CBS
At CBS’s 2017 Television Critics Association summer press tour presentation on Tuesday, execs Kelly Kahl and Thom Sherman were grilled about the exits of HAWAII FIVE-0 stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park following contract disputes. The new network heads (Kahl is President, CBS Entertainment and Sherman is Senior Executive Vice President, Programming, both started their new roles in late May) did not stray from the message in the network’s official statement on the actors’ departure.
“We did not want to lose them and tried very hard to keep them with offers for large and significant salary increases. While we could not reach an agreement, we part ways with tremendous respect for their talents on screen, as well as their roles as ambassadors for the show off screen, and with hopes to work with them again in the near future,” the network said in a statement after the news of their exit broke in early July.
Said Kahl on Tuesday, “We didn’t want it to happen. We tried our darnedest to keep them.”
Kim said in a statement after the news of his departure broke that he understood the disappointment fans would face with the exit of his character, but said “the path to equality is rarely easy.”
Kahl would not delve into the specifics of the negotiations, but called the offer—which a source told The Hollywood Reporter was within 2 percent of what leads Scott Caan and Alex O’Loughlin earn, minus their backend profit—”lucrative.”
“We love both those actors and did not want to lose them,” he said. “We made very, very strong attempts to keep them and offered them a lot of money to stick around. We wanted them to stick around. I think it’s an unfortunate byproduct of having a long-running, successful show—that you lose cast members.”
Ian Anthony Dale, Meaghan Rath and Beulah Koale were added as series regulars for the show’s upcoming eighth season.
