‘NCIS’: Mark Harmon No Longer in the Opening Credits for Season 20

Meredith Jacobs September 19, 2022

Mark Harmon as NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in NCIS — Cliff Lipson/CBS

Though Mark Harmon’s last on-screen appearance as Leroy Jethro Gibbs came in the fourth episode of NCIS Season 19, he led off the opening credits through the finale. So, of course, one of the questions we had going into Season 20 was simple: Would he continue to do so?

The new season kicked off with the Hawai’i crossover on September 19, and Harmon wasn’t in the opening credits. Instead the credits began with Sean Murray (Timothy McGee), who led into Wilmer Valderrama (Nick Torres), Katrina Law (Jessica Knight), Brian Dietzen (Dr. Jimmy Palmer), Diona Reasonover (Kasie Hines), with David McCallum (Dr. Donald “Ducky” Mallard), Rocky Carroll (Leon Vance), and Gary Cole (Alden Parker).

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When TV Insider asked executive producer Steven D. Binder at the end of Season 19 if Harmon would remain in the opening credits for the rest of the series, he said, “Those are things that we have not sorted out quite yet, so the answer is we will wait and see. That was a function of the fact that, although the season’s [ended] and Mark will not have appeared in any more episodes, that was not anything that was a decided thing, so he remained in the credits because we didn’t kill him.”

We do have to note that Harmon did lead the regular cast in the press release for the premiere with its logline, as well as guest star information, but isn’t part of the release for Season 20 Episode 2.

NCIS, Mondays, 9/8c, CBS