A new CBS promotional post for the summer is drawing flak from many fans as it uses several images from the cancelled NCIS: Hawai’i spinoff. Despite being the youngest US-based offshoot, only premiering in 2021, from the famed procedural franchise, NCIS: Hawai’i quickly gained notoriety, building a solid viewership. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem enough for CBS to give the series more time to develop and fully reach its potential as the network unceremoniously pulled the plug on it after NCIS: Hawai’i season 3. Since then, its viewers have been advocating for the project to be resurrected.
As if CBS hasn’t received enough criticism for its cancellation, a new Instagram post from the official NCIS account uses a few images from NCIS: Hawai’i to usher in the summer season. Check out the problematic post below:
The carousel of photos includes a total of 7 images from various shows in the NCIS franchise. Three of those come from NCIS: Hawai’i, even though the spinoff has already been cancelled. In the comment section, fans are unhappy with this, considering the circumstances. Others bring attention to the movement that aims for CBS to bring back the beloved spinoff.
Why NCIS: Hawai’i’s Cancellation Is So Controversial
For a while, NCIS: Hawai’i was in a bubble, but considering the rather late renewal of NCIS season 22, there was confidence that it was only a matter of time before the offshoot got its season 4 order. Unfortunately, the network opted against it, leading to its abrupt end. It marks the third spinoff from the famed police procedural franchise to end, following NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans. Any project that goes through this kind of ending is painful, but there are other factors that make this worse, including data that was subsequently revealed.
Not long after it was announced that NCIS: Hawai’i was ending, viewership data from the latest network TV year was released. That somehow made CBS’ decision to cancel the expansion show look much worse. According to the numbers, NCIS: Hawai’i ranked as the 16th overall most-watched series during the 2023-2024 season, which is a significant climb in the charts from its previous year. This means that the show was growing, which should have been a good enough motivator for CBS to give it another year. For some reason, however, it was still cancelled.
Finally, NCIS: Hawai’i season 3 ended on a major cliffhanger, as Jane Tennant reunites with Maggie Shaw. Their meeting was clearly setting up the series’ next overarching storyline, but now, it would remain unfulfilled. This is unless CBS changes its mind about the procedural and realizes the error of its ways. In any case, there’s precedent for them walking back on cancellation decisions, so this may not be impossible to achieve.
