When NCIS: Sydney was initially planned, it was only going to head to Paramount+ in the United States. That changed due to the summer 2023 strike action, and now that change seems permanent.
NCIS: Sydney was supposed to be a Paramount+ series. Things changed during the summer of 2023 when the strikes caused major delays for usual primetime shows.
With NCIS, FBI, and others held for the midseason due to writing and production delays, CBS had to rework the fall plans. That meant bringing shows that were on Paramount+ to the linear network. SEAL Team made a lot of sense since the series originally aired on CBS, but there was also the decision to move NCIS: Sydney to linear.
Why did NCIS: Sydney get a linear outing?
The move for this series made a lot of sense as well. CBS wanted to keep an NCIS lineup in some way. While reruns were plausible and worked for Mondays, having fresh episodes of an NCIS series was even better.
CBS opted to put NCIS: Sydney on the linear network to help br ing something of the franchise to the network. It even took the former NCIS timeslot of 8/7c on Tuesdays, further helping to gain audiences to check out the series.
It worked. The show performed well in the timeslot, and it didn’t take too long for it to be renewed.
NCIS: Sydney Season 2 will get a spring linear outing
With the success of the first season, it’s not all that surprising to see CBS put the second season on the network as well. This time, it’s going to take over the Friday 8 p.m. ET/PT timeslot, as SWAT moves to the Blue Bloods timeslot in the spring.
It will be interesting to see if the show can kick off Friday nights well. While Friday night was once the death slot for TV shows, CBS has shown that this timeslot works. The success of SWAT, Fire Country, and Blue Bloods is clear. So, there is a lot of hope for NCIS: Sydney.
My only complaint is that by putting Sydney on in the linear timeslot, it proves that there was a slot for a shortened season of NCIS: Hawaii. CBS could have opted to keep Sydney as a streaming show and brought us closure for the Hawaii team, especially considering NCIS: Hawaii performed better in the linear ratings than Sydney.
There isn’t a release date for NCIS: Sydney on CBS in the spring. We’ll probably get that date around November or December 2024.