‘NCIS’ Star Brian Dietzen on the ‘Joy’ of Having Guests on New Podcast and Who He Hopes Joins in the Future (Exclusive)

CBS has launched a new NCIS podcast with stars Brian Dietzen and Diona Reasonover, and Dietzen spoke to PopCulture.com about the guests they’re bringing on.

The first episode of NCIS: Partners & Probies is available now.

Each episode of the podcast “pulls back the curtain on the world of NCIS with revealing, heartfelt, and humorous conversations with cast, crew, creatives, and real-world experts.” While the first episode included just Dietzen and Reasonover, who interviewed each other, the following episodes will bring on special guests, so much so that Dietzen had a hard time picking a favorite.

“I think that’s a little bit of a tough one because it’s one of those things where you’re going, ‘Oh, they’re all my favorites.’ But truthfully, there’s some wonderful unexpected stuff that comes out of every single episode, stuff that I had no idea would come out of people’s mouths, as far as whether it’s their background or just funny anecdotes that they tell from working on NCIS or any of our sister shows,” Dietzen said. “But, of course, it’s just a joy to have people on that I work with every single day, and yet now I get to ask them questions that maybe wouldn’t come up in daily life.”

“Like the number two episode is our dear friend Wilmer Valderrama,” he continued. “And we also get to check in with our friends at NCIS: Origins as well. So there hasn’t been necessarily a favorite episode so far as much as favorite stories that I would have from each one.”

Meanwhile, even though the podcast is just getting started, and there are plenty of guests to look forward to, such as Daniela Ruah from NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS co-creator Don McGill, among many, many others, Dietzen already has some ideas as to who else he’d want to bring on.

“I think some dream guests that I would have would be actors who got a start on our show and gone on to do much larger pieces of work afterwards,” the actor revealed. “And I think it’s because there are so many actors over the course of 500 episodes that come through here and they do one guest star, and then they move on and do a guest star on this other show, and then maybe recurring over here, maybe series regulars eventually, or maybe a hit movie, and we’re a very meaningful stepping stone on that path to success.”

“But I would love to have some people on that have been on that train,” he continued. “I’m thinking of, like, Glenn Powell. He did a wonderful two-part episode on our show about post-traumatic stress in the military, which was beautiful. He did a wonderful job. Jesse Plemmons did a wonderful episode. I know Zac Efron was incredible on our show. Skye Marshall, who’s now on Matlock, was wonderful on our show as well.”

“So there’s all of these different actors who have gone on a great, great success, and I would love to see how NCIS helped in any way and kinda get some stories out of them of what that was like for them,” Dietzen concluded.

There will be much to look forward to with NCIS: Partners & Probies, many fun guests and many stories, both fun and emotional, if it’s anything like the first episode. Whether or not Dietzen will get his wish with his dream guests is hard to tell, but NCIS has 23 seasons under its belt, soon-to-be 24. A lot of stars got their start on the series, so it would definitely be a full-circle moment.

For now, new episodes of NCIS: Partners & Probies drop on Tuesdays wherever podcasts are available and on the official NCIS YouTube channel. The first episode is out now.