• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, September 7, 2023

CBS is importing the only “NCIS” spin-off produced outside the U.S. as part of its ongoing efforts to make up for a program shortage caused by the ongoing writers’ and actors’ strikes.

In addition, CBS revealed more about another part of its strike contingency plan -- curating rerun episodes of “Blue Bloods” and positioning them as “Blue Bloods Classics” to run in the show’s regular time period on Friday nights.

The “NCIS” series is “NCIS: Sydney” (pictured above), in which the “NCIS” action goes down under to Sydney, Australia’s largest city.

Produced in Australia, “NCIS: Sydney” is the first “international edition” of the high-rated franchise from which four separate series have been produced for CBS -- the original “NCIS” and “NCIS: Hawaii” (both still on), and “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “NCIS: New Orleans” (both no longer on).

Starting November 13, “NCIS: Sydney” will take up residence in the 10 p.m. slot Monday nights on CBS, the network announced Tuesday. 

Eight episodes representing the first season of the new Australian “NCIS” have been produced, and all eight will be seen on CBS. 

It is unclear if the show was ever previously planned for CBS. Nevertheless, it is coming in handy for the network as it seeks stop-gap measures made necessary by the strikes.

The eight episodes of “NCIS: Sydney” will also be streamed on Paramount+, including in Australia, CBS said.

According to a description of the show, an “NCIS” team consisting of American and Australian operatives will focus on naval crimes in the politically volatile seas around Australia. NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

“With rising international tensions in the Indo-Pacific, a brilliant and eclectic team of U.S. NCIS agents and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) are grafted into a multinational taskforce to keep naval crimes in check in the most contested patch of ocean on the planet,” said a description from CBS.

Meanwhile, CBS revealed more about the plan to package existing episodes of “Blue Bloods” as “classics.”

In a press release late last week, the network said it is asking fans of the Tom Selleck cop show to select the “classics” the network will run Friday nights at 10 p.m. Eastern starting September 29.

Via the series’ social channels, “fans can choose from a curated list highlighting memorable character arcs, pivotal character introductions and some of the numerous outstanding guest stars who have appeared on the series throughout its 13-year run,” CBS said.

Voting started August 31 and will end this Friday, September 8. To date, 275 episodes of “Blue Bloods” have been produced.