Eighteen years after "NCIS: Los Angeles" first put him in a badge and a bulletproof vest, LL Cool J is swapping coasts. "NCIS: New York" — the latest spinoff of CBS's flagship procedural franchise — premieres Tuesday night, sending his character, Special Agent Sam Hanna, home to the city he grew up in to lead a brand-new field office.

The new series pairs LL Cool J with Scott Caan, the "Hawaii Five-0" alum, playing a partner CBS describes as "roguish" — a dynamic the network is clearly betting can replicate the chemistry that made "NCIS: Los Angeles" run for 14 seasons. Jennifer Beals joins as the New York office's assistant special agent in charge, with Jacqueline Byers, Shane Harper and Devin Druid rounding out a team tasked with protecting what the show's logline calls "one of the most vital cities and ports in the world."

The premiere airs at 9 p.m. Tuesday on CBS, slotting in behind the mothership "NCIS" and fellow spinoff "NCIS: Origins" as part of the network's fall Tuesday lineup, with same-day streaming on Paramount+.

Betting on a crowded franchise

"NCIS: New York" marks the fourth active series in the NCIS universe, following the original, "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "NCIS: Origins" — an unusually aggressive expansion for a broadcast drama franchise in an era when most networks are shrinking their scripted slates, not growing them. CBS ordered the spinoff straight to series rather than testing it with a backdoor pilot, a sign of how much confidence the network has in LL Cool J's Sam Hanna as a franchise anchor nearly two decades after his first NCIS appearance.

FOUR SHOWS, ONE FRANCHISE, AND A NETWORK BETTING VIEWERS STILL WANT MORE OF IT.

R. Scott Gemmill, who has written across the NCIS franchise for years, serves as executive producer alongside Byron Balasco — who also showruns — plus LL Cool J and Jason Barrett. Whether New York audiences take to a crime procedural named after their own city won't be clear until the ratings come in, but CBS has already committed to a full season order.