NCIS Season 17 Cut Short Due to Coronavirus Outbreak

The decision to shut down production on NCIS is not just for a few weeks.

The veteran CBS drama has wrapped production for the season, according to cast member Brian Dietzen.

NCIS Season 17 will now consist of 20 episodes instead of 24.

"Unfortunately we’ll be shutting down production of NCIS for the remainder of the season after we wrap tomorrow," the actor tweeted.

"We’ll produce 20 of our 24 episode order. It’s been a tremendous year and we have a few more great episodes for you all. Thank you so much for all the support."

Whether CBS will tack the four episodes on to NCIS Season 18, we don't know, and the series has yet to be renewed.

However, Sean Murray took to Twitter with a message that had fans wondering whether the series had already been renewed.

"As many of you have already heard, #NCIS production has been put on hold for the time being. we will wrap our current season with 20 eps complete and plan to pick up where we left off when we begin season 18," he said, adding:

"stay safe... we'll see you soon."

The actor followed up his initial tweet by stating that the series had not scored an official CBS pickup for next season.

"For those who have brought it up - we have not been officially renewed yet, so in no way am I announcing a pickup or anything. please understand that."

CBS announced earlier this week the series would be pushing pause on production, but there was uncertainty about whether it would film the rest of the season.

It was one of several series to make the decision to halt production, but there was no confirmation whether it would finish up the remainder of the season at a later date.