ION Picks Up ‘NCIS’ For Fall Lineup

ION Television will add Emmy-nominated NCIS to its primetime lineup Sept. 8 at 9 p.m., network officials said Tuesday.

ION Media Networks, ION Television’s parent, has completed a deal with CBS Television Distribution for the broadcast-syndication rights to the first four seasons of the naval investigators procedural series. The top-rated, hour-long drama will air on Mondays and Tuesdays in the 9 p.m. timeslot.

NCIS is a high-caliber, highly rated series that will broaden ION Television’s reach to target audiences and advertisers,” ION chairman Brandon Burgess said in a prepared statement. “Stay tuned for more examples of this kind of programming from the network as we continue to migrate to greater mass appeal in 2008 and 2009.”

NCIS, the hit spin-off of CBS’s military legal drama, JAG, comes from producer Donald P. Bellisario. The popular show premiered Sept. 23, 2003, on CBS and enters its sixth season on the network this fall.