NCIS - why do you watch it?

I am prompted to ask by the return of NCIS to British TV screens - well the screens of those of us who have satellite TV anyway.

The program was voted America’s favourite television show in 2011 and during 2012-13 its 10th  series  was the most-watched television series in the U.S. So it must be doing something right.

Forgive the stats but they make me feel better about watching the show. It's  highly formulaic, its politics frequently offend me deeply and at least two of the recurring characters irritate me to the nth degree.

The OH watches it too, in fact it's one of the very rare programs on TV that we both enjoy. I always used to assume that he watched it for Ziva, played by the extremely attractive, if somewhat oddly named, Cote de Pablo^. If you're unfamiliar with the cast, she's at the extreme right of the photo at the top of the post. 

 

^I know actors frequently have stage, or these days, screen names, but honestly if you were picking out a new name for yourself, would you choose one that put 50% of the audience in mind of an old fashioned fragrance house?

 

The OH always indignantly denied that Cote had anything to do with his watching the program. 'I watch it for Gibbs' was the burden of his song , to which my response was always a casual but amused 'Yeah, right. And the rest.'

 

Anyway last year I was at an academic conference and conversation turned, as it does in these circumstances, to TV watching. The group I was in all turned out to be NCIS watchers so  I asked  the guy on my left  'So, who do you watch it for, Abby or Ziva?'. And do you know what he said?

 

'I don't watch it for either. I watch it for Gibbs.'