The NCIS television show franchise, which depicts the real-life work of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, is globally one of the biggest success on TV. The original series has been on the air for 15 seasons and is consistently the top-ranked drama in the United States and has wavered between No. 1 and No. 2 in the world over the last 3 years.
But how much of what we see on TV depicts reality? More than you would think. Each of the 3 shows - NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and NCIS: New Orleans – has a retired NCIS Agent on staff as a Technical Advisor, making sure the lingo, the atmosphere and the integrity of the agency is all represented correctly.
The success of the television franchise has raised the profile of the real NCIS to be a household name.
WUSA Great day Washington Host, Kristen Berset-Harris, recently had the honor to serve as emcee for the annual NCIS Special Agents and Civilian Agents of the Year award ceremony at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
Kristen asked NCIS Director, Andrew Traver, for his thoughts on the collaboration between real-life NCIS and television NCIS.
“The shows do a really good job of capturing the comradery, the sense of humor and the teamwork and but the actual work of criminal investigation takes a lot of tenacity and hard work and we don’t solve crimes in 48 minutes.”
Traver says the show’s success has done wonders for recruiting new agents.
“It’s made us very culturally relevant. If you say NCIS now anywhere, people know what you are talking about and it’s also been a great recruiting tool for us. When we have a vacancy announcement for agents, we get thousands, and thousands and thousands of applicants “
Only a select few become NCIS Agents, and even then, only 8 get the honor of Agent of the Year; 4 Special Agents and 4 Civilian Agents.
The Agent of the Year awards recognized NCIS personnel in areas such as counterintelligence, counterterrorism, fraud, operational support, administrative support, and so on.
At the ceremony, honorees received a medal--the Department of the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award--a crystal plaque and a certificate.
In addition to handing out medals, NCIS also handed out cake....to celebrate its 52nd birthday.
The agency has been around much longer than that, with history into the 1800's....but in its current form, NCIS traces their modern-day roots back to the Viet Nam era.
Congratulations to all the hard-working men and women of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.
