Cote de Pablo leaves "NCIS," but CBS CEO Les Moonves insists that the network tried hard to keep the actress on the show for season 11 by offering to increase her salary. Despite de Pablo's exit, the actress will appear in the season 11 premiere.

"We offered Cote de Pablo a lot of money, and then we offered her even more money," Moonves told reporters at the Television Critics Association fall TV previews Monday. "We really didn't want to lose her. We love her; we think she was terrific. ... Ultimately she decided she didn't want to do the show."

Fans don't have to lament just yet. De Pablo, who has played agent Ziva David since the third season of the chart-topping series, will appear in the season 11 premiere on Sept. 24 in addition to making several guest appearances, to wrap up her character's storyline, CBS reports.

In 2011, de Pablo lobbied for a pay raise and was bumped up to $120,000 per episode, putting her on the same level with female co-star Pauley Perrette, Yahoo! reports.

However, it is rumored that Perrette and Michael Weatherly got raises to $175,000 an episode last year. And star Mark Harmon got a massive increase, according to Deadline, going from $500,000 to $700,000 per episode.

Despite the significant pay raise offered by CBS, Moonves says de Pablo wanted to leave the No. 1 show on television.

"It was purely her decision," Moonves said. "'NCIS' was the highest-rated show on television last year. We don't like losing anybody, but we did everything humanly possible. We feel like we exhausted every opportunity, and she just decided she didn't want to do the show."

The 33-year-old Chilean-born actress expressed her gratitude in a statement in early July.

"I've had 8 great years with 'NCIS' and Ziva David," she said. "I have huge respect and affection for Mark, Gary, Michael, David, Rocky, Pauley, Brian, Sean, all of the team and CBS. I look forward to finishing Ziva's story."

"NCIS" airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.