LL Cool J’s Sam Hanna Comes Home: NCIS: New York Premieres Tonight on CBS

Tuesday, October 6, 2026 — Sam Hanna is home. After fourteen seasons in Los Angeles, a dozen episodes in Hawai‘i, and a 2009 introduction on the original NCIS that made him one of the longest-running characters in television history, LL Cool J’s Senior Special Agent finally got his own homecoming Tuesday night. NCIS: New York premiered at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS — the new anchor of the franchise’s Tuesday block — and the pilot did exactly what a franchise launch is supposed to do: it honored seventeen years of history while planting its flag in new territory. That territory is Queens.

The setup is personal by design. Sam returns to his New York hometown when his friend, Navy reservist Jack Halloway, is found dead — a case he can’t walk away from. He requests permission from Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robyn Wells (Jennifer Beals) to investigate his friend’s death, and Wells pairs him with roguish native New Yorker Nick Schaeffer (Scott Caan), who introduces Sam to the rest of the New York field office: clean-cut Wyatt Sellers (Shane Harper), resourceful Addison “Addy” Ross (Jacqueline Byers), and hacker-turned-tech Sean Sullivan (Devin Druid), who joined NCIS as the alternative to going to jail. By the end of the hour, Sam decides he likes being back — and stays.

A Dubai opener, then Queens

The pilot doesn’t ease in. Before any of the homecoming, viewers get a Mission: Impossible-style opening sequence in Dubai, with Sam dispatching four goons in a luxury hotel room — including one memorable moment involving a hotel pen. It’s a deliberate statement from executive producers R. Scott Gemmill (The Pitt, NCIS: Los Angeles co-creator) and showrunner Byron Balasco: this Sam Hanna still does the spy work, stone-faced and smooth, before the story brings him home to do the human work.

And the homecoming is the point. The series shoots across all five boroughs, and LL Cool J — Queens-raised, the man who shot “Around the Way Girl” in his home borough on his way to hip-hop stardom more than three decades ago — treats the location as a co-star. “New York is a main character,” LL Cool J said — “definitely grittier,” and “definitely a whole new iteration of the franchise.” The pilot’s soundtrack makes the argument musically, with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” woven in — and Cool J was struck filming in St. Albans, near Hollis, where he grew up with big dreams: Hollis to Hollywood, gone full circle.

The new partnership: Sam and slick Nicky

The heart of any NCIS series is the partnership, and the pilot knows it. Scott Caan — 50, a decade as Danny Williams on Hawaii Five-0, and no stranger to LL Cool J after their 2012 NCIS: LA/Hawaii Five-0 crossover — plays Nick Schaeffer as the roguish New Yorker to Sam’s steady operator, and the banter starts immediately. The two trade ’80s cop-movie putdowns over everything from the obvious size difference (Cool J’s 6-foot-2, 240-pound frame against Caan’s 5-foot-5) to their differing battles with male baldness. “Scott can take the joke. So can I,” Cool J said of Caan — “I can joke about putting him in a BabyBjörn,” he continues. “He can joke about having hair.”

But there’s one line Schaeffer can’t cross, and the pilot establishes it in the first episode: don’t call Sam “Samuel.” It’s a partner prerogative that gets shot down on sight. “Do not call me Samuel, it’s Sam,” Cool J said of the rule — “I’m clear about that with slick Nicky.” After fourteen seasons alongside Chris O’Donnell’s G. Callen, the show understands that the audience needs to believe this pairing fast — and Caan, who asked for a fresh, clean start rather than reprising Danny Williams, brings the A-game the role demands.

The boss and the team

Jennifer Beals’ Robyn Wells leads the New York field office with intuition and the room’s respect — the kind of boss who can give a hacker the choice between NCIS and jail time, which is exactly how Devin Druid’s Sean Sullivan ended up on the team. Shane Harper’s Wyatt Sellers is the fearless, sharp field agent (and, per the character notes, a hopeless romantic), while Jacqueline Byers’ Addy Ross is the rock-solid agent with something to prove. It’s a classic NCIS ensemble shape — the steady lead, the wildcard partner, the sharp junior agents, the tech wizard — assembled with a New York edge.

And the universe is already bleeding through. Showrunner Byron Balasco confirmed that franchise crossovers are coming, starting immediately: “We’ve got Jimmy Palmer popping up right away, and fans will be excited to see him,” the showrunner said. Brian Dietzen’s beloved medical examiner is the first familiar face through the door, with more planned. It’s a smart move — the pilot has to prove it can stand alone, but a little franchise connective tissue reminds the audience this is still the No. 1 TV franchise in the world, now with a fifth series on the board.

A 17-year character, still being discovered

What makes this launch unusual is the weight of history behind it. LL Cool J has played Sam Hanna across four NCIS series — introduced on NCIS in 2009, headlining NCIS: Los Angeles for fourteen seasons, crossing to NCIS: Hawai‘i for twelve episodes — and the pilot treats that history as foundation, not baggage. Sam ended NCIS: LA as a roving special-ops agent taking assignments around the world; off screen, he’s a single parent to son Aiden and daughter Kamran, still carrying the loss of his late wife Michelle, the former CIA officer. Balasco’s rule for the premiere: “The first case really needed to be personally connected and resonating with Sam to bring him home. This is a case he can’t deny. It’s sort of a hero coming home to make things right.”

Cool J himself is still finding new sides of the character after nearly two decades — “still being surprised every day,” as LL Cool J told reporters at the premiere. He’ll even entertain the G.O.A.T. conversation, up to a point: the man who popularized the term with his 2000 album could make the case for Sam as the greatest NCIS player of all time, but he won’t. What he will say is that Sam won’t be the weakest link in the universe. After Tuesday night’s pilot, that doesn’t look like a risk.

Tonight’s triple-header and what’s next

CBS went all-in on the launch: the pilot aired in the middle of a full NCIS Tuesday — Season 24’s “Wayward Son” at 8 p.m. ET/PT, NCIS: New York at 9, and NCIS: Origins Season 3’s “Don’t You Forget About Me” at 10. New episodes air every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS and stream the next day on Paramount+. The schedule is already set: Episode 2, “Family Business,” airs Oct. 13 — a jewelry-store robbery involving military explosives — followed by “Carousel” on Oct. 20. Deadline has reported a 20-episode order for the season, which would put the spinoff in line with the franchise’s traditionally long seasons.

Caan’s mission statement for the show doubles as the pitch to viewers: don’t run away from what works, but don’t just do the same old thing either — and a show set in New York should be “grittier, grimier, and a little more raw and dirty,” Caan said. Tuesday’s pilot made the case. For the full breakdown of tonight’s three-show NCIS lineup, the night belonged to the whole franchise — but the future, at least for now, has a Queens accent.