As fans continue to mourn NCIS Hawai’i after its shocking cancellation, one of the show’s alums has officially moved over to another hit CBS series.
Noah Mills was cast as a recurring guest star on season 2 of CBS’ hit series Watson. The role reunites Mills, 42, with Morris Chestnut after they previously worked together on NBC’s short-lived series The Enemy Within.
According to Deadline, Mills will play Beck Wythe, who “has newly returned to his hometown of Pittsburgh after blowing up a career in Silicon Valley with reckless, risk-seeking behavior.” Beck then meets Eve Harlow‘s Ingrid in group therapy for people trying to manage their Cluster B personality disorders. The duo “form a bond that may be exactly what they need to rebuild their lives — or might be just the latest dangerous indulgence for both.”
Mills’ new role comes after Robert Carlyle was recently cast to play Sherlock Holmes.
Based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s Sherlock Holmes stories, Watson takes place six months after James Moriarty killed the legendary detective. Watson must come to terms with the loss of his best friend and partner by resuming his medical career as the head of a clinic dedicated to treating rare disorders.
Watson found success on CBS after premiering in January, but other shows — such as NCIS Hawai’i — didn’t have as much luck. NCIS: Hawai’i premiered in 2021 as a spinoff of NCIS, which is still airing new episodes on CBS. The show was the first NCIS spinoff to feature a female lead, with Vanessa Lachey playing Special Agent in Charge Jane Tennant, who ran a team of elite naval criminal agents on the island of Oahu.
Us Weekly confirmed in April 2024 that CBS was not renewing NCIS: Hawai’i for a fourth season. The island-centered show aired its series finale one month later, but writers Jan Nash, Christopher Silber and Matt Bosack made it clear they still had plenty of stories left to tell.
“We were obviously surprised. If we’d known it was coming, we probably wouldn’t have ended the series on a cliffhanger,” the group told TVLine in a joint email interview in July 2024. “The fact that the studio and the network didn’t stop us makes it seem like they might not have seen it coming either.”
2025 has been brutal when it comes to our favorite TV shows getting canceled. Netflix cut ties with Girls5eva after saving it from cancellation. The musical comedy initially premiered on Peacock in 2021 and followed four women who were part of a girl group. After becoming a one-hit-wonder, the former friends reunited later in life […]
Nash, Silber and Bosack said “it still stings” that NCIS Hawai’i came to an end despite having such a strong fanbase.
“We loved our show and know other people loved it, too, but the TV business is a fickle mistress and one can’t take business decisions personally,” the trio continued. “We did what we set out to do. We created a show with a strong female lead and a cast that reflected the diversity of Hawai’i and the world. We told interesting Navy crime stories. All while maintaining a workplace where people could hopefully do their best work and be valued for it. That gives us a lot to be proud of.”
Despite fan backlash, president of CBS Entertainment Amy Reisenbach simply said “no” in May 2024 when asked at a network event about NCIS: Hawai’i potentially returning.
“It is incumbent on us to always keep the schedule fresh, keep momentum going,” she explained. “Everything came back [from the Hollywood strikes] really strong, but ultimately, we have to look at the cohesiveness of the schedule flow. We have to evaluate the financials and the performance overall, and we make tough decisions.”
Watson is currently streaming on Paramount+.
