‘NCIS’ Season 16 Air Date, Spoilers: Gibbs Assumes NCIS Director Post While Vance Is Still Missing

Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) obviously prefers to be on the field with other agents but he has enough credentials to become the director of Naval Crime Investigative Service or NCIS. Unfortunately, he has to hold that position for a while since Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) is in danger at the start of “NCIS” season 16.

“NCIS” season 16 picks up a month after the events in the season 15 finale. This also means that NCIS had no luck in finding and rescuing Vance a month after being kidnapped.

It is interesting how Gibbs will play his part in rescuing Vance now that he is temporarily assigned to be the NCIS director. As the overall leader of the agency, he does not have the liberty to be on the field and do the work. This might be a hint that the rest of Gibbs’ team will have to be on the move on their own once “NCIS” season 16 begins.

In the season 15 finale, it was also implied that the NCIS team did not actually know that Vance was kidnapped. So it is likely that Vance’s kidnapping will be covered in the first one or two episodes, with the “NCIS” season 16 premiere revealing how the team learned about Vance's situation. Meanwhile, the month-long time jump between season 15 finale and “NCIS” season 16 premiere could also mean that many developments on the case happened off-screen.

While the NCIS team faces the challenge of saving Vance, they will also have to deal with the changes caused by Abby Sciuto’s (Pauley Perrette) departure. Gibbs’ team is more like a family, as fans may have witnessed in previous episodes. And Abby is one of the sweetest members of the team that definitely touched everyone’s lives. Being met with a difficult task of rescuing Vance while adjusting to Abby’s absence is the perfect recipe for drama when “NCIS” season 16 premieres on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 8 p.m. on CBS.