Why There Is No New NCIS This Week (December 23) & When Flagship & Origins Return

Warning: This article contains spoilers for NCIS season 22.It's been an enormous season for NCIS, with the flagship series NCIS: Origins airing back-to-back on Monday nights. However, there won't be a new episode of either series this Monday, with the holidays in full swing. Both NCIS series aired a holiday episode last week, with Christmas trees decorating each office. Seamus Dever's Gabrielle LaRoche NCIS character returned to the flagship for the special installment, explaining where the potential NCIS mole had been in the weeks prior. The NCIS season 22 premiere introduced this potential villain as Special Agent Knight rejoined the team, making for an exciting new chapter.

Something covert is happening at NIS, too, back in 1991. The series follows the central NCIS character, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, and other NCIS: Origins characters who decorate the timeline of what happened to Gibbs' wife and daughter in NCIS. The prequel revealed before the break that Gibbs has found and hunted his family's killer. The NCIS: Origins story has brought in new characters to embellish what the traumatic time was like for Gibbs. The mid-season finale introduced a critical figure of Gibbs' background and hinted that someone hid information about the sniper who appeared in the NCIS: Origins premiere.

Why There Is No New NCIS Season 22 & NCIS: Origins This Week (December 23)

NCIS Does Not Have New Episodes For Christmas Week

Taking a winter break, as is typical in network TV, NCIS and NCIS: Origins will re-air their premiere episodes. The rerun will bring the seasons' beginnings back into view for NCIS franchise audiences, who have just watched the mid-season finales of both series and are processing various plot points. In the mid-season finale of NCIS season 22, the heat is out at the Navy Yard as Parker's team solves the case of a scandalous tell-all book that threatens the reputation of a crucial veterans bill. NCIS Deputy Director LaRoche joins Parker's team for the case after a brief hiatus.

Meanwhile, in the NCIS: Origins mid-season finale, Gibbs navigates the fallout of his Pedro Hernandez secret as flashbacks hone in on a critical character, Ruth, who was previously unknown to the NCIS franchise. Ruth's story allows Lala and Gibbs to reconnect as the latter improves the NIS storage room, where he finds evidence that someone is hiding about their sniper case from the series premiere. Therefore, it's the perfect time for fans to be reminded about what happened in the NCIS: Origins pilot, where the series introduces Jamison "Bugs" Boyd, who Vera Strickland then interviews for her NIS profiling program.

When Will NCIS Season 22, Episode 10 & NCIS: Origins Episode 11 Release?

NCIS & NCIS: Origins Return To CBS On January 27

After this break, NCIS and NCIS: Origins return to CBS on Monday, January 27, 2025. While the massive television franchise airs more episodes than many series, NCIS and Origins will join the rest of CBS' 2024-2025 roster for its holiday break, promising fresh programming in the new year. Fans will have to wait a while to see the stories from the mid-season finale play out, but both series will go on longer than NCIS season 21's 10 episodes, due to the dual SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. When NCIS returns, each series has time to explore stories teased before the break.

NCIS will return with season 22, episode 11, and NCIS: Origins will return with season 1, episode 11, in the new year. NCIS: Origins will be continuing its freshman season while renewal for NCIS: Origins season 2 hangs in the balance. The status of NCIS season 23 is also unclear. That said, as one of the most popular television shows, NCIS shows no signs of slowing down. Therefore, as they prepare for their 2025 return, NCIS and Origins will likely focus on some big mysteries while setting up other cliffhangers for the more robust summer breaks.

What To Expect From NCIS Season 22, Episode 10 & NCIS: Origins Episode 11

NCIS and NCIS: Origins are setting up exciting mysteries to continue in episodes 10 and 11, respectively. We still don't know who the mole is in NCIS season 22 following the premiere episode, but Timothy McGee and others have reason to suspect NCIS Deputy Director Gabrielle LaRoche. NCIS season 22, episode 9 explains that LaRoche had been missing because he was overseas, but he returned in this episode. With episode 9 bringing their prime suspect back into the Major Case Response Team's orbit, hopefully, they will make headway on their mole while delving into personal stories.

NCIS: Origins will continue the mystery it teased in the mid-season finale after the break, with season 1, episode 10 bringing back Bugs. Gibbs' finding of shredded documents that conclude there was another sniper in their premiere case hints that someone at NIS is covering up crucial information about their investigation. The development suggests more covert behavior at NIS, following Mike Franks revealing Pedro Hernandez's whereabouts to Gibbs and the gunny covering up his murder. With secrets swirling around the characters, we can expect NCIS to peel back the curtain on some mysteries.