‘NCIS’: Brian Dietzen on Advice From Michael Weatherly & Cote de Pablo for Podcast With Diona Reasonover

CBS is giving NCIS fans a chance to learn even more about their favorite franchise from the people who make it — and with the perfect podcast hosts!

The first episode of NCIS: Partners & Probies, hosted by Brian Dietzen (Dr. Jimmy Palmer) and Diona Reasonover (Kasie Hines), has been released (on March 3), just in time for the midseason premiere (with Emily Wickersham‘s return!). Each episode will feature revealing, heartfelt, and humorous conversations — established perfectly in the first, with Dietzen and Reasonover interviewing each other — with cast, crew, creatives, and real-world experts. Episodes are available wherever you get your podcasts, and video versions will be up on the NCIS YouTube channel.

Future guest stars include Wilmer Valderrama (NCIS) on March 10, Mariel Molino (NCIS: Origins) on March 17,  and, on the day the show’s 500th episode will air, former and current NCIS showrunners Frank Cardea and Steve Binder on March 24. Find out who else will be sitting down with Dietzen and Reasonover here.

Below, Brian Dietzen takes us inside creating this podcast, shares his dream guests (Glen Powell!), and more.

I watched the first episode. It is so fun. I love you and Diona hosting together.

Brian Dietzen: Yeah, we really have a good time. That first episode, we actually recorded that after we recorded several other ones. And what was so interesting and atypical, I think, for a podcast is that we really went deep on where we came from and who we are as people and what we’ve been through together. And as it turned out, I was like, “Oh man, that was really beautiful in a way.” I really liked it.

Robert Voets/CBS

I was going to say, it’s very clear that you two are friends off set, so does that make it easier to open up about emotional things because then you know how to pull each other back with something lighter?

Yeah, absolutely. Diona and I have always had a really great rapport, and it’s because we’re close friends. There was a time, I think we mentioned on the podcast, we were practically neighbors. We lived pretty close to one another. But yeah, we just have always gotten along really well. So if either of us is having a ho-hum day, we definitely know how to cheer one another up. And that’s definitely something I think we read really well with one another. So, yeah, if it starts to get a little too serious, we can pull back and have some fun. And also the two of us, I think, have a healthy level of self-deprecation, so that always helps.

Talk about how this all came about. Was it always going to be the two of you hosting? Was one of you pulled in and was like, let’s have the other?

No, it was a long time ago. It was like four years ago, I got a call from Amy Reisenbach, who then was the head of current programming and now is, of course, president at CBS. And she said, “I really want you and Diona to do a podcast, and it would be a rewatch podcast.” And so it went through all these different iterations: “Is it a rewatch podcast? Is it a true crime podcast?” And then, business-wise, there’s been a lot of changes and shifts here and there. And so after certain deals got done this past year, it was like, “OK, let’s just do this thing. Let’s just start it up, and then we’ll build this ship as we’re sailing it.” At least, that was my perception. And then we started hiring some folks, and Isaac Webster and his whole production team, who came on, I thought, “Oh, we’re going to figure this thing out as we go.” And then only to find out we have this amazing production team that they know exactly what they’re doing for the whole thing. And Diona and I, we’re fortunate enough to show up and have them help us out with all of this. But yeah, it was a long time in the making. And I’m really glad that even though it didn’t happen right away, it eventually resurfaced, and we said, “Look, I think now’s the right time to do it.”

And I think the interview way is a little better than the rewatch because doing a rewatch for NCIS would be a commitment. You’re now at 500 episodes!

I’d mentioned that as well. I thought, “OK, if we do about 48 a year, meaning we only get four weeks off, it would still be two seasons per year. We wouldn’t get to Season 24 for 12 years. And by that time, who knows if the show would still be going, who knows?” But I just thought, “Man, that’s a lot of time that would be spent.” And so I think one of the big goals of this podcast is to celebrate the show, celebrate the people that make it, but it’s right there in the title, Partners & Probies. So we’re these two partners that work downstairs in the basement, and the Probies, the fans of this show, are really the reason why we’re on. So we really wanted to lift up our fan base from the show and give them a place to come to each and every week to hear stories about the show, hear stories about the lives of the people who create the show, and also to have a voice in it as well. And every single episode, we ask fan questions of our guests, so it gives them a little bit of a, “Here’s a shout-out from so-and-so, and they’re going to ask this.” And that’s been a really wonderful aspect of it.

Speaking of the name of it, who came up with that? Did either of you have any input?

That was Diona. We had a whole list, and I believe she was the one that came up with Partners & Probies, and we both thought, “Oh, that’s fun.” Because it’s different. You know what I mean? It’s also, there’s NCIS: Evidence Log, NCIS, whatever, Field Notes, or whatever it might be, stuff that you would see in everything. And I thought it was so cool to just put the name of our fans right there in it because that’s the whole reason we’re doing a podcast. Do she and I have all this extra time that we really just want to spend sitting around talking about NCIS? No, we’re doing this because we really want to say thank you to our fans and also get fan engagement, and in this era of social media, have content and interviews to put out there into the world that make people say, “Man, this show’s been around for 23 years, and it’s still got lots to talk about.”

Robert Voets/CBS

What surprised you the most about what you’re learning about the show, your coworkers, each other, and yourself by doing these interviews and the podcast?

You get some blinders on here and there when you’re in a show that’s a long-running one. You just go up to Santa Clarita, do scenes, come back home, learn the next ones, go up and do it again. But the only reason that it works well is because I feel like I’m very invested in my character. I’m very invested in his journey and the journey of the television show. And whether it’s producers, casting directors, directors, or cast, I see that same passion out of every single one of them, and that is the reason why these people have been on this show for so long. So, in some cases, like with Sean Murray before I was there for 23 years. And I think that, I wouldn’t say it’s surprising so much, but it’s just almost a wonderful thing to celebrate each week to be like, “Oh, that’s why this thing works. That’s why this person works on the show because they’re so invested.” And yeah, sometimes you get a myopic view of the world a little bit, and I’m just thinking about myself and my view of it and realizing, “Oh man, everybody who works on it has this view of this show, and it has a lot of gratitude for it.”

Are there any guests that you’ve recorded so far that really stand out in terms of you got something you just maybe didn’t expect out of the interview?

I would say that it’s probably most of them, most of the ones, because we got stuff out of some of these people, beautiful things out of some of these people, some very personal stories, also some really funny stuff. I’ve worked with Wilmer Valderrama for the better part of a decade. I’ve never heard him do the Fez voice because he just doesn’t do it. He refuses when it comes to interviews and whatnot. And he did it on our podcast. I’m like, “Wait, what? Are you serious?” It was something to behold, I’ll tell you. But also hearing some wonderful stories from people who’ve been in the business for a long time, Charles Johnson, one of our executive producers, Frank Cardea, of course, Susan Bluestein, our original casting director. The stories people will hear not just from our show, but from Hollywood of yesteryear, it’s really, really terrific. And then of course, you start getting into modern day NCIS and then interviews with Mariel [Molina], with Tyla [Abercrumbie], with Caleb [Foote], all from NCIS: Origins and just hearing about the riot that they’re having over there, because we don’t get to spend any time with them because we live in a different timeframe on the shows. So, that’s been wonderful as well.

I mean, the crossover was great earlier this year.

Oh, I know. How cool, we got a crossover over years. It’s pretty cool.

Some guest stars have already been announced. Are there any others you can share, or do you have any dream guest stars you hope to get?

I would love to get some actors, some larger-name actors who have guest-starred on NCIS in the past. Some wonderful actors come to mind that went on to do amazing things. Glen Powell did a great two-part episode on post-traumatic stress in the military. Jesse Plemons was wonderful on our show. Zac Efron, of course, was in that same episode with Jesse. Patrick Adams was fantastic in our show as a rock star. So what I would love to do is get some of these actors who, of course, did their time on NCIS and moved on to other things, but get perspective of, “What does it mean to get that gig in the midst of chasing down your dreams, and how does that help you, and what was your experience like that?” And, “Can we talk about that set versus other TV sets you’ve been on or movie sets?” So I’ve got a whole laundry list of guest stars that I would love to have on.

Have you talked to Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo for advice since they did their podcast?

Oh, absolutely. Yes. So, I of course went and did their podcast when their podcast was filming here in, I think it was like Spotify Studios downtown. So definitely have talked to Michael and Cote both and picked their ear about it. And I would love, of course, to have both of those guys on. Right now, what’s been really important to us is trying to get each of our interviews in person. And so we’re filming right here in Burbank. And so I’m hoping that the next time Michael comes out, or Cote, either one of them, we’ll just grab everybody and go, OK, we’re filming this Friday. No matter what, he’s going to be in town, she’s going to be in town, we’ll make it happen.

Related

Will Emily Wickersham Return to 'NCIS' After the Midseason Premiere? (Exclusive)

What can you share about the advice you got?

Michael told me, “It’s a lot more work than you think it’s going to be.” And I think that’s especially true of starting it up. But I think that what we have, the secret weapon that Diona and I both have is that we have, is this production team through Paramount that is absolutely incredible. They did a wonderful podcast called Soapy, and that’s on currently. And I’m not going to say it’s seamless because there’s always bumps in the road. It’s difficult getting any production started up. But Isaac Webster and his team, I just got to give a shout out to those guys because I think we have a really, really special team putting everything together. And really, the great part is the people who are creating this show are big fans of the show as well, and I think that makes a big difference. So they kind of know exactly the tone that we’re going for and what we’re pushing to create there.

Is there anything where you’re going from doing this podcast and then you’re going back to filming NCIS for this season and now you’re looking at the show or your character differently as a result?

Oh, I definitely look at the show in a new light each time. The same way, I worked on writing an episode — I talked to you about it — when we wrote Ducky’s farewell episode with Scott Williams. And it’s kind of the same thing when you’re sitting in a chair and you’re watching old clips of the show on repeat on Paramount+, and you start to get nostalgic, and then you come in today to do a scene today and you start thinking to yourself, “Oh man, these are the good old days, too.” And so that’s really ignited something for me. I told Diona the other day, I said, “It’s really been giving me a lot of life as it comes to our current show, talking about old shows or it could just be five episodes ago, old shows or 15 years ago, old shows.” And each one of those had their time in it where I’d say, “Oh, man, these are the good old days. This is wonderful.” And then now I’m really thinking about that and being present on set and saying, “Man, in five years, I’ll be talking about this episode as, ‘Oh, remember when we did that one really cool thing?'”

Speaking of the old days, though, I mean, you have Emily back. How has it been having her back?

Oh, it’s great. I was so excited. I was having a hard time not telling people that cool reveal that we had in our winter finale, but it’s just great. It’s very similar to when Michael came back and did a scene with us. It’s just a family member coming back to visit. It really is. And she is just as amazing as when she left, just always been a terrific actor, but also just a good friend to everybody. So it’s really, really great. It feels familiar. And even though the character of Bishop has obviously been through a lot since she left, and you guys are going to see that in the episode coming up on Tuesday, Emily still just brings it the same way she always has.

NCIS: Partners & Probies, Tuesdays

NCIS, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS