NEW YORK, July 3 -- Tony DiNozzo walked out of NCIS headquarters in 2016 to raise a daughter alone in Paris. CBS is bringing him back for a full season.

Michael Weatherly will return to the network's flagship procedural for a season-long arc in Season 24, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Wednesday. The arc represents the most substantial commitment the NCIS franchise has made to restoring its founding cast in recent memory, and the most deliberate signal yet that the show's producers intend to close out its run with the people who built it.

Weatherly played the wisecracking senior field agent Tony DiNozzo across the show's first 13 seasons, from NCIS's 2003 premiere until his departure in 2016. The exit was written as a clean break: Ton...