NCIS showrunners want to strike a 'delicate balance' between 'iconic moment' of 400th episode and show finale
In all the excitement of Ziva David's return, we almost forgot that 'NCIS' fans will have another landmark event to mark on their calendars. The current season's 22nd episode will be the show's 400th episode.
Executive producer Frank Cardea called the occasion "rarefied air for a network show". Fellow executive producer Steven D. Binder said that while brainstorming ideas for this episode, there weren't many shows they could take inspiration from. "I think there are only six primetime shows that have ever done this," he said. As of 2019, NCIS is the second-longest-running scripted, non-animated U.S. primetime TV drama series, surpassed only by 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit', and is the 7th-longest-running scripted US primetime TV series overall.
In another interview, Binder said that while they had a couple of ideas, they were still "pie-in-the-sky" ideas. They revealed that because the 400th episode was so close to the finale, it was a "delicate balance".
Binder said that they had already set up a "400th episode idea bin" on their communication channel so that everybody could participate in coming up with plotlines they could explore before they started shooting the iconic episode at the beginning of April, next year. Binder said that, as showrunners, they had to "do this right" because it would be "such an iconic moment" for them.
The showrunners revealed that since each season has 24 episodes, they usually tend to think in terms of three blocks of eight episodes. With the Ziva story arc coming through, they will have more time to think about the next two "chunks".
"What’s great about being ahead of the game is that you have time to do it right, and you also have time to see if there are synergies that happen, things in the beginning that connect to the second arc," said Binder. Hopefully, the 400th episode will be as iconic as the show deserves.