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. » More

On August 26, 2008, Paramount Home Entertainment will release NCIS – The Fifth Season on DVD. The complete fifth season of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service will span nearly fourteen hours of footage over five discs. Currently, no bonus materials have been announced for the set, but expect the DVD to be available for the MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) of $55.98.

Source: IGN.com

Meanwhile, Michael Weatherly hammed it up. Appropriately enough, in the first episode back — titled “Stakeout” — Weatherly delivers the line, “It feels like we’ve been sitting around doing nothing for months.”

Source: TV Guide

NCIS’ (Tuesdays, 8 pm/ET, CBS) Michael Weatherly shares how Tom Hanks changed his life, his thoughts on turning 40 and why he’s not like DiNozzo.

TV Guide: What can you say about the reports of turmoil on the set, which ended with creator Don Bellisario leaving the show?
Michael Weatherly: I stay largely outside the politics of the show. I learned two lessons on another show [Dark Angel, in which he costarred with — and became engaged to — Jessica Alba]: The less I say the better, and don’t date your costar! So Mark Harmon and I have never dated. Though the Silver Fox and I did spend a week in Vermont that nobody knows about.

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Scan a list of TV’s top 10 programs and you’d expect to find the durably popular “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” But now it’s got unlikely company from another series with an alphabet-soup title: “NCIS.”

CBS’s drama about navy crimebusters has managed the neat trick of climbing in the ratings in its fifth season, even as many new shows and some veteran ones are finding it tough this fall to woo viewers.

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