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NCIS: Los Angeles Season 12 will have 18 episodes in total

ByAlexandria Ingham|
"The Bear" - Pictured: LL COOL J (Special Agent Sam Hanna) and Chris O'Donnell (Special Agent G. Callen). When a Russian bomber goes missing while flying over U.S. soil, Callen and Sam must track it down in the desert and secure its weapons and intel before the Russians on board destroy the plane. Also, Hetty gives Nell a cryptic assignment, on the 12th season premiere of NCIS: LOS ANGELES, Sunday, Nov. 8 (8:30-9:30 PM, ET/8:00-9:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Screen Grab/CBS ©2020 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
"The Bear" - Pictured: LL COOL J (Special Agent Sam Hanna) and Chris O'Donnell (Special Agent G. Callen). When a Russian bomber goes missing while flying over U.S. soil, Callen and Sam must track it down in the desert and secure its weapons and intel before the Russians on board destroy the plane. Also, Hetty gives Nell a cryptic assignment, on the 12th season premiere of NCIS: LOS ANGELES, Sunday, Nov. 8 (8:30-9:30 PM, ET/8:00-9:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network. Photo: Screen Grab/CBS ©2020 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Why is NCIS: Los Angeles Season 12 going to have a smaller episode count?

CBS has opted to cut the episode count on the majority of its dramas. NCIS: Los Angeles Season 12 is one of them, getting just 18 episodes to the season.

The decision has caused disappointment among viewers. This is a time when we need more content and not less. The problem is time, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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And the reduced episode count is something we questioned a while back to get readers ready. With a delayed start, it means reducing episode count to fit everything in to avoid a delayed ending. That gets everything back on track for the 2021-2022 season.

CBS doesn’t want to run NCIS: Los Angeles into the summer

Big networks are already struggling with viewership. The summer months are when most TV watchers disappear. It’s when the networks struggle the most, and they’re not going to want to put their big-budget TV shows on during this time of the year. There’s no return on investment.

So, instead of running episodes into the summer, it sounds like CBS is going to stick to the May dates for finales. That makes sense since it would mean a similar time off between seasons and a July 2021 start for the new seasons, assuming the shows are renewed. Everything gets back to normal with September premiere dates again.

Even if CBS was happy with running the episodes into the summer, the filming schedules would need to be considered. To get back to filming in July, production on the current season would need to end around April 2021. There’s only one way to do that.

This means cutting the episode count. NCIS: Los Angeles is usually 22-24 episodes long. By cutting to 18, it cuts off about eight to 12 weeks of filming.

While it’s disappointing, it makes sense looking at the bigger picture. And it’s not just NCIS: Los Angeles or CBS doing this. Most networks are looking at reduced episode counts this season.

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 12 premieres on Sunday, Nov. 8 at 8:30/7:30c on CBS.

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