Is Young Sheldon To Blame For NCIS: Hawaii's Cancellation? It's Complicated

The various teams featured throughout the "NCIS" franchise have put all sorts of criminals behind bars and foiled numerous plans. Sadly, the crew featured on "NCIS: Hawai'i" was no match for a young nerd who says "Bazinga" ... maybe. 

Fans of the procedural were no doubt devastated when it came to light that "NCIS: Hawai'i" would end after Season 3 with an open-ended finale. The reason as to why "NCIS: Hawai'i" was canceled seemingly came down to budget constraints, but the success of "Young Sheldon" may have also played a role. Matt Roush of TV Insider addressed the cancelation and claimed it had to do with CBS wanting to dive headfirst into a new prequel series — "NCIS: Origins" — which will follow the story of a young Leroy Gibbs, originally played by Mark Harmon on "NCIS." 

"Blame the success of 'Young Sheldon,' which showed that telling a fan-favorite character's origin story ... could still draw fans of the original series, especially those who have been longing to hear the voice of Mark Harmon, who'll be narrating the series much the way Jim Parsons did for 'Young Sheldon,'" Roush theorized. Take that statement with a grain of salt, but the idea of a Young Gibbs series certainly appears to be in the same vein as "Young Sheldon," which recently ended its run after seven seasons. CBS may want a new prequel show to fill in the gap, and there may not have been enough space on the lineup for "NCIS: Hawai'i" and its high production costs.

The cancelation of "NCIS: Hawai'i" hit fans particularly hard. Following the news, viewers paid for a "Save NCIS: Hawai'i" billboard to display in Times Square, a common tactic in fandoms in a last-ditch effort to save their favorite series. When the procedural aired its unexpected series finale on May 6, it managed to capture 5.41 million viewers in its Monday night slot, one of the high points for its Season 3 as a whole. Even that doesn't seem to be enough to resurrect the spinoff, as it's out with the old and in with the new. 

Amy Reisenbach, president of CBS Entertainment, spoke to Variety about unexpectedly ending the show: "Everything came back [from the Hollywood strikes] really strong, but ultimately we have to look at the cohesiveness of the schedule flow. We have to evaluate the financials and the performance overall, and we make tough decisions." While CBS has decided not to pursue any more "NCIS: Hawai'i," the franchise as a whole still seems particularly lucrative. In addition to moving ahead with the Gibbs prequel series, the company has greenlit "NCIS: Tony and Ziva," which will go directly to Paramount+. 

With a cancellation after only three seasons, "NCIS: Hawai'i" is the shortest-running "NCIS" show to date. One would surmise "NCIS: Hawai'i" characters like Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) and Jesse Boone (Noah Mills) could still hypothetically appear in other "NCIS" shows to assist now and again. As for now, the books on "NCIS: Hawai'i" are closed, and this is one cold case that probably isn't getting reopened.