What To Know
- Michael Weatherly is returning to NCIS for a season-long arc in Season 24.
- Katrina Law shared a video from a table read, and the presence of his name tag suggests when he will first appear.
NCIS is welcoming back Michael Weatherly in a season-long arc this fall. But what had not been said when his return as Tony DiNozzo was announced was how many episodes he’ll be in or when his first will be. Well, thanks to a look at the first table read for Season 24 from Katrina Law on her Instagram Stories on Tuesday, July 14, we may know just that.
Law shared a video of herself, Gary Cole, and theirs and the rest of the cast’s — Sean Murray, Wilmer Valderrama, Brian Dietzen, Diona Reasonover, and Weatherly — name tags. This suggests that Weatherly will appear in the Season 24 premiere, though it is always possible they were reading multiple scripts or will be filming out of order. See screenshots below.
Weatherly was last seen on NCIS as a series regular in the Season 13 finale. He then made a special guest appearance in the Season 21 episode, “The Stories We Leave Behind,” the tribute to the late David McCallum and his character, Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard. He showed up at the end and shared a scene with McGee (Murray) and Dr. Palmer (Dietzen).
Katrina Law/Instagram
Weatherly then starred in Paramount+’s one-season NCIS: Tony & Ziva spinoff with Cote de Pablo in 2025. That series saw the titular characters’ reunion in Paris in flashbacks as well as a subsequent attempt to make a relationship work — they almost got married! — before they separated. In the present day, they were coparenting their daughter Tali (Isla Gie), until they ended up framed and on the run. By the end of the series, they’d cleared their names and gotten back together. Weatherly has said that his NCIS return will not retcon the events of that show.
But there is little that we know about Tony’s return to D.C. other than it is a season-long arc. If he is indeed in the premiere, he could be involved in the resolution of the Season 23 finale cliffhanger. Torres (Valderrama) confronted McGee’s son, Mateo (Patrick Keleher), about his suspicious behavior and saw that the teen was armed. Mateo warned that “they” could be watching, then the episode ended with a gunshot, but it was unclear who fired or who was “hit,” as executive producer Steven D. Binder confirmed to TV Insider after someone was.
NCIS, Season 24, Fall 2026, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS