Nine months after Magnum P.I. got a surprising cancellation, the Hawaiian crime drama debuts on a new network February 19. Magnum, with Jay Hernandez in the private eye role, was canceled by CBS last May, and promptly scooped up by NBC. It is rare that a show changes networks, and the Magnum brain trust is confident the shift is a favorable one.
Showrunner Eric Guggenheim was in a Zoom meeting with writers and producers, hashing out season five, when he got the call that the show was canceled. “It was incredibly disappointing,” he told B+C. “We thought it had a really strong season creatively, and the numbers were good. I was really optimistic. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have been.”
The malaise did not last. NBC reached out within 24 hours, Guggenheim said, and the deal to carry on was finalized around six weeks later.
“Everyone was a little surprised based on how popular the show was,” Lisa Katz, president, scripted entertainment programming, NBCU Television and Streaming, said of the cancellation. “Once we realized there was an opportunity, we jumped in.”
The new Magnum P.I.’s season five will have 20 episodes. The show lost a few crew members and writers after the cancellation, but the entire cast returns.
CBS Studios produces the show in association with Universal Television. Katz said Magnum works for NBC because it is “super-entertaining, high-quality, with a great cast and great cast chemistry,” along with “a fantastic setting.”
NBC is hopeful sun-splashed Hawaii will play well across the freezing American winter. “Who doesn’t want to be stuck inside, watching beautiful people in a beautiful setting, having a great time?” said Katz.
She said “the DNA of the show” will remain. Guggenheim agreed, but suggested a few pivots. Magnum will be “a bit more serialized,” he said, while teasing what “is probably the most emotional season yet, heavier on humor and romance.”
Gettin’ Miggy
Indeed, a season-five trailer shows Magnum and Higgins, portrayed by Perdita Weeks, in the shower together, sparking hashtag #Miggy on social media.
Guggenheim said at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour of the budding romance: “The chemistry between these two actors is just amazing, and it was becoming harder and harder, honestly, to keep them apart.”
Hernandez and Weeks said the new romance won’t change the dynamic between Magnum and Higgins all that much. “We still bicker constantly,” he said at the TCA session. “We still bicker a lot,” she added.
Guggenheim also hinted at a season-long mystery dating back to Magnum, T.C. and Rick’s soldier days (“an old mission that puts them all in peril”) and an episode inspired by the 1963 noir film Shock Corridor that sees Higgins go undercover in a psychiatric hospital. Hernandez directs the latter episode.
NBC will air four episodes on premiere day — two season-four repeats and the first two episodes of season five. February 13 starts “Magnum Week,” which includes the pilot on NBC that night and eight episodes on USA Network February 18.
Katz is hopeful the promotions will both bring former CBS viewers to NBC, and turn new viewers on to the show. “We’ll take everyone we can get,” she said.
Changing Channels
It is a short list of series that have switched networks. In 2018, Fox cancelled Brooklyn Nine-Nine after five seasons. NBC ran seasons six, seven and eight of the cop comedy.
“We’re in some great company, actually,” Guggenheim commented.
Among other shows that found new homes after cancellation, last month Starz picked up Minx after the comedy did its rookie season on HBO Max. The Mindy Project went from Fox to Hulu, Designated Survivor from ABC to Netflix and One Day at a Time from Netflix to Pop TV.
Magnum will be on NBC in the 9 p.m. Sunday slot, with The Blacklist starting a new season February 26, in the 10 p.m. space.
“While it’s true that their primary goal is generating episodes they can sell into [syndication] aftermarkets, and that linear ratings won’t make or break the show, the scheduling suggests they hope to build Magnum P.I.’s audience as part of their lineup,” Old Dominion University associate professor of communications Myles McNutt said.
Guggenheim and the writers are just happy to still be working on Magnum P.I. “There are moments where we say, wow, are we really doing this? Did we really cheat death?” he said. “We were dead and we came back to life.” ▪️
