The NCIS family just keeps growing. NCIS: Hawai’i is the latest entry in the franchise that will keep procedural fans tuning in every week.
The tropical spinoff — which stars Vanessa Lachey as Jane Tennant, the first female special agent in charge of NCIS Pearl Harbor — came in the wake of NCIS: New Orleans going off the air in spring 2021.
“Honored is an understatement!” Lachey said in an Instagram post in April 2021 when she was announced as the lead of Hawai’i. “To join the NCIS franchise as the first female lead and to do it on the Beautiful Islands of Hawai’i … I still can’t believe it! Thank You CBS for believing in me! Now let’s get to work! #NCISHawaii.”
Not unlike several of the franchise’s past leads, Lacey’s character must balance her career and home life. The divorcee is mom to son Alex (Kian Talan) and daughter Julie (Mahina Anne Marie Napoleon).
Alex Tarrant, Noah Mills, Jason Antoon, Yasmine Al-Bustami and Tori Anderson round out the cast of the island drama, which premiered in the time slot after the longest-running naval drama, NCIS.
Despite the latter being the only NCIS show without a location in the title, that’s not where the franchise started over 25 years ago. The flagship NCIS show didn’t even have Naval Criminal Investigative Service in the title, and it didn’t premiere on CBS.
JAG debuted on NBC in 1995. The show followed military lawyers in the Department of the Navy’s Office of the Judge Advocate General who could prosecute and defend criminal cases under the code of military justice. NBC canceled the show after one season, but CBS picked it up.
JAG went on for 10 years total with NCIS launching in the eighth season. It’s the only NCIS show to take home Emmys, with three wins — two for costume design and one for single camera editing.
The original drama, which starred David James Elliott and Catherine Bell, introduced Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and his team in the eighth season finale in 2003. The excitement around the backdoor pilot led to CBS ordering a full first season, which premiered the following September.
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More than 25 years after JAG started, the NCIS franchise is still alive and well. Scroll down to see all the spinoffs:
