Can NCIS Survive Without Mark Harmon’s Gibbs? Future Explained

NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service lost a key character when Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, played by Mark Harmon, left, but it still hopes to survive. NCIS is currently on season 19, with Gibbs making his grand exit in episode 4, “Great Wide Open.” With plenty of the season still to go, it remains to be seen whether NCIS has a viable future without Gibbs.

Fans of NCIS know that Special Agent Gibbs comes with a tragic backstory: his wife and daughter were killed as the result of a drug cartel case, and this continues to weigh heavily on Gibbs for years after. In season 19, episode 4, Gibbs ends up in Naktok, Alaska on the trail of a criminal CEO who hired a hitman to cover the truth of her mining project’s environmental damages. Though he breaks several laws in the episode, including ditching an FBI agent, Gibbs doesn’t end up fired and behind bars. In a moment of major character change for Gibbs, he chooses to stay in Alaska because it’s the first place he’s felt peace since the deaths of his wife and daughter. This leaves Gibbs’s story much more open-ended than if he had left the show by being killed or arrested.

The future of NCIS without Agent Gibbs is somewhat uncertain, though Mark Harmon will remain an executive producer on the show. Ultimately, NCIS should be able to survive Gibb’s departure, though it may not be for more than a few seasons. And while NCIS could maintain its current popularity without Gibbs, there’s also a chance it could decline.

In its time, NCIS has lost several beloved characters, most notably Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), Anthony “Tony” DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), and Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette). Each of these departures saw NCIS ratings drop in the next season, but the show also regularly loses viewers and still continues to make new seasons. Mark Harmon’s Gibbs will certainly be the biggest NCIS loss to date, however, so it’s possible his exit could signal an even sharper decline. However, previous departures could mean that NCIS viewers are used to losing their favorites at this point. The remainder of season 19 will provide key viewing data on that front.

NCIS is also not the first major show to press on after losing its lead character. Steve Carell left The Office, William Peterson left CSI, and Andrew Lincoln left The Walking Dead, yet all continued to crank out episodes after the departures of their lead characters. They did so with varying degrees of success; while the loss of Rick Grimes spurred a well-received fresh direction for TWD, the likes of The Office weren’t so lucky. The common denominator is that neither TWD nor The Office made it more than two seasons after their main stars left. While NCIS could develop some good storylines and new characters in the wake of Mark Harmon’s exit, they may not carry the show much further.

Gibb’s retirement from NCIS was intentionally placed at the beginning of season 19 so the showrunners can gauge audience reactions to the loss over the course of the remaining episodes. The question of NCIS‘s future rides primarily on the results of this experiment. Though NCIS may not be as good without Mark Harmon’s Agent Gibbs, and may not last very long, its fans are likely devoted enough to help it survive a few more seasons.

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