Thursday, May 21, 2026

Mark Harmon Ratings for “NCIS” Exit Bring Series Low Ratings, Down Whopping 22% in Key Demo from Last Week

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Mark Harmon left “NCIS” last night after 18 seasons. You’d think there would have been a lot of fanfare and an uptick in the ratings.

Alas, last night’s episode was down 22% in the key demo, and almost 8% in total viewers. It was the lowest rating of the entire now 19 season run.

The total viewers were 7.3 million down from 7.9 million last week. This spells the end of the show come next spring because at this rate “NCIS” will be down to 6 million viewers by then. It will just be too expensive to produce. And why bother anyway? The heyday is over. Nineteen seasons is a huge accomplishment. Time to give it up.

Harmon knew the end was coming. He got out before they hit bottom and can return for a series finale with a victory wave, along with some of the others who’ve left or been written out. Big finale next May, I’d say.

 

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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