Country of origin United States Original network CBS | No. of episodes 24 | |
Original release September 22, 2009 (2009-09-22) – May 25, 2010 (2010-05-25) | ||
The first season of the American television series NCIS: Los Angeles premiered on CBS on September 22, 2009, and concluded on May 25, 2010. It is the first spin-off series of NCIS. The series is set in Los Angeles, California, and follows the stories of the members of the Office of Special Projects, an undercover division of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS). The show and its characters were introduced during the sixth-season episodes of NCIS titled "Legend (Part I)" and "Legend (Part II)". These episodes served as a backdoor pilot for the series.
Contents
Season one was originally planned to have thirteen episodes. On October 7, 2009, after rating as the most watched new show of the Fall 2009 U.S. television season, CBS ordered a full set of 22 episodes, which was extended to 24 episodes on November 4, 2009.
Crew
The first season was produced by CBS Television Studios and Shane Brennan Productions and aired on the CBS network. The series was created by Shane Brennan as a spin-off from NCIS, which was created by Donald P. Bellisario. Brennan and R. Scott Gemmill served as executive producers. The writers were Brennan, Gemmill, Dave Kalstein, Gil Grant, Speed Weed, Lindsay Sturman, Tim Clemente, Joseph C. Wilson, and Matt Pyken. Brennan served as the season's show runner.
Main cast
Overview
The first season had 7 actors get star billing. Chris O'Donnell portrayed G. Callen, an NCIS Special Agent in charge of the Office of Special Projects team in Los Angeles. Though his friends call him "G" he does not know what his first name is. LL Cool J portrays Sam Hanna, a former Navy SEAL working as a Senior NCIS agent. Sam is G's partner and is very curious about his past. Daniela Ruah portrayed Kensi Blye, a Junior Field agent on the NCIS Office of Special Projects who comes from a Marine family, studied forensics and criminology in college, and is fluent in Portuguese, lip reading, and Morse code. Adam Jamal Craig portrayed Dominic "Dom" Vail, the team's rookie agent. After his character disappeared in the episode "Missing" he was changed to a guest star. He was written out of the show in the episode "Found" when Dom was fatally wounded while trying to escape from his kidnappers. Peter Cambor portrayed Dr. Nathaniel "Nate" Getz, the operational psychologist working with NCIS observing surveillance tapes and watching or conducting interrogations in order to create psychological profiles of suspects. Nate briefly expressed interest in doing field work but was dissuaded by everyone on the team. Barrett Foa portrayed Eric Beal, the technical operator for the OSP who serves as the primary contact both for agents in the field and with Director Leon Vance. Foa was changed from guest starring to a starring role as of the thirteenth episode of the season. Linda Hunt portrayed Henrietta "Hetty" Lange, the Operations Manager at NCIS in Los Angeles. Hetty has been compared to the character Q in the James Bond novels and films. She guest-starred in the first episode before being upgraded as a series regular the following episode.
Rocky Carroll had a recurring role as Leon Vance, the Director of NCIS.
Brian Avers appeared in three episodes as Special Agent Mike Renko; Pauley Perrette appeared in two episodes as Abby Sciuto, the forensic specialist at NCIS headquarters. Eric Christian Olsen guest starred in two episodes as Marty Deeks, the NCIS / LAPD Liaison Officer.
Ratings
The series premiere episode, "Identity", drew approximately 18.73 million viewers with a 4.4/11 share in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic and therefore won its timeslot. It was the second most watched show of the week, behind the seventh season premiere of sister show NCIS which accumulated 20.61 million viewers. However, ratings were down from the ninth season premiere of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation from the previous year, but was higher than the seventh and final season premiere of Without a Trace, which occupied the same timeslot during the 2008-09 television season. The season finale, "Callen, G." was watched by 13.1 million viewers. For its first season, NCIS: Los Angeles was the 9th most watched new series on CBS with a total of 16.08 million viewers.
Notes
Critic reception
NCIS: Los Angeles' first season received mixed to positive reviews from television critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season holds a 65% approval rating.