‘Magnum P.I.’: NBC & USA Network Working On Possibly Rescuing The Cancelled Hawai’i Based Drama
According to reports today, NBC is working alongside USA Network to try and rescue ‘Magnum P.I.‘ following its cancellation by CBS last month.
‘Magnum P.I.’ is a modern take on the classic series centring on Thomas Magnum (Jay Hernandez – ‘Scandal’, ‘Suicide Squad’), a decorated former Navy SEAL who, upon returning home from Afghanistan, repurposes his military skills to become a private investigator. A charming rogue, an American hero and a die-hard Detroit Tigers fan, Magnum lives in a guest cottage on Robin’s Nest, the luxurious estate where he works as a security consultant to supplement his P.I. business.
Alongside Hernandez, the series stars Perdita Weeks as Juliet Higgins, Zachary Knighton as Orville “Rick” Wright, Stephen Hill as Theodore “T.C.” Calvin, Amy Hill as Teuila “Kumu” Tuileta, and Tim Kang as HPD Detective Gordon Katsumoto.
According to Deadline, who broke the news, Universal Television who co-produces the series, are either looking to bring it outright to NBC, or possibly running the older seasons on USA Network (also owned by NBCUniversal), with new seasons airing on NBC. However, this isn’t as straightforward as you might think…
Universal Television co-produces the drama with CBS Studios, so moving it to NBC would require some deal to be made between the two parties. Given that the reason for the cancellation on CBS was due to NBCUniversal and Paramount (CBS) being unable to come to an agreement over the license fee, that should be an interesting discussion now the shoe is on the other foot! There is also a time limit on any negotiations, as the option to pick up the cast for another season runs out at the end of June, so it would become a prohibitively more expensive deal after that if they had to re-hire or extend the contracts without the guarantee of a show.
From the fan side of things, there is certainly an audience out there for the show. Following May’s annual “TV Bloodbath”, there is always one show cancellation which gets a lot of social media attention, and this year ‘Magnum P.I.’ very much topped that list. It is thought to be the most-watched broadcast series to get cut down in “The Bloodbath” this year. Although its numbers were actually pretty reasonable on CBS, they had already forked out bags of cash to NBC for the ‘FBI’ series and ‘The Equalizer’, and CBS had a strong set of their own pilots to pick up this year, so they decided to let ‘Magnum P.I.’ go. Hopefully, some deal can be worked out, but we should know one way or the other by the end of June 2022.‘Magnum P.I.‘ airs on Sky Max in the UK. We’ll let you know if and when we hear more.
