Actors LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell play the main characters in the series, which is about undercover agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. “Our show is based on the Office of Special Projects in Los Angeles,” O’Donnell says. “It is a new cast of characters, but there is some overlap.”

The characters were first introduced to audiences during two special episodes of the original “NCIS” during the last season, and will continue to feature occasional crossovers while endeavouring to also stand alone. “You don’t need to be familiar with the original show to understand our show or be a fan of our show,” former rapper turned actor LL Cool J insists. “You can definitely go in with cold feet and at the same time we want to make sure that we’re respectful of those original fans and hopefully maintain the elements that made the original show successful… the same wit, the same banter as the original but undercover aspect gives us a bit of flexibility… We don’t have to be in a suit and tie every day – we get to wear different things and assume different roles within the world of special projects.”

Even with the hype and the success of the original, O’Donnell knows that nothing can be taken for granted in Hollywood. “We’ve all been on shows that didn’t make it,” he admits. “We’ve all had successes and failures and that’s just part of the business.”

While truly massive new “break out” hits are thin on the ground – the most successful ‘new’ show is the spin-off “NCIS: Los Angeles”, whose parent show has now become the top rated show on television, most series, old and new, are performing at a pretty healthy level, and even those that aren’t are being given the opportunity to stick around and try to grow their numbers in a manner unheard of in recent years.

“All in all, the networks are in decent shape,” says Kelly Kahl, the Scheduling Chief at CBS. “It feels a little more optimistic to me than it has.” ABC’s Scheduling Chief, Jeff Bader, agrees with his counterpart. “There don’t seem to be as many shows falling below what was expected,” he notes. Even those that are failing, such as “Eastwick”, “Hank”, medical drama “Trauma” and Joss Whedon fantasy series “Dollhouse”, are not being immediately canned in the way that shows with similar numbers have been in the past. “There’s a little more patience this year,” says Carat USA ad firm analyst Shari Anne Brill, even if that’s “just because of the lack of back-ups” ready to replace them.

NBC’s Mitch Metcalf says that while some new shows “have gotten off to a bit of a slow start… we see in many of them good internal signs.” Also sticking around, at least for now, is “The Jay Leno Show”, even as ratings, fellow shows on the same network, and NBC affiliates stations continue to feel the pain.

The spin-off show followed on from the original, and while not quite matching its predecessor, still managed to score over eighteen and a half million. Understandably, the results saw CBS cruising to victory against its network competitors.

“NCIS” attracts both older and younger audiences, with repeats on cable network USA attracting new audiences and a big May cliffhanger all coming together to make for a highly impressive return. It helped, too, that the only competition going against it on rival networks were all reality shows, with Fox’s mega-hit “House” having been moved from its Tuesday slot, which would have put it in direct competition with the show, to Monday, where its big two hour sixth season premiere drew big numbers of its own and would probably have impacted on “NCIS”; as it is, anyone not a reality TV fan really had only one place to turn.

It was CBS’ strongest Tuesday season start in four years, and its biggest audience average for a premiere evening in sixteen years.

In other news, “The Jay Leno Show” was up on its Monday night ratings, with just under seven million, still a long way off its debut figure of eighteen million last week.