Mark Harmon left “NCIS” last night after 18 seasons. You’d think there would have been a lot of fanfare and an uptick in the ratings.
Alas, last night’s episode was down 22% in the key demo, and almost 8% in total viewers. It was the lowest rating of the entire now 19 season run.
The total viewers were 7.3 million down from 7.9 million last week. This spells the end of the show come next spring because at this rate “NCIS” will be down to 6 million viewers by then. It will just be too expensive to produce. And why bother anyway? The heyday is over. Nineteen seasons is a huge accomplishment. Time to give it up.
Harmon knew the end was coming. He got out before they hit bottom and can return for a series finale with a victory wave, along with some of the others who’ve left or been written out. Big finale next May, I’d say.
