CBS Underscores The Biggest Missing Characters In LL Cool J's NCIS: New York

Published Sep 30, 2026, 10:03 AM EDT

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

While the NCIS franchise should theoretically be getting viewers excited about LL Cool J’s new spinoff series NCIS: NY, the series is instead reminding viewers just how much this new show is missing an element that made the procedural great in the first place. While the NBC procedural JAG was a 10-season hit that lasted 227 episodes, it is a rare show that has since been largely supplanted by its spinoff in the collective pop culture imagination.

JAG spawned NCIS, which went on to spawn the subsequent spinoff shows NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Sydney, NCIS: Tony & Ziva, NCIS: Hawai’i, and the prequel NCIS: Origins. As if this lengthy lineup weren’t enough for any fan of procedural shows, the upcoming spinoff NCIS: New York is now set to expand the series even further. The series will see LL Cool J’s taciturn Special Agent Sam Hanna return to his eponymous hometown to team up with a new partner.

This new partner is played by Hawaii Five-O’s Scott Caan, creating a minor continuity snag for the franchise. After all, Caan’s Hawaii Five-O character Danny "Danno" Williams appeared alongside Hanna in a crossover event between the procedural reboot and NCIS: Los Angeles. However, in NCIS: New York, Caan plays a new character, the maverick NCIS agent Nick Schaeffer. This rare NCIS franchise recasting isn’t the only issue that the upcoming spinoff has run into, as evidenced by a glance at the show’s official TikTok account.

NCIS Admits How Fantastic The Chemistry Was Of The Los Angeles Spinoff

In a video posted by the NCISVerse account, CBS highlighted the well-worn bond between Sam Hanna and Chris O’Donnell’s Special Agent G. Callen, as well as Marty and Kensi’s romantic chemistry. While this makes for a fun, nostalgic watch, it also works against the network’s attempts to build hype around NCIS: New York’s debut. There are a lot of reasons to look forward to the arrival of NCIS: New York, not least the fact that its premiere is directed by The Pitt’s R. Scott Gemill.

However, by drawing attention to the killer interplay between the existing characters of NCIS: Los Angeles, the franchise is instead reminding viewers of what they are losing out on now that Hanna has left the team. NCIS: Los Angeles has lasted 323 episodes across 14 seasons, making it the longest running NCIS series outside the original show itself. It’s not even a particularly close comparison, as the next longest lasting spinoff, NCIS: New Orleans, only lasted half as long at seven seasons.

It might seem as though Hanna’s popularity as a standalone character would be enough to sustain NCIS: New York, but the network would do well to avoid this sort of overconfident framing. After all, only two years ago, Tony and Ziva were considered two of the NCIS franchise’s most popular fan-favorite characters. As a result, a spinoff show centered on their lives could reasonably be expected to last more than NCIS: Tony & Ziva's embarrassingly brief 10-episode season.

NCIS: New York's Biggest Challenge Is To Get Out Of LA's Shadow

CBS (via MovieStillsDb)

If anything, one could argue that the outsized popularity of NCIS: Los Angeles, which has come to rival the reputation of the original show, ironically works against NCIS: New York. Since the series centers on one of the biggest stars from the original series, NCIS: New York will be expected to hit the same heights as NCIS: Los Angeles, but the new show has not had years of practice setting up its characters and familiarizing the audience with their personalities.

Much like Stabler’s Law & Order: SVU run was legendary, but his spinoff Law & Order: Organised Crime lasted only five seasons, LL Cool J’s presence as Hanna on its own may not be enough to bring back NCIS fans episode after episode. With Sam at the forefront, the new show will inevitably and unavoidably be compared to NCIS: Los Angeles, so it is now up to the spinoff to address that.

Can NCIS: New York Be As Successful As LA (& How?)

Image courtesy of MovieStillsDb

There are two strategic writing tactics that NCIS: New York can take when it comes to addressing the long shadow cast by the legacy of NCIS: Los Angeles. One is to minimize the interplay between the show’s supporting characters, turning NCIS: New York into more of a character study focused mainly on Sam Hanna himself. The other is to immediately start focusing on the supporting cast of the new spinoff, turning them into replacements for Marty, Kensi, and G. Callen.

Both of these approaches have their pitfalls and their pluses. The presence of Jennifer Beals’s Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Robyn Wells, Jacqueline Byers’s Special Agent Addison "Addy" Ross, Shane Harper’s Special Agent Wyatt Sellers, and Devin Druid’s Technical Operator Sean Sullivan proves that NCIS: New York will still have a fully fleshed out crew in its new bullpen, even if they are mostly unfamiliar faces.

Focusing on setting up these new characters and making them as important to the spinoff’s story as Hanna means that NCIS: New York could, ideally, hope to end up feeling like an East coast spin on NCIS: Los Angeles. The problem with this approach is that the show is competing with other, much more established network procedurals, like the 9-1-1 franchise and the aforementioned Law & Order shows, so viewers might go with more familiar returning faces instead of a new lineup.

The opposite approach is for NCIS: New York to play down its ensemble procedural roots and instead turn the show into more of a character study. Already, the spinoff has hinted at this possibility with the news that the premiere’s plot will concern a case with personal links to Hanna’s own life. Since Hanna was always a stoic figure in NCIS: Los Angeles, the spinoff could reveal a lot of new information about him as he returns to his hometown.

The only issue with this approach is that, after NCIS: New York’s premiere wraps Hanna’s personal story, continuing to center on LL Cool J’s protagonist over everyone else runs the risk of alienating new viewers. Much like NCIS: Tony & Ziva clearly wasn’t all that appealing to viewers who weren’t already au fait with the franchise, NCIS: New York could end up feeling like a show that is only of interest to existing NCIS franchise fans instead of welcoming new viewers to the franchise.

Source: TikTok

Cast

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  LL Cool J

  Sam Hanna

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  Scott Caan

  Nick Schaeffer

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  Jennifer Beals

  Robyn Wells

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  Jacqueline Byers

  Addison Ross