Last month CBS confirmed it was canceling its Magnum P.I. reboot after four seasons. In the wake of this surprising announcement, it was reported that NBC was in talks to save the show, and it appears those discussions were fruitful.
Deadline reports that talks went down to the wire, but NBC has officially closed on a deal to revive Magnum P.I. with the action-packed series set to run for 20 more episodes split across two seasons. This welcome revival will bring the rebooted show’s total episode count to 96, with NBC also holding the option to order further episodes as well.
Its also been suggested that CBS Studios, which co-produced the show alongside Universal TV, has allowed the cast's contracts to run out and didn’t take up the option of extending them. This now leaves NBC free to finalize deals with the show’s main players, which isn’t expected to be a problem.
Magnum P.I. is a reboot of the classic 1980s series of the same name. It sees the eponymous role made famous by Tom Selleck passed on to Jay Hernandez. Like the original series, the action-drama show follows the adventures of Thomas Magnum (Hernandez), a Navy SEAL turned private investigator. Each episode sees him using his military skills to solve crimes across Hawaii.
While the show was far from a critical success — its first season scored a disappointing 57% on Rotten Tomatoes — it was popular with viewers as evidenced by its 74% audience score. CBS’s decision to cancel the show back in May was slightly puzzling, especially in light of its strong rating, but perhaps it was because of the show’s expensive production cost. Magnum P.I. is filmed on location in Hawaii, which will have definitely inflated its budget.
While showrunners and key cast members often pitch recently canceled shows to other networks, it’s not particularly common for a show to be revived after being terminated. Recent successful examples include Brooklyn Nine-Nine moving to NBC after being canned by Fox, as well as mystery drama Manifest being picked up by Netflix after being axed over at NBC.
We can now add Magnum P.I. to the small list of shows that managed to successfully find a new home after being initially canceled. This is great news for the show’s cast and creative time, but the biggest winners are the show’s dedicated viewers who will now get to enjoy Magnum solving at least 20 more cases.
