Why NCIS: Sydney Got Renewed While Hawai'i Got Cancelled

Adam Holmes
·3 min read
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Olivia Swann in red dress and Vanessa Lachey in pink flannel shirt holding wine bottle.
Credit: Daniel Asher Smith/Paramount+, Karen Neal/CBS

2024 has been a good year for the NCIS franchise… for the most part. The flagship show was renewed for Season 22, NCIS: Sydney was renewed for Season 2, and we learned about two new spinoffs that are on the way: the prequel NCIS: Origins, which will debut on CBS sometime on the 2024 TV schedule, and NCIS: Tony & Ziva, which will be exclusive to people with a Paramount+ subscription. But in a case of bad news, NCIS: Hawai’i was cancelled after three seasons. Some of you may be wondering why Hawai’i got the axe, but Sydney made it through, and it turns out there are some clues pointing to the latter being favored by Paramount.

The NCIS Franchise Is Popular In Australia

Even before NCIS: Sydney came along, the NCIS franchise was quite popular in Australia. Dan Monaghan, the Senior Vice President Content & Programming at Paramount ANZ, said as much back in May 2023, around the time Sydney started shooting. At the Screen Forever 2023 event (via TVTonight), Monaghan said that his “boss” had been talking about getting a “version” of NCIS in Australia for a long time, and that wish finally came true.

Additionally, in the announcement of Sydney’s Season 2 renewal (via THR), CBS Entertainment president Amy Reisenbach said that this spinoff helped the “global power of the NCIS franchise” become even stronger. With language like that, it seems as though Sydney was getting more eyes on it from international audiences than Hawai’i was, thus making it an easier decision to have the show continue.

Hawai’i Was Likely More Expensive To Make Than Sydney

Before NCIS: Hawai’i was cancelled, it was reported that if Season 4 had moved forward, the show would have a massive budget cut, which would likely have resulted in the season only being comprised of around 13 episodes rather than the usual 22. According to Deadline, the show’s producers had agreed to this and “other concessions,” but in the end, CBS cancelled it anyway.

So even though Hawai’i and Sydney pulled in similar ratings during this past TV season, one can presume that it’s cheaper to make the spinoff set in the Land Down Under. If that is indeed the case, then it makes sense why Hawai’i ended up on the chopping block from a budgetary standpoint. When you combine that with Sydney’s international appeal, it stands to reason that Paramount felt there was more benefit in just letting that show continue and calling it a day on Hawai’i. Still, there’s been no shortage of disappointment from both fans and the Hawai’i cast members over this turn of events, and earlier this month, Jason Antoon trolled CBS with info that the series ended up No. 16 in total viewers for the 2023-2024 TV season.

So far none of the NCIS shows both established and upcoming have premiere dates yet, but stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates on their progress, and head over to Paramount+ to watch all of the franchise’s offerings.