Jennifer Esposito‘s tenure at NCIS has come to an end.
The actress is leaving the CBS drama after one season as a series regular, our sister site Deadline reports.
Esposito joined the show’s cast in last fall’s Season 14 premiere, playing NCIS Special Agent Alexandra “Alex” Quinn. An instructor at the Law Enforcement Training Center, Quinn was lured back into field work by Mark Harmon’s Gibbs.
The character of Quinn was conceived by former showrunner Gary Glasberg shortly before his death last September. According to Deadline, the show is going in a new creative direction for Season 15. During last month’s finale, Quinn received two unexplained calls from her mother, which might account for her absence next season.
Esposito — who previously parted ways with CBS’ Blue Bloods after two-plus seasons, amid a dispute about a reduced schedule due to her Celiac disease — called her time on NCIS “a great experience. I could not have asked for a better opportunity than to work with the NCIS cast and producers.”
NCIS returns for Season 15 on Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 8/7c on CBS.
NCIS fans, will you miss Alex? Hit the comments to share your thoughts on the departure.
I like Exposito a lot. Judging Amy, Blue Bloods (so sad the way she was treated by producers) and I was enjoying having her in NCIS. What a pity! Why is she leaving? Diabetes and schedule?
All the best for her!
FYI, she doesn’t have Diabetes…she has Celiac Disease. ;)
They should leave the show alone. Jennifer was one of the best additions to the cast. Liked her character better than Bishop
I completely agree.
If a character had to leave it should have been Emily Wickersham. Jennifer Esposito is a much better actress.
She is a very talented actress that doesn’t last long on shows. And none of her costars ever seem to miss her. Maybe she’s the problem.
I thought this same thing.
Bummer. I really liked her. She was good on Blue Bloods and hilarious on Samantha Who.
Jennifer Esposito’s departure on NCIS isn’t going to be the same. At least they still have Emily Wickersham.
Sad to read, I really liked her and I favoured her over ‘Torres.’ Hopefully she can return at a later date.
I really like Jennifer Esposito, but I didn’t like her NCIS character. In fact, I don’t love Wilmer Valderrama’s either… I wish they’d just keep the MI6 guy to round out the team? I dunno. It’s not the same without Tony. I know he’s not coming back, they move on, blah blah, but it’s definitely a different dynamic that hasn’t quite gelled for me.
I think Tony brought a lot of humor and irreverence that they’re missing now.
No doubt it was the subtext of the actor, Michael Weatherly, and it can’t be duplicated. Did you ever see him on Dark Angel? He brought that same mood to a rather dark show, and he was delightful. Hmmm…maybe they should let Weatherly pick the next actor?
Oh please no. I know Tony was a popular character, but I personally never cared for DiNozzo – although the character improved after Ziva left. And I found plenty of humor in this past season. For me, I was willing to put up with a character I wasn’t particularly fond of because there were so many other characters and things I loved.
My favorite Tony seasons were 1 and 2, where he was smart AND funny. He used to explain things to Kate and did more running & physical action. His character started to go downhill when someone decided he should be the clown but didn’t offset that with his street smarts and general knowledge of Naval terms, etc. I stuck with him for many seasons, though.
Kate didn’t do anything but belittle him every chance she got.
And DiNozzo teased and taunted Kate every chance he got–and your point is?
I’m talking about Tony, Jeanne, not Kate. I think I was clear, Eyeroll, made my point in my first and second sentences.
I started watching NCIS years ago after I saw a rerun on USA Network. I watched the episode “Frame Up” and once I saw the scene where Tony interrogates himself in a jail cell, I was hooked. Fell in love with his character. So now that he’s gone I barely pay attention to NCIS. It’s just background noise while I wait for Bull to come on.
She was my least favorite of the new additions last season. I hope the rest of the cast remains intact.
Agree, she was my least favorite of the new additions. I also hope the rest of the cast stays in tact.
I was just asking last week whether NCIS would trim a regular cast member. I think they just hired too many people, and someone needed to go (although I thought the character of Reeves might’ve been the odd one out.)
I like the actress but didn’t really care for her character on NCIS. She didn’t do anything and it was one extra person to try and include in the storyline. I like the core team and I think they’ll find their own groove. Looking forward to 15.
I really liked Jennifer’s character on this show. I am wondering if she is having some health problems? I like her on Blue Bloods, but there again she left and that stunned me. I wish her the best in whatever her next adventure may be.
Doesn’t seem to be a health problem, or at least something related to Celiac, as she was pretty quick to rip into CBS before about what happened with Blue Bloods.
I will definitely miss her, she was a wonderful character. Sad to see her leave. :(
I wish they would have never cancelled Samantha Who?…Esposito was great in that show. I will say I wouldn’t have minded seeing Bishop go but I hopefully they cut at least one more cast member because they had way too many. I’m curious to see what direction they go in before I decide if I’ll pick it back up. I dropped it right before the Palmer-centric episode. I’m not sure what needs to happen but this season was just way too far off the rails.
It’s too bad you dropped it when you did. The Palmer-centric episode was one of the best ever episodes, and the last part of the season definitely had the best episodes.
I like her but I am starting to wonder why she cant stay on a show long term…
I liked her OK but it’s not a major loss. I kinda felt they were playing around with extra characters to see which ones worked. I like Emily a lot — she can hold down the female role — it was a bit crowded. I’m also wondering if she was asking for more money than they were willing to pay. The other new ones should also be in contract negotiations. Time will tell. I’m happy as long as Mark Harmon hangs in there (hoping he will go for a 16 after 15, which was secured a while ago in a two year deal.
Didn’t care for her character. Won’t miss her.
Quinn was easily the best of last season’s new additions. They should have turfed Torres instead.
I like her in most things but she rubbed me the wrong way on NCIS. I didn’t like her or Torres all that much so I’m not mad at this. And hopefully it will allow her to finally find a long term project where she can really shine.
I liked her and the husband did not, the same as with Blue Bloods. I’ll miss her character and interactions with the team.
Love her wonderful actress will be miss 😔
Ironically many people liked either the Quinn character or the Torres character, but usually not both. I think in the long run Torres seemed to fit in better, especially in the second half of the season when the new show runners were really moving beyond what the late Gary Glasberg had planned. Personally I preferred Torres, since I thought he brought a good dynamic with McGee and Gibbs, especially in the finale. I do wonder what other changes are in store for the new season.
Well yeah – guess Les finally got around to watching the shows on his network in summer reruns and decided it was NCIS’ turn to have a female actress fired summarily.
See also: CBS’ history of firing actresses for little reason and barely hiring them in the first place.
We will miss Agent Quinn! A delightful character! I hope she changes her mind, or the producers change theirs. I just hope that “going in a new direction” doesn’t ruin the show as has happened to so many others
I liked both of them, though Valderrama more. I especially like Tim’s new take -charge attitude. Tony was a bully who tormented Tim (and others ) and was a TERRIBLE roll model in this day and age. He was a TOTAL JERK and I’m delighted he’s gone.
At this point, why cast her on regular roles, if she can’t commit long-term?
I get she has health issues, but then, perhaps, it would be better even for her that she remained in film, where commitments are shorter and can be paced with considerable breaks between them.
Was it her health or did they just trim the character, it doesn’t say so.
She’s known for being unable to handle the very tough and demanding schedule of a network series, saying her doctor says she needs to work part-time, which has led her to take series projects and then either ask out or be let go because her health stops her from keeping up.
Food that’s gluten free can be shockingly hard to get on sets, so longer hours of filming + food you can’t eat = either starve or risk adverse allergic reactions (which thanks to Celiac can be a massive wild card). I don’t know what a TV set is like but I did grip work on a Lifetime movie last year and I remember their food service basically being sandwiches and drinks.
It had nothing to do with her health. According to the article the show is going in a different direction.
“Different direction” and “creative differences” are the terms used when they want to play down the real reasons.
I’m not surprised, in that there were plenty of ‘hints’ dropped, re the character’s mother, etc. I know others liked her character on NCIS but over the course of the season it seemed like the character’s initial enthusiasm waned. By season’s end, her role on the team had diminished quite a bit. I’m a McGee, Gibbs and Bishop fan, I wasn’t thrilled with what seemed like a ‘cast of thousands’ suddenly crowding the bullpen this past season and figured not all would return. I wish Ms. Esposito all the best and I can’t wait to see in what direction George and Frank (the new showrunners) take NCIS in season 15.
…and yet another female character disappears from NCIS. I’m not really surprised,
No. She meant nothing to the story lines.
I liked her in Blue Bloods. It was sad to see her leave that show. I hope she finds just the right show to be on. I’m not keen on Torres either. I’m not into his story line.
I really like the MI5 character. I hope they expand his story line.
I also love Dr Jimmy Palmer. I hope they expand his story line also.
I miss Tony DiNozzo. He brought a kooky humor to the show. Love love Miss Abby Schuto.
Will miss her interaction with Wilmer Valderams
Not surprising since the visionary for her character is no longer able to chart her arc. I actually liked her character and would have preferred Clayton Reeves to go instead if they were forced to get rid of someone.
Didn’t really care for her anyway. Wilmer Valderrama plays a much more interesting character. He was all that was needed to replace Michael Weatherly.
Will not miss. Added nothing to the show. It has gone downhill with all this soap opera garbage. Need Ziva back . The show has run its course, let it close.
Didn’t like it when she left blue bloods n will miss her from ncis.
Good. I like her as an actress, but the character didn’t add anything to the show. Now, if they’d ditch “Torres”, who is just obnoxious.
Big fan of Jennifer’s. She advocates for those of us with celiac. Hope she finds a great spot to keep for a while.
I grew accustomed to Quinn but I won’t miss the character. I don’t know how true this is but I read that there might be a Tony and ziva reunion next season, even though she is supposed to be dead, I thought they said there was no body found. Wasn’t David mccallum supposed to leave the show because he wanted to retire, does anyone know if he is staying or leaving the show
They did explain why her mother called and I liked her in the show. She’ll be missed.