R. Scott Gemmill, the creator and showrunner behind the medical drama The Pitt, is returning to the military procedural roots where he first refined the genre’s blueprint. While Gemmill is currently earning acclaim for the “real-time” structure of his Max series, his career trajectory is coming full circle as he prepares to lead a new expansion of the NCIS universe.
The foundation for this massive television franchise was laid by JAG (Judge Advocate General), which ran for 10 seasons and 227 episodes between 1995 and 2005. Gemmill served as a primary writer and producer on the series, which remains a benchmark for military-themed broadcasting. In April 2003, during its eighth season, JAG introduced a backdoor pilot that would eventually evolve into NCIS, spawning a multi-billion dollar franchise.
As of late 2026, the NCIS franchise has officially surpassed 1,132 total episodes across eight different series, including newer entries such as NCIS: Origins and NCIS: Tony & Ziva. Gemmill’s influence on this expansion is significant; after his tenure on JAG, he transitioned to showrunner for NCIS: Los Angeles, maintaining the franchise’s momentum for over a decade.
Gemmill’s current project, The Pitt, represents a modern evolution of the procedural expertise he developed on JAG. Unlike the traditional episodic structure of his earlier military work, The Pitt employs a rigorous real-time format where each episode depicts exactly one hour of a single 15-hour hospital shift. The series recently concluded its second season and has already been renewed for a third season, which is scheduled to premiere in January 2027.
Despite his success in the medical genre—having also worked on the long-running ER—Gemmill is now reported to be architecting a high-profile return to the NCIS world. He is currently writing the pilot for the newly announced NCIS: New York spinoff. The project is set to star LL Cool J, marking a return for the actor following his long tenure on the Los Angeles series.
NCIS: New York is currently slated for the 2026-27 broadcast season. The move reunites Gemmill with the procedural framework he helped build during the JAG era, applying the technical precision of The Pitt to the franchise that started as a spin-off of his earliest successes.
