What to Watch Tuesday, October 6: ‘NCIS: New York,’ ‘NCIS’ & ‘Reasonable Doubt’ Lead a Huge Night

CBS is apparently looking at Tuesday night and asking one simple question: how much NCIS can one person reasonably consume? We’re about to find out. NCIS returns for Season 24, NCIS: New York officially joins the franchise, and NCIS: Origins begins Season 3, giving CBS three uninterrupted hours inside the NCIS universe.

The competition isn’t exactly taking the night off. Dancing with the Stars celebrates Mariah Carey, FOX has fresh episodes of Best Medicine and DOC, and Hulu brings Reasonable Doubt back with three episodes at once. Netflix also adds All American Season 8 today, so there is plenty happening before primetime even begins.

TV Cave Top Pick: NCIS: New York

We’re going with the new kid. NCIS: New York premieres tonight at 9 PM ET on CBS, expanding the franchise again with LL Cool J reprising his role as Sam Hanna alongside Scott Caan. CBS has positioned the new series directly between the flagship NCIS and NCIS: Origins, which is about as much of a franchise welcome party as a show can get.

Sam is hardly unfamiliar territory for longtime viewers after more than a decade on NCIS: Los Angeles, but moving him to New York gives the character an entirely different team and environment. The real question tonight is whether NCIS: New York can establish enough of its own identity to justify becoming the latest branch on a television family tree that is already large enough to require its own organizational chart.

Tuesday, October 6 TV Schedule

Time (ET)	Show	Network/Streaming	Tonight
Streaming	Reasonable Doubt	Hulu	Season 4 Premiere — 3 Episodes
Streaming	All American	Netflix	Season 8 Arrives
Streaming	Love Village	Netflix	Season 3 Premiere
Streaming	Mojo Brookzz: I Know You Lying	Netflix	Comedy Special Premiere
8:00 PM	NCIS	CBS / Paramount+	Season 24 Premiere — “Wayward Son”
8:00 PM	Dancing with the Stars	ABC / Disney+	Mariah Carey Night
8:00 PM	Best Medicine	FOX	New Episode — “Crate Expectations”
9:00 PM	NCIS: New York	CBS / Paramount+	⭐ TOP PICK — Series Premiere
9:00 PM	DOC	FOX	New Episode — “I Know What I Want”
10:00 PM	NCIS: Origins	CBS / Paramount+	Season 3 Premiere — “Don’t You Forget About Me”

‘NCIS’ Begins Season 24

NCIS opens Season 24 at 8 PM with “Wayward Son.” The mothership has reached the point where calling 24 seasons an impressive run almost feels inadequate. Plenty of shows don’t survive 24 episodes; NCIS has somehow survived long enough to launch multiple generations of spinoffs while remaining the franchise’s Tuesday-night anchor.

More importantly for tonight’s schedule, the premiere isn’t operating by itself. CBS is using the veteran drama to launch NCIS: New York immediately afterward before handing 10 PM to Origins. That makes tonight less like three separate premieres and more like one enormous three-hour NCIS event.

‘NCIS: Origins’ Brings Mark Harmon Back Into the Story

NCIS: Origins returns at 10 PM ET with “Don’t You Forget About Me,” and the Season 3 premiere is playing with both ends of Gibbs’ timeline. In 1992, the team races to rescue a kidnapped Randy while Gibbs and Lala deal with what happened between them. Meanwhile, the present-day storyline catches up with Mark Harmon’s older Gibbs in Alaska as people from his past disrupt the quiet retirement he has built.

That present-day component gives Origins an intriguing new layer for Season 3. The show has always been about understanding how Austin Stowell’s younger Gibbs eventually becomes the man viewers met on NCIS, but putting Harmon physically back into that story gives the past and present a much more direct connection.

‘Dancing with the Stars’ Belongs to Mariah Tonight

Over on ABC and Disney+, Dancing with the Stars is celebrating Mariah Carey Night beginning at 8 PM ET. The remaining celebrities and their professional partners will perform routines set to songs from Carey’s catalog as Season 35 moves into Week 4.

Honestly, a Mariah Carey-themed ballroom night going head-to-head with three hours of NCIS might be the most wonderfully bizarre example of broadcast counterprogramming imaginable. One side has federal investigations. The other has Mimi. Choose your fighter.

‘DOC’ Puts Amy and Jake Together

FOX has Best Medicine at 8 PM with the all-new “Crate Expectations,” followed by DOC at 9 PM with “I Know What I Want.”

For DOC, Amy and Jake are forced to work together on a difficult case while the unresolved feelings surrounding their relationship remain very much unresolved. Michael and Sonya are simultaneously pulled into a family crisis involving a young addict, while Gina finds herself reconsidering some of her choices when Walter returns to Westside. Apparently the hospital has once again decided treating patients isn’t emotionally exhausting enough without everybody’s personal lives joining rounds.

‘Reasonable Doubt’ Returns With Three Episodes

Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt begins Season 4 today with a three-episode premiere. Jax and the newly established Stewart Firm are trying to recover after the events that rocked her family and business, only for a high-profile crisis involving one of the firm’s clients to put even more pressure on the operation.

Dropping three episodes immediately means viewers don’t have to wait three weeks for the new season to get moving. Apparently Jax doesn’t believe in easing anybody back into the drama, and considering this show’s history, we probably shouldn’t have expected anything different.

Netflix Has ‘All American’ and More

Netflix adds All American Season 8 today following the season’s run on The CW. The streamer also premieres Love Village Season 3 and comedian Mojo Brookzz’s debut Netflix special, I Know You Lying.

That makes Tuesday unusually deep even before the broadcast networks get started. But the night ultimately belongs to the NCIS universe, with one veteran returning, one spinoff beginning and another opening a season that brings Mark Harmon directly back into the action. NCIS: New York gets the TV Cave Top Pick because a franchise launch is still the biggest question mark of the night and we’re curious to see whether Sam Hanna can make New York his new home.