Pauley Perrette's departure from NCIS at the end of Season 15 bordered on traumatic for many fans. Now, though, they can bask in the glow of her replacement for the upcoming season. The show has just promoted Diona Reasonover to series regular for Season 16.
According to TV Line, word came down today that Diona Reasonover would be taking on a permanent role on NCIS in Season 16. As you can see from the above photo, Reasonover is no stranger to the NCIS shores. The actress played forensic scientist Kasie Hines in three episodes of the procedural near the end of last season, sharing the screen with Perrette's Abby in one of those episodes. Kasie was introduced to the NCIS team as Ducky's new graduate assistant whom he hired, in part, to help keep him on track with the writing of his next book.
Diona Reasonover is a relative newcomer to the world of television. After making her debut in a video short in 2011, though, she's managed to amass 25 credits for a variety of TV shows, made-for-tv movies and additional shorts. Reasonover has appeared in Superstore, Clipped, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Girl Meets World, 2 Broke Girls, Future Man and Grace and Frankie among other projects. She's also a writer who's penned episodes for I Love Dick and Adam Ruins Everything, in addition to to other shows.
It's certainly early days right now, so it's hard to tell just how big of a part Diona Reasonover's Kasie will end up becoming on NCIS over the course of Season 16. So far, what we've seen of the character has shown her as positive, hard working and quite a fan of the hard work the NCIS team has done, and she manages to be nice while also being forthcoming with the truth. It's likely that we'll see those traits on display quite a bit as the new season gets underway. And, since Kasie is still a team newbie, I wouldn't be surprised if there will be some tough learning curves ahead for her.
If the folks behind NCIS are smart, though (and you don't get a show to Season 16 without being smart), they'll take it slow with bringing Kasie fully into the fold, especially since her character has inherited a spot in the lab from fan favorite Abby. Perrette's departure came as a huge shock to many; hers was an original character that, I'm sure, most fans expected to stick around for several more seasons. And, while Abby did not have the distinction of being written off with her own heart-wrenching death (that honor went to another character), the circumstances surrounding Perrette's exit likely mean that there's little hope of fans seeing the goth scientist again. In other words, it's going to take some time for people to get used to multiple extended appearances from someone new in a lab coat. But, I'm sure Kasie will be accepted by the fandom, and the on-screen NCIS team, in time.
We can all see how Diona Reasonover and Kasie fare when NCIS Season 16 premieres on Tuesday, September 25 at 8 p.m. on CBS. For more on what you can watch in the meantime, be sure to check out our summer premiere schedule.
