Why NCIS: Red never happened

[TMC]

https://www.looper.com/197868/why-nc...ever-happened/

In early 2013, veteran TV drama NCIS: Los Angeles aired a special two-part event, comprised of the episodes "Red" and "Red-2." A specialized mobile team formed under the NCIS' jurisdiction helps Callen (Chris O'Donnell) and his compatriots work a murder that quickly makes a heel-turn into suspected terrorism. Scott Grimes, Edwin Hodge, Gillian Alexy, and Kim Raver were all cast for the team — and the intent had been not to simply introduce new recurring characters, but to launch an entire spin-off series. This method of crafting an existing show's episode around introducing the cast for a possible new one is what's called a "backdoor pilot." Like germinating seeds within the soil of another thriving plant, this method of pitching a pilot lowers the stakes for the new series' success by building it into the viewership of its mother show, rather than throwing a first season out into the wilds of the cable network schedule and hoping for the best. NCIS: Los Angeles itself had begun this way a few years earlier.

Like the titles of the two episodes, the show was to be named NCIS: Red, but unfortunately, those episodes were all it ever got. CBS opted not to pick up the show, and this spin-off of a spin-off never took flight. If NCIS is so perennially popular and willing to create branches in its television universe at a relative whim — just a year later, NCIS: New Orleans would do the exact same thing and succeed with flying colors — why didn't Red get its own green light?