Now that primetime television is back into the normal swing of things following the yearly holiday hiatuses, audiences are once again set for dependable, weekly viewings. Unfortunately for NCIS fans, CBS decided to immediately buck that trend to place more focus on the limited run for Celebrity Big Brother Season 2. Specifically, the network used NCIS' current time slot to air the reality series' second installment, and viewers were not pleased about this discovery.
The most recent NCIS episode, which aired on January 8, ended with a series of moments that played up the importance of various secrets that different characters are holding onto. None of those secrets got explored this week, of course, because CBS was too busy airing Celebrity Big Brother.
If there were a division of the military that was focused entirely on saving the world through snark, this particular Twitter user would be the Special Director, and would be boasting accolades for days. Said NCIS fan was pretty suspicious of CBS for picking that particular time slot in order to give screen time to one of its most popular unscripted series.
Those sentiments were largely echoed by others across social media. Many people were seemingly less bothered by NCIS getting preempted in general than they were by Celebrity Big Brother Season 2 being the specific replacement. A repeat of NCIS or one of its spinoffs? Those probably wouldn't have earned as many harsh comments. Alas, CBS went with the show starring Tom Green, Kato Kaelin and Joey Lawrence.
To be sure, Celebrity Big Brother has its own healthy fanbase that has been waiting for the second season's wild cast to make the leap to primetime TV, not to mention the live feeds online. But that audience definitely isn't bigger than that of NCIS, which remains one of TV's most popular dramas.
For instance, CBB's second episode was watched live by 4.9 million people, with a 1.2 demographic rating. The most recent NCIS episode, however, brought in 12.2 million viewers, with a 1.3 rating. So it might not be the best idea for CBS to continue airing Celebrity Big Brother instead of its well-established hits.
Some fans out there are worried that CBS might continue to replace NCIS with Celebrity Big Brother's second season, and are not at all pleased with that concept.
At this time, CBS is not actually planning to air Celebrity Big Brother next Tuesday night to replace the next NCIS episode, although that doesn't mean the crime drama will be back. And it also doesn't mean that Celebrity Big Brother is finished preempting other network hits.
One fan picked up on that and expressed their displeasure about it.
The next new episode of NCIS isn't set to debut on CBS until Tuesday, February 5, which is a week or so before Celebrity Big Brother will finish its second season. The next time slot is set to go to a CBS special focused on the greatest Super Bowl commercials. You can check out the synopsis for the next episode, titled "She," below.
After a malnourished and confused 9-year-old is found hiding in a storage unit, NCIS reopens an old missing persons case when the girl is believed to be the daughter of a Navy recruit who disappeared 10 years ago. Also, Bishop discovers notes that Special Agent Ziva David kept on the case long after NCIS officially stopped investigating.
Fans should be extremely excited to see NCIS calling back to the days of former star Cote de Pablo's Ziva David, who exited the drama years ago. The character was killed offscreen via a storyline, so she's definitely not coming back to join the NCIS or anything. But perhaps her "notes" will contain some interesting details about fellow former agent Tony DiNozzo, as portrayed by Michael Weatherly.
In any case, no one is going to learn anything about Bishop or Ziva or anyone else on NCIS unless it's actually airing. So be sure to catch it once more when it returns to CBS on Tuesday, February 5, at 8:00 p.m. ET. And be sure to keep current with all the other returning shows with our midseason TV premiere schedule.
