Art StreiberScott Bakula is heading to NCIS. E! News has confirmed the Quantum Leap star will headline the NCIS New Orleans-set spinoff pilot that will be a two-part NCIS episode.
Bakula, who recently starred in Men of a Certain Age and Behind the Candelabra, is currently recurring HBO's Looking. He was recently nominated for an Emmy for Behind the Candelabra. In the NCIS spinoff, Bakula will play Agent Pride, described as the embodiment of New Orleans. The character is also described as being driven by the need to do what's right and he does it with "warmth, passion, strength and humor."
The NCIS spinoff will follow the NCIS New Orleans office, which handles cases from Pensacola through Mississippi and Louisiana to the Texas panhandle. The two-part episode is set to air this spring on CBS.
NCIS star Mark Harmon and executive producer Gary Glasberg are behind the new spinoff. NCIS, a spinoff of JAG, also gave birth to NCIS: Los Angeles. Glasberg said he went to Harmon with the idea of a New Orleans set-episode.
"I went to Mark Harmon as I do every year and said, ‘I went through some stories and, hey, I came across this scenario. I'd love to try to do an episode,'" Glasberg told NOLA.com. "He turned to me and said, ‘Gary, that's not a sweeps episode. That's a new show.'"
NCIS is the top-rated broadcast show on TV. Eleven seasons in and the show is still attracting more than 20 million viewers for some episodes.
Bakula has won one Golden Globe and was nominated for five Emmys during his career so far.