NCIS is such a massive franchise on the 2026 TV schedule, and it's been a mainstay on television for decades. So, it's hard to imagine a time when there were battles and questions about it. However, back in the early days, there were. In fact, there was one fight that happened between CBS and CSI over NCIS's title.
NCIS co-creator Don McGill appeared on the NCIS: Partners & Probies podcast, where he told hosts and NCIS stars Brian Dietzen and Diona Reasonover how the show’s title came to be. Even though it is only four letters long, it evidently became a pretty big problem for a different show whose title is only three letters long:
