Hawaii Five-O graced our screens for many years, but that's recently come to an end.
In February 2020, it was announced that the tenth season would be the last for the popular
show. So why did the series come to an end and what did it have to do with star Alex
O'Loughlin ? Well… a lot.
"Says the catastrophist."
"Catastrophist… How is this a good thing, Danny?"
A report by Deadline offered some insight into Alex O'Loughlin who portrayed Lieutenant
Commander Steve McGarrett and his time on the show, pointing out that it's not the first
time the actor has considered calling it quits. As recently as a couple of years ago, it was
speculated that the actor, who was known to be having physical difficulty with the show's
demands and suffered a serious back injury pretty early on in the show's run would depart.
Fortunately, he opted to stay on following a successful round of stem cell treatment.
"There is no way, in good conscience, I can walk away from this one."
At this point, however, O'Loughlin's body was telling him to quit and rather than replace
him with a new partner for Scott Caan's Detective Sergeant Danny "Danno" Williams, the series'
creatives decided that it was simply time to hang it up. After all, can anyone really
see Danno running around with a new partner?
"You were late, so I gave your breakfast to Eddie."
"That's funny, but I don't think you're kidding."
"Do I look like I'm kidding? This is not my joking face."
The rest of the cast may have been fairly fluid throughout the past 10 years, but the
two leads have been together from the beginning. Sometimes it's best for shows to pull the
plug rather than push on when they hit a wall, and losing one of their main leads would certainly
constitute such a wall.
O'Loughlin spoke two years ago on his possible departure to TV Line, pointing out how things
had changed since the show's beginning. He also described the proverbial laundry list
of injuries he sustained on the show. Ready for this one?
O'Loughlin said:
"I've blown both shoulders, one knee. I've had my elbow tendon reattached. I've got bulging
discs in my neck and my back. I don't know where to start. I'm a mess, and a lot of it's
been really, really hard. I think back to when I was doing most of my own stunts in
the first few years that was not a great idea. But the physical exhaustion of working with
injury and working huge hours day after day, year after year [...] The whole show has been
extremely physically daunting. […] I don't know how much longer I can do it."
After the announcement that the show would be ending, O'Loughlin shared a message for
fans. He said:
"This show has been pretty much every waking moment for the last 10 years of my life. Everywhere
I go on this planet, in every language, I am McGarrett to all these people. What we've
done, what we've accomplished, it's extraordinary. I can't really put words to express my level
of gratitude. I'm just glad to have been a part of this, a part of history and I'm going
to miss it. And to the fans, I don't know how to thank you guys. Thank you for following
us the way you have. I'm going to miss you. Aloha."
While networks may allow visionary creators and talented actors the freedom and budget
to make exactly the kind of shows they want to make, television is still a business. Broadcast
networks like CBS aim to turn a profit by selling advertising space on its programs.
If it spends millions of dollars each week on a show that isn't bringing in the big audiences
that it promised advertisers and for which it charged accordingly then that show is likely
to get canceled.
This is a big reason why long-running shows leave the air when they do, as they no longer
attract a big enough audience to justify its costs.
"Look, man. I don't know, uh, I don't know when it happened, but something's changed."
In regards to ending Hawaii Five-0, showrunner Peter M. Lenkov told TVLine:
"I think the network just thought it was a good time. There are so many different things
that factor into this economics, everything."
In other words, the ratings for Hawaii Five-0 had dropped over its decade on the air. At
its peak of popularity in 2015, the show averaged 12.28 million weekly viewers. By the 2018-19
season, that figure had dropped to just over 10 million, and the first episode of the tenth
and what would turn out to be the last season brought in just over 7 million pairs of eyeballs.
Despite several factors indicating that Hawaii Five-0 was moving toward a close in its tenth
season, producers made plans for the future, just in case CBS did decide to bring it back
for one more round of episodes. The final two installments of the show added a brand-new
character: ex-Marine Lincoln Cole, portrayed by recurring MacGyver actor Lance Gross. Steve
McGarrett even asks him to "hold down the fort" in the event of his absence. Showrunner
Peter M. Lenkov told TVLine, quote, "I thought he would be a great addition to the team,"
and he called Cole, quote, "the perfect sort of 'broken toy' to complement the team."
In addition to moving Cole into focus, the last episode of season 10 which became the
Hawaii Five-0 series finale had initially been written to set up some eleventh season
plot lines. But when Lenkov learned CBS ended the show, he had to make some cuts. He explained,
quote, "I have 12 minutes of that show that are not in there that are on the cutting room
floor."
Peter Lenkov, one of the main brains and producers behind the popular show, specifically mentioned
O'Loughlin in his statement when the cancellation was announced, another clue that the actor
is a main reason why the show is coming to an end.
He said:
"My eternal gratitude to our cast, led by our hero Alex O'Loughlin, the writers, the
production team, our CBS ohana, and most importantly YOU, the fans, who allowed us to come to work
with pride and made our series such a success."
David Stapf, the president of CBS Television Studios, had shared that fans could expect
a "big sendoff" with a, quote, "opportunity to say goodbye to their favorite characters."
Fans indeed got that in the two-hour, April 3rd series finale. There was action, emotion,
and intrigue aplenty and even a few surprises. Though the show might be over, its run was
a success that will be cherished for years to come by fans around the world.
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