After debuting in 2003, NCIS has been on TV for almost two decades, and the show has seen
a lot of stars come and go over the years.
Here are the most scandalous NCIS cast exits.
In July 2013, Cote de Pablo. announced that she was preparing to walk away from NCIS in
the near future.
Her exit brought an end to the story arc for her complex and compelling character: Ziva
David, a highly trained and extremely deadly Mossad agent from Israel who enjoyed a will-they-or-won't-they
dynamic with her NCIS partner, Anthony DiNozzo .
According to TV Guide, NCIS fans were so upset about the end of the line for Ziva David that,
to encourage a reversal of the actor's decision to leave, they sent paper clips to CBS, referencing
a scene from Season Four:
"I will kill you 18 different ways with this paper clip."
It didn't work, and after eight years with the show, de Pablo's last episode aired in
October 2013.
De Pablo said at the time,
"As far as my decision to leave, that's a personal thing, and I'd rather leave it at
that.
Leaving 'NCIS' was not planned, so there is no plan."
Three years later, de Pablo demystified the circumstances of her exit, saying at a Q&A
that she left because the screenwriters were not treating her character with respect.
She said,
"Unfortunately because of political things, and the scripts not being good enough, I chose
not to.
I worked eight years in crafting this character, and loving her."
Like most every major character on the long-running spinoff NCIS: New Orleans, the character of
federal Special Agent Meredith Brody was introduced in a two-part backdoor pilot episode of NCIS
in 2014.
Zoe McLellan portrayed the character for the entirety of the first two seasons of NCIS:
New Orleans, departing the series when Brody resigned after it was discovered that her
boyfriend was a nefarious double agent.
"I'm a patriot.
Just not for your side."
Writers made Brody's exit make narrative sense, but McLellan's departure was a bit more unsettling.
Original showrunner Jeffrey Lieber told Vulture that CBS executives pressured him to fire
McLellan in the first season, but he refused.
He told the publication,
"I thought she was doing a good job and that the audience was connected to her."
During Season 2 of NCIS: New Orleans, Lieber left the series because of creative differences.
Lieber was replaced by new showrunner Brad Kern, who, according to a staffer, didn't
like McLellan because he didn't find her attractive.
Proud oddball, genius, and forensic scientist fueled by gallons of Caf-Pow, Abby Sciuto
was appreciated by NCIS fans for bringing some unabashed quirk and lightness to the
often heavy and intense procedural series.
It was big entertainment news when actor Pauley Perrette decided to leave the role after more
than 350 episodes.
Her final episode aired after Abby almost died in a violent altercation in London, and
stayed there permanently.
After the episode aired, Perrette revealed on Twitter the true reasons for her exit:
She tweeted that she had been assaulted multiple times while working on NCIS.
There was also lingering hostility over an incident involving NCIS star Mark Harmon's
pit bull, which reportedly bit and severely injured a crew member.
Harmon kept the dog far away from the set after that, except for one day when he couldn't
secure a dog sitter and so he kept him in his trailer.
The dog's return to the set reportedly made Perrette extremely angry and she started yelling
when Harmon tried to clarify things.
A year after leaving NCIS, the actor tweeted that she was, quote, "terrified of Harmon
and him attacking" her, and that she has nightmares because of the incident.
In 2016, the 13th season of NCIS, Duane Henry joined the cast as Clayton Reeves, an NCIS
Liaison Officer and also an operative for MI-6, the secretive British intelligence agency.
Appearing in more than 40 episodes over the course of three seasons, the biggest moment
for both actor and character came at the end of that period, wrapping up the 15th season
of NCIS in 2018.
It had been public knowledge for months that original cast member and fan-favorite Pauley
Perrette would be leaving NCIS by May 2018, and on her second-to-last episode, her character,
lab tech Abby Scuito, and Reeves wrestled with an armed assailant.
"You want to help me?
Say it.
You want to help me?"
"Yes, I want to help you!"
"You can't!"
"Stop!"
In the next episode, NCIS viewers found out who died.
Coroner Ducky mournfully unzips a body bag, revealing not Abby, but rather Clayton Reeves.
Henry was actually okay with leaving the show in such an unceremonious manner.
He told Yahoo!
Entertainment,
"You have to have a lot of patience with this type of gig, and I felt like I wanted to be
doing way more."
Frequent TV show participant Jennifer Esposito joined the cast of NCIS when it was well in
progress, coming on in the show's 14th season in 2016 as Special Agent Alex Quinn.
Esposito had a lot of storylines and dramatic meat — her former partner died, causing
her to temporarily quit fieldwork, and her character's mother succumbed to the effects
of Alzheimer's disease.
Nevertheless, Esposito opted to depart NCIS after that one loaded season.
Immediately, the actor took to Twitter to put to rest any rumors about her exit before
they could spread, saying,
"Was not meant to be there long but happy I was."
But the whispers that there were deeper and darker reasons for Esposito leaving NCIS quickly
persisted.
She left not long after the death of showrunner Gary Glasberg and the promotion of writers
Frank Cardea and George Schenck as his successors.
In an interview with Parade, Cardea and Schenck alluded to new places they wanted to take
the Quinn character.
In other words, and contrary to what Esposito said, the character had a future at the show,
and why the actor left remains something of a mystery.
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