PAGE 2 • TV
THE BULLETIN • MAY 20 - 26, 2021
BY JAY BOBBIN
CCH Pounder stars in the series
finale of “NCIS: New Orleans”
Sunday on CBS.
‘NCIS’ bids New Orleans
farewell as CBS spinoff signs off
In helping to bring “NCIS:
New Orleans” to a close, CCH
Pounder is leaving it with Pride.
That’s as in Dwayne Pride,
the Scott Bakula-portrayed team
leader who Pounder’s coroner
character Loretta Wade has
worked with closely on the CBS
drama, which wraps up its seven-
season run Sunday, May 23. In
the series finale, Pride is preparing
to marry his security-official
girlfriend Rita (played by Bakula’s
real-life wife Chelsea Field) when
he’s distracted by an ongoing case.
As the sun sets on one “NCIS”
spinoff, another is on the horizon
– using one of its favorite action-
show locations, CBS has ordered
“NCIS: Hawaii” for next season
– but Pounder says she’s satisfied
with the ending given her “New
Orleans” alter ego.
“There’s always a catchphrase
like, ‘She’s the moral center’ or
‘She’s the best friend or the great
adviser,’ ” the pleasant Pounder
muses, “and that usually means,
‘Uh-oh. There’s not going to be
much for her to do.’ But (the
show’s producers and writers) were
really very attentive to someone
interested in building a character
who was something other than a
fabulous workhorse.”
Though “NCIS” already had
yielded a successful offshoot in
“NCIS: Los Angeles,” Pounder
maintains she never saw “NCIS:
New Orleans” as a sure bet to
be ordered when she became
involved.
“Oh, good grief, no!,” she
says emphatically. “I was one of
those who was like, ‘There’s two
of them already. What could a
third one possibly be?’ I was not
expecting anything, but once
I discovered that New Orleans
itself was going to be a huge
character in the show, I would
see such unexpected things in the
background ... trains, bridges,
all these natural things. I always
thought that was a wonderful sort
of paint brush to use in showing
what the city would be like.”
In fact, Pounder enjoyed it
enough to become a full-time
resident there: She and her late
husband gave up their house in
California and moved to one in
the Big Easy; where she plans to
remain based, at least for the time
being. She had worked earlier
with “NCIS: New Orleans” star
Bakula on his series “Quantum
Leap,” but after much other
television work ranging from “The
X-Files” to “The West Wing,” she
reasons, “I think I can operate
from pretty much anywhere these
days, provided that the health and
travel restrictions are cool.”
As she says goodbye to “NCIS:
New Orleans,” then, Pounder
is glad she’s not also having
to do the same to the actual
New Orleans. “The people are
exceedingly friendly,” she enthuses,
“and I really have appreciated their
appreciation of our being here.
They still get excited about seeing
film crews, and that’s really nice.”
Guide to the TV grids
TV Ratings:
‘G’: General audience
‘Y’: Young children
‘7’: Children over 7
‘14’: Children over 14
‘PG’: Parental guidance
‘M’: Mature audience only
PA: Parental advisory
DVS: Descriptive video service
EI: Educational/instructional
D: Dialogue
L: Language
S: Sexual situations
V: Violence
Common symbols :
HD scheduling, please
note:
’:I n stereo
Å: Closed captioning
iTV: Interactive TV program
N: Program is new
Schedules are based on standard-
definition (SD) channels. High-
definition (HD) channels may vary
by three hours when a West Coast
programming feed is not available to
your TV provider. Please refer to your
provider’s interactive TV guide for
detailed HD channel schedules.
For a list of cable and over-the-air
channels by zip code, as well
up-to-the-minute TV programming,
please visit www.bendbulletin.
com/tv. For questions or feedback
please call The Bulletin Circulation
Department at 541-385-5800.