When Cote de Pablo first auditioned for the role of Ziva David, a former Israeli Mossad officer turned NCIS special agent, she said that Michael Weatherly, “is sabotaging my audition.”

“We sort of hated each other immediately, and loved each other immediately,” she said of Weatherly, who plays her on-screen love, Tony DiNozzo. “During the audition, he grabbed my hair. He would not follow the lines. He totally went off script and started improvising, and this was my final audition with the heads of CBS. I thought, ‘This guy is sabotaging my audition.’”

The 44-year-old Chilean-born actor adds, “We realized we’re so drastically different and so much alike that there was an immediate attraction.”

After capturing the hearts of fans as a main role on NCIS from seasons three to 11, and before reprising her role in seasons 16 and 17, de Pablo’s character was killed, off screen, in season 13.

Her abrupt departure from the series, which she offered no explanation, left fans spiraling.

In September 2023, the show’s creators had a chat with Hollywood Reporter and provided some answers to de Pablo’s decade-long absence as a full-time character.

“With Cote, I think she had gotten to a place where she wanted to move on,” Charles Floyd Johnson, executive producer on JAG and NCIS, said. “She did eight years on the show, and I had a conversation with her about a year or two before she left, and she said to me, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this forever, and at some point, I think I might leave.’ And I said, ‘Oh, Cote, please, come on. It’s such a successful show. What are you going to do? You should ride this horse all the way to the gate.’ And she said, ‘No, I don’t think so.’”

Nina Tassler, former president of CBS Entertainment, adds, “When Cote left, literally there was a ripple in the universe. But again, the show found its way forward.”

Moving forward, however, was not easy.

Johnson explained that after de Pablo’s departure, introducing Emily Wickersham as Special Agent Eleanor Bishop came with its challenges. “Audiences liked [Cote], but eventually, Emily won out,” Johnson said of the actor, who first appeared in season 11. “But I remember it was a little bumpy with her, where you’d get mail, and people would go, ‘She’s no Cote de Pablo.’ Well, we wrote her very differently for that reason.”

Why she really left

Months earlier CBS executives offered their opinions, de Pablo had a conversation with Hello! and explained she left mostly because she didn’t like the direction her character was headed.

“Unfortunately, because of political things and scripts not being good enough, I chose not to [return to NCIS].” de Pablo said. “Look, I love this character! I worked for eight years crafting Ziva and when I felt like the character wasn’t being treated with the respect she deserved.”

Elaborating on why Ziva David wasn’t getting the “respect she deserved,” she continues, “They were going to send [Ziva] back to Israel and make her an unfortunate, miserable woman. I didn’t think it was fair. I told them until someone can write something really fantastic for Ziva I won’t come back.”

Meanwhile, David McCallum who played Dr. “Ducky” Mallard on NCIS, said he was shocked an actor walked out on a show, complicating production for both cast and crew. “It was frustration and anger that someone should just walk out on us,” McCallum told Digital Spy. “I just don’t understand how a leading lady in a show that’s worldwide, who ostensibly wants to have a career as an actress, suddenly walks away from such a gem and just vanishes a couple of days before we start production.”

The actor, who died in September 2023 added, “This business is merciless so right away the whole team of writers gets in and rewrites the first five shows. When it happened, you think, ‘This is a dangerous road to go down’ but they pulled it off.”

Since leaving the series, de Pablo has had a couple of minor roles in film and TV, and two failed projects. In 2019, Pablo and Weatherly teamed up to create a new police drama called MIA but it appears production has been canceled.

And though fans would love to see de Pablo return to NCIS in season 21, which starts in February, she is not listed to return.

The new season will also be the first without McCallum, who starred in the first 20 seasons of the hit TV series.

What do you think of Cote de Pablo’s unexpected departure from NCIS? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section and then share this story so we can hear what others have to say!