Michael Weatherly is coming back to NCIS. The actor will return as Tony DiNozzo for a full season arc in Season 24, which premieres this fall on CBS.
The news comes about six months after NCIS: Tony & Ziva was canceled at Paramount+ after just one season. That show reunited Weatherly with Cote de Pablo, who played Ziva — Tony’s partner in life and on the job — on the original series.
CBS hasn’t said whether de Pablo will also show up in Season 24, and they’re not commenting on whether they plan to address or retcon anything that happened in the spinoff. The network is keeping quiet on basically all of that for now.
Weatherly has a long history with this franchise. He first played Tony in a two-episode backdoor pilot on JAG back in Season 8, then stayed on as a main cast member from NCIS’ very first episode until Season 13, when his character got a proper sendoff in the finale. Tony & Ziva, which premiered last fall, brought him back into the fold.
The spinoff picked up after Ziva’s supposed death, with Tony having left NCIS to raise their daughter on his own. The story eventually revealed Ziva was still alive, and she ended up completing one last mission before reuniting with Tony and their daughter in Paris.
As for why Tony & Ziva didn’t get a second season — CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach addressed it back in April when the network announced NCIS: New York. When asked if they had considered renewing Tony & Ziva instead of greenlighting a new spinoff, she said simply, “We really wanted to bring the Sam Hanna character back.”
Sam Hanna, played by LL Cool J, has appeared across three NCIS shows — the original series, NCIS: Los Angeles, and NCIS: Hawai’i. NCIS: New York will air Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. this fall, slotted between NCIS and NCIS: Origins.
The main NCIS cast includes Sean Murray, Wilmer Valderrama, Katrina Law, Brian Dietzen, Diona Reasonover, and Gary Cole. Season 24 airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and streams on Paramount+.
