The American TV series Navy CIS currently has 22 seasons and 489 episodes. Since the first season in 2003, the main characters in Team Gibbs have naturally changed. In this list, we rank all agents from the first 22 seasons based on the number of episodes they appeared in.
Who qualifies for the ranking? The core team around Leroy Jethro Gibbs has changed repeatedly over the years since the show started in 2003. Nowadays, even Gibbs himself is no longer part of it. For this ranking, we have included all agents who actually worked for the NCIS and were officially assigned to Gibbs’ team or that of his successor.
This means: Characters like forensic scientist Abby Sciuto, doctor Ducky Mallard, or his assistant and successor Jimmy Palmer are excluded from the ranking. Spin-offs, of which the newest has just started, are also not included: Tony & Ziva. Season 23 of the main series, however, starts on October 14, 2025, in the USA.
Rank 12: Michelle Lee
NCIS agent Michelle Lee made her first appearance alongside Ziva David in the premiere of Season 3. From that point on, she appears repeatedly as a guest character and is briefly assigned to Team Gibbs in Season 6. In Season 4, she also has an affair with James Jimmy
Palmer, the assistant to the medical examiner Donald Ducky
Mallard.
In Season 6, it turns out that she was the mole in the NCIS. Ultimately, she allows Gibbs to shoot her in order to kill Ted Bankston. He had blackmailed Lee and forced her to spy within her own agency. Actress Liza Lapira portrays Michelle Lee for 12 episodes in the series.
Rank 11: Alexandra Alex
Quinn
Alexandra Alex Quinn ranks 11th on this list with 24 episodes. She is only on board during Season 14 – but in all episodes. In fact, it is Gibbs himself who persuades her to join his team, having already rejected eight other agents, according to her statement.
