'NCIS' Season 17 Premiere and Ziva's Return: How to Watch, What Time and What Channel

The night NCIS fans have been waiting for is finally here! Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) is set to continue her triumphant return to the CBS crime procedural with Tuesday night's Season 17 premiere, airing on CBS. Fans can watch the action play out live at 8 p.m. ET.

Viewers with DVR systems can also record the episode and watch it later, but make sure the times are set correctly so you don't miss a second of the action. The episode will also be made available on demand and will be available to stream on CBS All Access and CBS.com after the episode airs.

It has been a long summer for fans of the CBS crime procedural. The Season 16 finale dropped a big bomb on fans in its final seconds when the long presumed dead Ziva walked into Gibbs' (Mark Harmon) basement and warned him of an imminent threat on his life.

"Hello Gibbs. No time for pleasantries. You're in danger," she told Gibbs in the scene. "Well, aren't you going to say something?"

Gibbs was left in shock, saying only Ziva's name before the episode ended.

The trailer for the episode teased an action-packed hour that will keep the old friends busy, as they try to outrun the mysterious threat.

Ahead of the premiere, de Pablo spoke on Rachael Ray about returning to the series after five years.

"I thought coming back would be fantastic, and I thought, you know, if you're going to bring me back, just make sure that you understand that the character's been gone for five years, and that obviously, whatever she's been doing these five years are crucial, meaning, if she's disappeared, if she hasn't kept in touch with anyone, if she's in an undercover mission, make that relevant to the story," she said on the show. "Make that be complex and mysterious, so then you can draw from that to make this a riveting story."

Ziva is set to appear in four episodes of Season 17, with co-showrunner Frank Cardea previously teasing it will be "two early on and two fall/winter."

Speaking with TVInsider earlier this month, de Pablo and Harmon teased an eventful first episode of the season.

"We and other cast members are in scuffles. It's very active," Harmon teased. "Ziva and Gibbs have different ideas for how to go from point A to point B. The driving is contested."

"Gibbs takes the keys," de Pablo joked at the time, adding how she got back in the swing of things with the show's fight sequences. "In the fight sequences, I was a little rusty, but you start working on something and go, "Oh, my God, that's right. I really like this." The choreography comes back into your body incredibly quickly. It's fun!"

NCIS premieres Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.