NCIS fans, mark your calendars! CBS has finally announced premiere date of the sixth season of the police procedural drama, following a season 5 ender that left fans big bomb shells to ponder on for several months.

Just like previous seasons, the sixth season of NCIS will occupy the Tuesday, 8pm slot, beginning September 23. The series that mixes drama with a liberal dose of humor will serve as a lead in for the series debut of The Mentalist at 9pm, which will be followed by the 7th season premiere of Without a Trace at 10pm.

Meanwhile, fans have a lot of things to look forward to as NCIS heads for a new season. In the two-part season 5 finale, the team lost one of its own, Director Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly), who was killed in a shootout, while for Tony (Michael Weatherly), Ziva (Cote de Pablo), Tim (Sean Murray) were seemingly reassigned, leaving Gibbs (Mark Harmon) with a seemingly new team.

But as reported previously, NCIS executive producer Shane Brennan already hinted that fans will not be disappointed as the show won’t pull another House-shakeup when it returns with new episodes. While this may clam down its raging fans, he did, however, reveal that the new season will be packed with action and heart-pounding suspense.

Moreover, fans can also look forward to a new NCIS director in the form of Rocky Carroll, who has been enlisted as a series regular as replacement for Lauren Holly’s character. You can read more about this casting news in this previous article.

To east the long wait, fans can also grab a copy of the fifth season DVD. Aside from the 19 episodes of the strike-interrupted season, the DVD set will also include some bonus features as well.

NCIS also stars Mark Harmon as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Cote de Pablo as Ziva David, David McCallum as Donald “Ducky” Mallard, Michael Weatherly as Anthony DiNozzo, Pauley Perrette as Abby Sciuto and Sean Murray as Timothy McGee.