NCIS Fans Are Not Holding Back After CBS Used Vanessa Lachey’s Canceled Hawai’i Series In New Promos (2024)

There are exactly zero television fans under our great sun who have never had a show they love canceled too soon. The 2024 TV schedule has been particularly rough for those who adored some of the content on CBS, as several shows have either ended or been canceled, like Young Sheldon and the delightful mystery/legal comedy So Help Me Todd. While NCIS franchise lovers had a lot to love about this season, they were also dealt a blow when NCIS: Hawai’i fans (and cast) were “blindsided” with a cancellation in April after only three seasons. Now, those same fans aren’t holding back after the network used Vanessa Lachey’s former series in a new promo.

People who loved NCIS: Hawai’i have been up in arms for months now about the drama getting the ax. There have been lots of questions about why the Vanessa Lachey series was canceled when NCIS: Sydney was renewed for Season 2 (when they had roughly the same ratings), and Hawai’i star Jason Antoon has been very willing to troll CBS over his show getting sent to the TV graveyard.

Now, however, the network appears to have poured a heaping mess of salt into the still very fresh wound, as a promo went live that uses scenes from the series, and it has really pissed off fans. First, let’s take a look at the promo, which was posted on Instagram:

At first glance, especially if you’re not up on all of your NCIS shows, you might not even notice that several of the photos used were from the tropics-set crime procedural. But, believe you me, everyone who’s mad about Hawai’i getting canceled noticed, and they are not holding back their ire one bit:

• Leading with an NCIS: Hawai’i picture. You woke up and chose violence? #SaveNCISHawaii
• Posting Hawai’i shots after canceling it (during Lesbian Visibility Week, too) is wild.
• Please stop rubbing salt in our wounds!! You canceled Hawaii with no notice or closure! That’s low rent! #Save NCISHawaii
• Almost 50% of the photos were from an episode of Hawai’i, which was unjustly cancelled and you know for a fact those fans aren’t having a good Summer or any other good season until there’s a Season 4 announcement.
• @cbstv really screwed up with #ncishawaii. The optics are terrible. Abrupt cancellation of the NCIS iteration they were so proud to tout as the 'first female-led'? The one with significant LGBTQ+ representation and 10 million viewers? Trading it in for NCIS: Origins? It's abhorrent.

As noted by many (many) of the comments, Hawai’i was, indeed, the first franchise entry spearheaded by a woman of color, and it prominently featured a lesbian couple, so it also repped the LGBTQ+ community. So, those of us who enjoy seeing a wider spectrum of humanity represented on TV lost a pretty big source of that when the show was ripped away from us.

After so many cancellations from CBS, the head honcho opened up about making “tough calls” recently, but that certainly doesn’t lessen the sting for viewers. And, honestly, it does seem to be an odd choice (at the very least) to promote the NCIS-verse by giving props to a show that was just cut loose, especially when you know fans are still pissed off about it. Whether or not this will have an effect on ratings for the original series or the two new entries, prequel NCIS: Origins and remain to be seen, but it definitely sounds like fans won’t be letting their anger over losing Hawai’i go any time soon.