David James Elliott's Harm and Catherine Bell's Mac looking emotional and laying next to each other in JAGCredit: MovieStillsDB
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Grant Hermanns
Published 22 minutes ago
Grant Hermanns is a TV News Editor, Interview Host and Reviewer for ScreenRant, having joined the team in early 2021. He got his start in the industry with Moviepilot, followed by working at ComingSoon.net. When not indulging in his love of film/TV, Grant is making his way through his gaming backlog and exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends.
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It's been five years since Catherine Bell reprised her fan-favorite JAG role of Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie in NCIS: Los Angeles, but she's ready for a proper return to the role. After originally debuting in the legal drama's debut season as Diane Schonke, a Navy officer with whom David Elliot James' Harm was in love before her murder, Bell proved herself a formidable legal partner to Harm across the show's nine seasons before they eventually became a proper couple in the final season.
The pair were initially left off on a cliffhanger in JAG's series finale, as the two flipped a coin to see who would resign or retire while the other would continue their Naval posting, though the outcome was left a mystery. That was until NCIS: Los Angeles' season 10 finale, in which they returned and were revealed to have broken up after Harm lost the coin flip, but was drawn back into the service, not seeing each other for some nine years prior to their spinoff return.
While their season 11 returns left the door open for a more hopeful future for the JAG characters, Mac and Harm have not been seen in the NCIS franchise since, and Catherine Bell is ready for that to change. During Motor City Comic Con's From The Courtroom To A Magical Enchantress panel, moderated by Joe Deckelmeier for ScreenRant, Bell confessed that her and Elliott's NCIS: LA return "was a little disappointing," particularly given fans of the series "wanted us to be together".
However, despite this disappointment, Bell is also eager to bring Mac and Harm back for more stories. Acknowledging the "open" range of possibilities for the pair, the JAG star pitched a variety of her own ideas for how they could return, namely that "Mac is still working with the government". "She's still in a position of power, a strong woman, maybe Harm and Mac are back together," Bell said with a smile.
To Bell's point, her and Elliott's last appearances as Mac and Harm in NCIS: LA season 11 did give a modicum of hope for fans of JAG who were disappointed the couple had split. In the premiere, they discussed reconciling their relationship after finally seeing each other in person again, while that season's finale only brought Bell back and saw her still in the Navy as a lieutenant colonel.
Much like Bell, Elliott has also expressed his interest in coming back for a potential JAG revival, stating in a recent interview for the series finale's 20th anniversary that "there's always a chance" for the show return, particularly given creator and franchise producer Donald P. Bellisario is still alive and broadly overseeing things.
One of the few hurdles that a JAG revival ultimately faces is that its successor, NCIS, has generally overtaken the original series in popularity to the point of being a challenge to sell CBS Studios on a new incarnation of the legal drama. The primetime network and its sister streaming service, Paramount+, continue to see major success with the franchise.
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Posts By Ana Dumaraog Jul 30, 2025However, while originally having expanded the titular agency to other regions of the country with spinoffs, NCIS has notably focused its spinoff development back on the mainline show's characters, including the Gibbs-focused Origins prequel series and the Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo-led Tony & Ziva on Paramount+. The former, in particular, recently saw Mark Harmon return after retiring as the character, and is currently aiming to cast a young version of Scott Bakula's Dwayne Pride from New Orleans.
That being said, between Elliott and Bell's continued interest, and the lack of an ending in sight for the franchise, the door certainly isn't closed for JAG to make a comeback at some point. NCIS: Origins, in particular, could pave the way for the legal drama to make a standalone return, fleshing out Gibbs' relationship with the attorney branch of the Navy and building both toward his initial introduction in the original series, and stories that can parallel with modern cases for Mac and Harm.
7.0/10
JAG
10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-PG Drama Action & Adventure Crime Release Date 1995 - 2005 Network NBC, CBS Directors Bradford May, Tony Wharmby, Alan J. Levi, Jeannot Szwarc, Terrence O'Hara, Greg Beeman, Kenneth Johnson, Scott Brazil, Ray Austin, Dennis Smith, Jim Johnston, Joe Napolitano, Mark Horowitz, David James Elliott, Michael Schultz, Rod Hardy, Duwayne Dunham, James Whitmore Jr., Jerry London, Oz Scott, Richard Compton, Les Landau, Alan Myerson, Arthur W. Forney Writers Stephen Zito, R. Scott Gemmill, Paul J. Levine, Don McGill, Darcy Meyers, Ed Zuckerman, Jack Orman, John Schulian, Philip DeGuere Jr., Evan Katz, Matt Witten, Robert Cochran, Tom Towler, David Ehrman, David Zabel, Greg Strangis, Richard Levine, Thomas L. Moran, Jonathan Robert Kaplan, Mark Saraceni, Lynnie Greene, Robert McCullough, Eric Morris, Patrick LabyorteauxCast
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David James Elliott
Harmon Rabb
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Patrick Labyorteaux
Bud Roberts
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