NCIS

The fifth season of NCIS left viewers with a Major Case Response Team (MCRT) lacking of one special agent. NCIS  director Jenny Shepard, portrayed by Lauren Holly, was fatally wounded in a shootout in connection with the case in France where she met Gibbs and eventually died in the season 5 finale.

As NCIS heads into the sixth season, Gibbs (Mark Harmon), DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), McGee (Sean Murray) and the rest of the special agents will have a new authority figure to look up to as producers of the police procedural series have already named Jenny Shepard's replacement.

According to Variety, Rocky Carroll has been enlisted as a series regular to fill the void on the veteran crime drama.  This 44-year-old actor is no stranger to the series.  In fact, he plays a recurring character named Leon Vance, who was introduced as Assistant Director in the fifth season of the show.

As the new director, Vance announced that Gibbs would be getting a new team, while the former team will be disbanded and reassigned at the end of season 5.  He was also seen destroying a page out of his personnel file just before doing that.

This casting news continues the NCIS connection to the drama Chicago Hope, seeing that Carroll, who played Dr. Keith Wilkes on Chicago Hope, already replaced Holly on the same series.  It also reunites Carroll with yet another Hope alum, NCIS star Mark Harmon.

Aside from the aforementioned series, Carroll has appeared on shows like The Agency, Boston Legal, The West Wing, and Family Law.  On the big screen, he has landed roles in Born on the Fourth of July, The Ladies Man, Crimson Tide and A Prelude to a Kiss.  This year, he'll be starring in the comedy film Yes Man, along with Zooey Deschanel, Jim Carrey and Sasha Alexander.


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Variety
(Image courtesy of WireImage.com)