Michael Weatherly Reveals One Area Where Tony & Ziva Outshines Mark Harmon’s NCIS and Origins

Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo rolled into New York Comic Con ready to talk shop about their spinoff, NCIS: Tony & Ziva. The short version: this show isn’t just more NCIS. It leans into the relationship, the mess, and yes, the action. Honestly, that’s the angle they should’ve led with from the start.

So what makes Tony & Ziva different?

Weatherly and de Pablo say this series finally gives them space to play the emotional beats that used to get squeezed out by case-of-the-week pacing. Weatherly put it like this:

"For us, in our procedural, there’s only so much time. We got to solve the crime. We got to, you know, investigate the emotions, which this show is so much about. We wanted to raise those stakes for the characters. We also wanted to do a little bit more with the action, which I think is pretty kick*ss."

Translation: fewer long lab scenes, more feelings and fists. The show shifts the focus to Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David’s complicated relationship, and it plays more intimate and relatable than the mothership’s team-driven machine. It’s also built for people who already know these two, so there’s no hand-holding introduction — it drops you right into their dynamic as they co-parent Tali and try to figure each other out in the middle of chaos.

The chemistry is the point

Weatherly and de Pablo’s chemistry has always been the franchise’s secret weapon, and Tony & Ziva lets them push that further than NCIS ever did. De Pablo even confirmed the thing longtime fans have waited (forever) to see, and she didn’t undersell it:

"It did happen, and it did happen in a rather romantic way, which had never been explored on the mothership."

Yes, there are steamy scenes. Also: more knock-down, drag-out fights. The show raises the emotional stakes and the stunt budget at the same time — good call, if you ask me.

Where things stand heading into the penultimate episode

Episode 9 is titled 'Ride or Die' and lands this Thursday, October 16. It picks up right after Episode 8, which left several threads dangling:

• Jonah betrayed Martine. Ziva warned her, she didn’t listen, and it went the way you’d expect.
• Claudette told Ziva that Tony planned to follow Jonah, but they’ve now lost his trail.
• Jonah’s endgame is still murky. Fan chatter says it could lead to something tragic for Graves — and if that happens, Jonah might try to pin it on Tony and Ziva. That’s speculation, not confirmed, but the show is clearly steering toward a nasty reckoning.

The quick-hit essentials

NCIS: Tony & Ziva comes from creator John McNamara and premiered September 4, 2025. It’s sitting at 80% on Rotten Tomatoes as of now, and it’s streaming on Paramount+. The penultimate episode promises more of what the season’s been building: a tighter focus on Tony and Ziva’s bond, choices coming back to bite them, and action that doesn’t feel like a cutaway from the real story — it is the story.