Cote de Pablo shocked fans and NCIS cast mates when she decided to leave the show. Social media reactions on Ziva David's imminent departure show so much love for the actress and the character. Can she ever be replaced? The latest scoop says NCIS will use Bones' squintern approach.

In the Fox series "Bones," there are several interns helping anthropologist Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) at the Jeffersonian Institute. This only started in Season 4, when Eric Millegan who plays Dr Zack Addy, left the show. No one ever replaced Zack up to the recently concluded Season 8. Instead, several actors work on rotation as "squinterns." There was one special episode when all the "Zac replacements" worked together, though. It seems NCIS is planning this same approach to manage Cote de Pablo's departure from the show.

TV Line's Michael Ausiello reported that NCIS exec producer Gary Glasberg is not rushing to replace Ziva. The show will be "taking a page from Bones' squintern playbook," says the scoop, noting that "some fun people" will step in and out to fill the void left by Cote de Pablo.

"The first two episodes are all about Ziva's departure... And then in the third episode we introduce, for instance, a woman in her 50s who is a few days away from retirement and just needs to fill the desk time. She, in theory, knew Gibbs all the way back to the days of Mike Franks. So we're going to bring in people like that and have some fun with different characters. And then, hopefully, when people are comfortable enough, one will walk in and be The One."

In a statement, Cote de Pablo said she looks forward to "finishing Ziva's story" after eight years with NCIS. "I have huge respect and affection for Mark, Gary, Michael, David, Rocky, Pauley, Brian, Sean, all of the team and CBS," the actress said.

Fans are currently speculating on what happens next to Ziva's Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly).

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