Rank 4: Ziva David
Ziva David made her first appearance in the premiere episode of Season 3 and is actually part of the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. She is supposed to help Team Gibbs in the search for Kate’s murderer, Ari Haswari. Ari is her half-brother, whom she ultimately shoots to save Gibbs.
Later, she requests reassignment to Gibbs’ team, replacing Kate. In Season 7, she becomes a probationary officer and leaves her Mossad past behind until her departure in Season 11. In Season 13, her and Tony DiNozzo’s daughter is introduced, for whom Tony ultimately leaves the NCIS after Ziva is declared dead.
In Season 17, she makes a guest appearance in the episode Shiva
, where it is revealed that she merely faked her death. In total, actress Cote De Pablo has appeared in 196 episodes as Ziva David and continues her character’s storyline in the new spin-off Tony & Ziva.
Rank 3: Anthony Tony
DiNozzo
The Top 3 begins with Anthony Tony
DiNozzo, one of the stalwarts of Navy CIS: He has been there since the first episode and reaches a total of 310 episodes by his exit in Season 13.
Tony, played by Michael Weatherly, is a charismatic troublemaker with a sense of humor. He presents himself as a ladies’ man and always has a movie quote at hand. As a NCIS Very Special Agent, he is usually Gibbs’ right-hand man. His macho-like behavior often causes him to clash with his female colleagues, especially in the early seasons of the series, although he seems to be attempting to cover up his own insecurities with it.
Tony values his team and over time becomes close friends with each individual team member. Kate’s death hits him particularly hard, and he takes a long time to get along with her replacement, Ziva David.
Ultimately, his will-they-won’t-they relationship with said (former) Mossad agent becomes real, and the two have a daughter. To care for her, he ultimately leaves the Navy CIS and leads a rather quiet life with the family in France at the start of the spin-off Tony & Ziva in 2025.
