Cote de Pablo reportedly “offered a lot of money” to stay with NCIS

According to this source.

“I really want to clarify,” Moonves told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Monday. “We offered Cote de Pablo a lot of money, and then we offered her even more money, because we really didn’t want to lose her. We love her. We think she was terrific. And we, obviously, were in discussions. And the rest of the cast and the producers were aware what’s going on. And ultimately she decided she didn’t want to do the show. It was purely her decision. We’re, obviously, getting a lot of emails. There’s a lot of Twitter buzz about her, and rightly so. She’s a wonderful lady. Look, ‘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.”

We really haven’t heard much from her side of the story. Essentially, it’s just been, “I love the people I worked with and I’m looking forward to wrapping up the show.” A rather predictably banal press statement. I feel like something will eventually come out as to the “why.” As for now, I’m very disappointed and dismayed because I love Cote and I just can’t see NCIS being the same now.

I mean, CBS is in a helluva position. You’re talking about the #1 show on television entering its eleventh season with one of its stars leaving. Fans aren’t and won’t be happy and will be unlikely to take to someone new. So, let’s see what they do; the season premier cannot come fast enough.