Sean Murray will break a bittersweet record in NCIS Season 22

It’s hard to believe that there are no OG cast members on NCIS anymore. You’ll be forgiven if you think I’m wrong, though. After all, a lot of people view Sean Murray as an OG cast member.

Murray didn’t join the series until the seventh episode of Season 1. McGee wasn’t even a member of the team in his first appearance. He was the tech guy coming in to help with a specific situation, and then he just seemed to stick around. By the second season, Murray was upped to series regular, and the rest is history.

Murray is now the longest-serving member of the series, and this means something when it comes to an upcoming record. It’s a bittersweet record considering the circumstances, though.

Sean Murray will break the record for most episodes in NCIS Season 22

Murray has been in 452 episodes to date. He is set to break the record for the most episodes in the series during Season 22. He needs to be in eight episodes for that to happen, and there are no signs that NCIS will do what FBI and FBI: Most Wanted will do, which is to not have all characters in all episodes.

So, by NCIS Season 22, Episode 8, Murray will have broken the record. But who currently holds the record?

That would be the late great David McCallum. I told you breaking the record was bittersweet. At the time of his death in September 2023, McCallum had appeared in 459 episodes. He had been in every episode for the first bulk of seasons. However, in recent years, McCallum took a step back to spend more time with his family. The show wrote Ducky into episodes here and there, and the rest of the time, Ducky was off teaching and doing book tours.

The only reason McCallum isn’t in the show anymore was due to his death. There was a beautiful send-off episode in NCIS Season 21. It does make the record break for Murray bittersweet. However, even if McCallum was still alive, we’d likely have seen Murray break the record later in NCIS Season 22.