'NCIS' Season 11 Cote de Pablo Departure: 'Purely Her Decision,' CBS Says
With all the fuss regarding Cote de Pablo's departure from NCIS, the CEO of CBS made it clear that the network had no intention of letting the actress go.
"We offered Cote de Pablo a lot of money, and then we offered her even more money," Leslie Moonves said during the Television Critics Association fall TV previews on Monday, according to FOX. "We really didn't want to lose her. We love her; we think she was terrific."
Moonves also cleared up rumors that accused the network of firing the 33-year-old.
"It was purely her decision," Moonves said. "NCIS was the highest-rated show on television last year. We don't like losing anybody, but we did everything humanly possible. We feel like we exhausted every opportunity, and she just decided she didn't want to do the show."
NCIS Season 11 Spoilers
De Pablo announced that she was leaving the show earlier in July.
"I've had eight great years with NCIS and Ziva David," she said in a statement. "I have huge respect and affection for Mark [Harmon], Gary [Glasberg], Michael [Weatherly], David [McCallum], Rocky [Carroll], Pauley [Perrette], Brian [Dietzen], Sean [Murray], all of the team and CBS. I look forward to finishing Ziva's story."
Fans Angry About Cote de Pablo's Departure
The actress played agent Ziva David for eight seasons and her character, which debuted during season 3, has been a crucial part of the investigative team led by Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Anthony DiNozzo. While she will return to properly end her character's story in the fall, it's unknown for how many episodes.
Following her statement, CBS also spoke about her decision.
"We respect Cote's decision, thank her for being an important part of the NCIS team and for eight terrific years playing Ziva David," the network's statement said. "Cote and CBS share a great respect for the NCIS audience, and we look forward to working with her and the producers on appropriate closure in this character of Ziva's story."
