CBS Skips ‘NCIS: New Orleans’ for Super Bowl Special

CBS’ Tuesday primetime schedule changes are leaving NCIS: New Orleans off this week to make room for a Super Bowl special.

The network will start a night of mostly reruns with a Super Bowl Greatest Commercials 2019 special, hosted by CBS Sports’ Boomer Esiason and NCIS: Los Angeles star Daniela Ruah.

The show will offer viewers the opportunity to vote live on social media for the “All-Time Funniest Super Bowl Commercial” during the program, airing from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on CBS.

The special will also have special appearance from other CBS stars and include the world premieres of two new ads from this year’s NFL event for Hyundai and “Avocados from Mexico.”

Originally, the special program was going to be followed by the annual State of the Union address typically televised on the last week of January. Due to the record-making government shutdown, 2019’s address was delayed a week and will now air on Tuesday, Feb. 5.

In its place Tuesday, CBS will air rerun episodes of crime procedurals NCIS at 9 p.m. and new series FBI at 10 p.m. ET. FBI recently received a Season 2 renewal from the network, along with new series Magnum P.I. and The Neighborhood. New series God Friended Me also received a Season 2 renewal earlier on Tuesday.

The State of the Union next week will once again leave NCIS: New Orleans out of the primetime schedule, meaning the series will not return with a new episode until Feb. 12.

The State of the Union will likely also affect the latest new episodes of NCIS and FBI, though the network has not made an official announcement of schedule adjustments so far. Currently the CBS TV schedule page lists an episode of new reality television series The World’s Best, premiering after the Super Bowl Sunday, will air at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, Feb. 5 followed by the address.

Originally slated to air on Feb. 5, NCIS: New Orleans will likely return on Feb. 12 with “X.” The official synopsis for the episode reads: “NCIS investigates the disappearance of a Navy entomologist after a deadly shooting at a research lab. Nero (LeVar Burton), with Naval Intelligence, joins the investigation when the team discovers a rare and deadly virus was also stolen.”

The NCIS spinoff series recently made a big move when Pride’s (Scott Bakula) father Cassius Pride (Stacy Keach) was killed off in the winter finale after getting kidnapped and sacrificing himself to save his son at the end of the episode.

NCIS: New Orleans stars Bakula, Lucas Black, Vanessa Ferlito, Necar Zadegan, Rob Kerkovich, Daryl “Chill” Mitchell and CCH Pounder.