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Will NCIS: Sydney become a permanent fixture on CBS? 

In 2023, the NCIS franchise’s first international spinoff premiered on CBS. The eight-episode series sees U.S. NCIS agents teaming up with Australian police to investigate naval crimes in the Pacific. It was originally intended to stream on Paramount+ in the U.S., but it earned a spot on the network’s fall schedule due to the actors’ and writers’ strikes. 

NCIS: Sydney closed out its first season on Jan. 23. The cliffhanger episode suggested Colonel Rankin (Lewis Fitz-Gerald) might have played a role in kidnapping Sergeant JD Dempsey’s (Todd Lasance) son. Will fans get to see how that storyline plays out? So far, NCIS: Sydney hasn’t been renewed for season 2. But it does sound like the odds of the show returning are good.  

Is ‘NCIS: Sydney’ Season 2 happening?

Mackey and Dempsey standing in front of shipping containers and talking in 'NCIS: Sydney'
Olivia Swann as NCIS Special Agent Captain Michelle Mackey and Todd Lasance as AFP Liaison Officer Sergeant Jim ‘JD’ Dempsey in ‘NCIS: Sydney’ | Daniel Asher Smith/Paramount+

CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach recently weighed in on the future of NCIS: Sydney in an interview with Deadline. 

“We’re thrilled with how NCIS: Sydney did. It’s not just a win for CBS, but it’s really a win for all of Paramount, for Paramount+, for CBS Studios and Paramount International,” she said. The series has averaged 6.54 million viewers per episode, according to The Wrap. 

One reason for NCIS: Sydney’s success? It’s a fresh take on a familiar franchise. (It is the fourth NCIS spinoff; a fifth, NCIS: Origins, is in the works.) 

“NCIS: Sydney … really had its own identity. It was very uniquely Australian and told stories that can only be told in Australia,” she said. Both NCIS: Sydney and NCIS: Origins are “opportunities to gain new audiences while also being true to the DNA and loyal fan base of those shows,” Reisenbach added. 

All that sounds like good news for fans hoping for a season 2. Though CBS has yet to renew NCIS: Sydney, Reisenbach said she felt “really positive, and there will be news to come soon.”

‘NCIS: Sydney’ star Todd Lasance hopes for a season 2 

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Fans aren’t the only ones who wonder what’s next for NCIS: Sydney. The show’s cast is also eager to find out what happens next.

“Obviously, the dream for us would be to go back and do more seasons of the show because we just loved every second of it,” Lasance told Parade. “But that cliffhanger, I remember reading the cliffhanger, and I basically threw my script. I was like, ‘There’s no way this is happening.’”

The NCIS: Sydney season finale, “Blonde Ambition,” ended with JD successfully swapping, captured criminal Ana Niemus (Georgina Haig) for his kidnapped son. After the transfer, Ana hands him the kidnapper’s phone, telling him to use it to “phone a friend.” JD calls the only number saved in the phone’s contacts. He doesn’t know who’s on the other end of the line. But Mackey (Olivia Swann) and the rest of the team are watching everything go down via satellite. As soon as JD dials, Rankin’s phone starts to ring. 

“This is such a great, not only cliffhanger episode but for it to finish on Mackey’s line where she’s like, ‘Are you going to get that?’” Lasance added. “It was just perfect writing.” 

NCIS: Sydney Season 1 is streaming on Paramount+ and Pluto TV. 

Source: The Wrap

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