What To Know
- Matt Jones revealed on the NCIS: Partners & Probies podcast how his character’s death came about.
- Jones also reflected on his time as Dorneget, recalling the challenges of his first major MTAC scene.
Dorney! Over a decade since his character, Special Agent Ned Dorneget, was killed off of NCIS, Matt Jones took a moment to look back on that shocking moment. He joined hosts Brian Dietzen (Dr. Jimmy Palmer) and Diona Reasonover (Kasie Hines) on the latest episode of theNCIS: Partners & Probies podcast and shared just how it came about.
Jones debuted as Dorneget in Season 9 as a probationary agent and eventually became a special agent in the cyber division. He appeared in six episodes across Seasons 9, 10, and 12. But when he joined in on tracking down a terrorist cell recruiting children, The Calling, in Season 12, he died during one of their attacks (but did help save lives in the process). Mimi Rogers came in as his mother, the CIA’s Joanna Teague, to help the team after. But that death came about apparently because of something that Jones said to executive producer Gary Glasberg.
“So the issue was I was on Mom. I got Mom. So I was recurring on NCIS here and there. And then I got Mom and I was at like a CBS event, and I ran into Gary Glasberg. And Gary was like, ‘Hey, we want to have you back on. When are you free?’ And I was like, ‘You know, shooting a sitcom, you know what? I should come on for one episode and you should kill me,’” Jones said on the podcast. “And he goes, ‘That’s a great idea. Let’s do it.’ Such a stupid idea. I absolutely could have been on the show more.”
Sonja Flemming/CBS
But apparently he’s also come up with a way that he could return. Dietzen brought up running into Jones a year or two ago at a family event and the later suggesting, “Maybe Dorneget’s got a twin brother.”
Jones agreed, “Or a cool cousin who’s mad about him dying. I’m an angry Dorneget.” Reasonover then named the character “Ted Dorneget.”
Later during the podcast, Jones reflected on Dorneget as an NCIS agent and shared what he wanted him to be remembered for. He looked back on his first scene in MTAC.
“I had to go in there and do a wraparound talk for two minutes kind of thing. I’m describing everything and there’s no cuts when shooting it,” he said. “I had to really be off book and it was just gibberish. I don’t know what I was saying.”
He continued, “I went through that whole scene. It was really, really hard. Nailing that and sounding like an authority. And for the character, they had a whole build up. They were like, oh, it’s your first time doing this, whatever, first time leading the team or whatever I was doing. And after that I was like, ‘Oh, OK. I think I earned my job.’ Like literally on the show and as a character. I remember that moment. It was scary. It was fun.”
NCIS, Season 24 Premiere, Tuesday, October 6, 8/7c, CBS