1 Year Later, CBS Just Made NCIS: Hawai’i’s Shocking Season 3 Cancellation Even Worse

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The main NCIS show started the current TV season strongly. However, a plotline introduced in Season 23 seems to have contributed to the cancellation of its spin-off, NCIS: Hawai’i, which ended a year prior. The season began with a dramatic two-part episode featuring Alden Parker (Gary Cole) trapped on a sinking ship called the Quentin while pursuing Carla Marino (Rebecca De Mornay). His sister, Harriet (Nancy Travis), holds the key to his survival, creating a tense and suspenseful situation.

Parker survived a dangerous situation and said goodbye to his father, Roman (Francis X. McCarthy), in the latest episode. The show is delving deeper into Parker’s past, introducing his sister and father as he investigates his mother’s death. Meanwhile, Director Vance (Rocky Carroll) is assigning Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) to separate cases, and one of these new investigations seems to be connected to a recent development.

NCIS: Hawai’i’s Abrupt Cancellation After Season 3 Explained

During the third season of NCIS: Hawai’i, CBS announced the show’s cancellation, which came as a shock to Jane Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) and her team. CBS executive Amy Reisenbach explained the decision was due to ratings, costs, and the network’s overall programming strategy. Despite the show generally performing well, many fans speculated that Hawai’i was canceled to make space for new series like NCIS: Origins, which represented a shift in the direction of the NCIS franchise.

Despite CBS claiming the cancellation helped keep their programming current, NCIS: Hawai’i was the most diverse show in the entire NCIS franchise. The series was groundbreaking, featuring a female Asian-American lead agent, and Lachey broke new ground for the show. It also offered the best representation of LGBTQ+ storylines, with the character quickly becoming popular with viewers.

Viewers launched a campaign to try and save NCIS: Hawai’i after the network unexpectedly announced its cancellation. While CBS had previously revived another series following fan pressure, the Hawai’i fans weren’t successful this time. The show was canceled in April 2024, just weeks before the season finale aired. The situation was made even more frustrating by the fact that Season 3 ended with a cliffhanger, reintroducing Jane’s former mentor, Maggie Shaw, with an unresolved mystery.

Everyone involved with NCIS: Hawai’i – the actors and crew – was as upset and surprised by the show’s cancellation as the viewers were. They felt completely caught off guard. The suddenness of the decision was confirmed by those working on the show, especially considering the cliffhanger ending of Season 3, which suggested they anticipated a continuation. Actor Noah Anderson shared that the cancellation was a significant setback for inclusive representation, a sentiment many fans of the show shared.

NCIS Season 23 Brings Back NCIS Elite From NCIS: Hawai’i

In Season 3 of NCIS: Hawai’i, a specialized NCIS team called Elite was introduced, led by Sam Hanna (LL Cool J). Their main objective quickly became stopping Compound X, a dangerous airborne chemical weapon capable of killing many people almost instantly. Although Hanna’s team, with assistance from Tennant and her colleagues, found the bioweapon, Annalise Cruz (Rachel Mars) unleashed it to avoid being caught, tragically killing all members of the NCIS Elite team within minutes.

The team led by Jane Tennant didn’t have a chance to deal with the fallout from previous events, but the storyline has been brought back in Season 23 of NCIS. In Episode 3, Vance asks Jess to join NCIS Elite, and Knight informs her team that the task force is being reinstated and she’s been selected for training for future operations. Knight’s background in REACT Training makes her a strong candidate. However, she overlooks the opportunity to include Tennant’s team in the revival.

NCIS Shouldn’t Bring Back NCIS: Hawai’i’s Storyline Without Jane Tennant’s Team

As a big fan of NCIS: Hawai’i, I was really disappointed to see how things played out with Jane and her team. They were completely sidelined, and their storylines were left unfinished. So, when the main NCIS show picked up one of the biggest arcs from Hawai’i – the aftermath of that shocking massacre of NCIS Elite – without even acknowledging them, it just felt…wrong. It would have been a classy move to bring Jane and her team back in to deal with the fallout and give them some closure, especially after everything that happened. But the main show didn’t even give them a mention. It’s a shame, honestly.

The show addressed the fate of NCIS: Elite upon its return, allowing the Major Case Response Team to express their sympathy. It felt right to explore what happened to the Elite task force while Sam Hanna was present, as he played a key role in that storyline. However, when the topic resurfaced in Season 23, Jess didn’t acknowledge Hanna or any other characters connected to the spinoff, which would have been a simple way to recognize its history.

It would have made sense for NCIS to bring back characters from NCIS: Hawai’i to continue this storyline. Seeing NCIS Elite without Jane Tennant, Jesse Boone, and the rest of the team just doesn’t feel right. Even if they had been included, some NCIS: Hawai’i fans would likely be upset that the original NCIS series is now exploring a story so central to why Hawai’i was cancelled. NCIS: Hawai’i never got the chance to properly resolve that storyline, and having the main NCIS series take it over feels like a further disappointment to an already unsatisfying ending.

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2025-10-31 19:38