NCIS's star Gary Cole is approaching five years as the lead of the CBS hit, and as the series continues on the 2026 TV schedule, he's opening up about how Mark Harmon's exit "baffled" him. Specifically, he was shocked by how it all came together, and he reflected on the suddenness and overall uncertainty that was felt when the former lead decided to step away.
As we now know, there were producers who felt NCIS would die when Mark Harmon announced his exit. The series' heads didn't have a lot of time to make a decision, and Cole spoke to that while appearing on co-stars Brian Dietzen and Diona Reasonover's Partners & Probies podcast:
