration from real life in this regard, but if budget cuts are coming down the pipeline and some fat will need to be trimmed, what does this mean for the characters we follow along with week after week? Specifically, I can’t help wondering if this is going to directly impact Sean Murray’s Timothy McGee.
This Has Me Concerned For Timothy McGee
You may recall how last season, McGee failed to get the NCIS Deputy Director position because of the shadiness going on with Gabriel LaRoche. While it was later clarified that LaRoche wasn’t a bad guy and he hasn’t been seen since the Season 22 finale, McGee has nonetheless gone back to being a standard special agent. Now that by itself wouldn’t concern me, but Season 23 has also seen McGee’s side gig as author Thom E. Gemcity being referenced much more often, to the point that he hallucinated seeing his Deep Six series characters in “Page-Turner.”
McGee is the longest-tenured NCIS agent currently on the CBS show, with Sean Murray having played him since the Season 1 episode “Sub Rosa.” If layoffs are coming to the agency, I don’t think McGee would be on the chopping block. However, what I can envision is McGee deciding in the midst of these budget cuts that it’s time to move on from NCIS and dedicate himself to writing full time. Or maybe he’ll continue to write as Thom E. Gemcity on the side and put his tech skills to use in the private sector.
Brian Dietzen made it clear that big shakeups are coming to NCIS, and right now, Timothy McGee exiting at the end of Season 23 is the biggest one I can think of. On the one hand, McGee moving on to focus on something that brings him more fulfillment is good for the character, but on the other hand, this would be the biggest exit from the show since Mark Harmon left early in Season 19. Imagining NCIS without McGee just feels weird, but if this is on the horizon like I’m speculating, I’m intrigued to learn how it plays out.