'Hawaii Five-0': CBS Execs Maintain They Offered Daniel Dae Kim, Grace Park 'a Lot of Money' to Stay

CBS executive Kelly Kahl said the network offered “Hawaii 5-0” stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park “a lot of money to stick around,” but that they couldn’t be persuaded to stay.

The recent exits of the two Asian-American stars ahead of the drama’s eighth season raised questions about the pay disparity between them and their white counterparts, Scott Caan and Alex O’Loughlin.

“Not going to talk specifics about the deal or the negotiation,” Kahl replied in response to a question from TheWrap about the pay gap at a Television Critics Association panel. “We love both those actors and did not want to lose them. 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.”

Also Read: 'Hawaii Five-0' Adds Three Cast Members After Fallout Over Recent Exits

“It’s kind of an unfortunate byproduct of having a successful, long-running show, that sometimes you lose cast members. We didn’t want it to happen, but it’s happened on ‘CSI,’ it’s happened on ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ ‘Law & Order: SVU,'” Kahl added. “We tried our darndest to keep them.”

“Hawaii Five-0” launched in September 2010 and is a reboot of the original series that signed off in 1980 after 12 seasons. It stars O’Loughlin (Steve McGarrett), Caan (Danno Williams), Chi McBride (Lou Grover) and Jorge Garcia (Jerry Ortega).

Masi Oka (Max Bergman) left the show during Season 7.

Also Read: Daniel Dae Kim on 'Hawaii Five-0' Departure: 'Path to Equality Is Rarely Easy'

“The truth is this: Both actors chose not to extend their contracts,” said “Five-0” showrunner Peter Lenkov of the Kim-Park departures last month. “CBS was extremely generous and proactive in their renegotiation talks. So much so, the actors were getting unprecedented raises, but in the end, they chose to move on.”

Kim told his side of the story on Facebook, which readers can check out in full here.

“The path to equality is rarely easy,” the “Lost” alum wrote.

Also Read: CBS Says 'Hawaii Five-0's' Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park Turned Down 'Large and Significant' Raises

“Hawaii Five-0” returns for Season 8 on Friday, Sept. 29, on CBS.

Hollywood's Biggest Brands Haunted by Hackers, From HBO to Disney (Photos)

Since the high-profile hack of Sony Pictures in 2014, cybersecurity has become one of Hollywood's top concerns as more studios and networks continue to become prime targets.
The biggest and most consequential hack to hit Hollywood was the Sony Pictures hack of 2014. Spurred by the studio's then-upcoming comedy "The Interview," about a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-Un, North Korean hackers were able to access employee information, emails, unreleased projects and other damaging information.
Sony
Netflix fell victim to a hack in 2017 when a group called "The Dark Overlord" stole episodes of "Orange Is the New Black" from a post-production house. When the streamer failed to meet ransom demands, the group released 10 episodes of the series weeks ahead of the scheduled premiere.
Netflix
After The Dark Overlord successfully released "Orange Is the New Black," the group took to Twitter promising to target other companies next. The group named ABC its next target in a vague tweet, but did not specify which show or shows it was threatening to release.
ABC
When The Dark Overlord took "Orange Is the New Black" from Larson Studios, it also reportedly made off with other unaired shows, including "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "Portlandia." ABC, NBC, FX, National Geographic, E!, Disney Channel and Lifetime were also contacted by the FBI, who was investigating the incident, to notify them that their work may have been compromised.
CBS
Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed in a company town hall meeting that the film studio had received a ransom demand from a hacker who claimed to have stolen one of their unreleased films. Reports said the pirated film was "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," though it was never released. Iger later said in an interview that he believed it to be a hoax.
Getty Images
UTA suffered a "malware incident" in April, in which hackers held the company's computer systems hostage, demanding payment in bitcoin. Meetings were canceled and pushed, with the talent agency effectively shut down as the company raced to respond. Outside investigators concluded that no sensitive information was compromised.
Getty Images
The Sundance Film Festival also suffered a cyberattack in 2017. The box office was forced to go offline for roughly 40 minutes as the festival responded to the situation, but no screenings were affected by the outage. "Our artist's voices will be heard and the show will go on," the festival said in a statement.
Getty Images
In the middle of the seventh season run of its biggest hit "Game of Thrones," HBO suffered a cyber breach in which hackers reportedly obtained a copy of the script for an upcoming episode. Unaired episodes of "Ballers" and "Room 104" were also stolen and released online.
HBO

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Since 2014’s massive Sony hack, Hollywood continues to be compromised

Since the high-profile hack of Sony Pictures in 2014, cybersecurity has become one of Hollywood's top concerns as more studios and networks continue to become prime targets.

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Hollywood's Biggest Brands Haunted by Hackers, From HBO to Disney (Photos)

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