“Magnum P.I.” might get a second life – somewhere

Corporate synergy could save show but complex rights issue stand in the way 

Magnum P.I., the recently-canceled reboot with Jay Hernandez in the starring role, could return with new episodes. 

As first reported by Deadline, series producer Universal Television is looking for a way to bring back the action drama for a fifth season – possibly airing on NBC or USA Network, or a combination of the two. 

The move comes as Magnum was left off CBS’ 2022-23 fall schedule, cancelling the show after four seasons. Magnum premiered on September 24, 2018 originally airing on Monday nights but in the last few seasons, shifted to Friday nights where the show drew decent ratings with an average of 7.3 million viewers and an 0.7 rating in the 18-49 demo, with live-plus-seven day playback (higher than many primetime shows on higher HUT-level nights.) The show’s cancellation came as a surprise to some. 

Magnum could shift to NBC or USA as possibly a midseason replacement – but it hinges on whether or not a deal can be made with CBS Studios, who co-produced the show with Universal Television. When the show was brought back, CBS insisted on being a co-producer of the show – commonplace these days since the expiration of the fin-syn rules in the mid-1990s as they limited how much programming the major broadcast networks could produce on their own schedules. As a result, Universal holds the international rights but CBS Studios – in this case CBS Media Ventures, holds the U.S. off-network rights. 

Universal Television – who solely produced the 1980s version and NBC and USA each share a corporate parent with Comcast. 

The CBS-Universal co-production is a bit unusual in the post fin-syn era, and this is what leads to these lengthy negotiations on who owns what and who syndicates what. Both parties recently completed lengthy negotiations on renewals for Dick Wolf’s FBI (Wolf has a development deal with Universal) and The Equalizer, another recent 1980s series revival. But somehow, Magnum was the odd man out.

There’s also a possibility Magnum could wind up on streaming – perhaps Peacock or Paramount Plus. Peacock is owned by NBCUniversal/Comcast; Paramount Plus and CBS share Paramount Global as a corporate parent. There are 76 existing episodes looking for an off-network cable and/or SVOD home, although the aforementioned USA is a possible outlet (Magnum’s current season four episodes are still available to stream on Paramount Plus.) Obviously, adding more episodes would make the series easier to strip for a cable network. However, CBS Media Ventures did find a broadcast syndication home for Magnum as it’s being offered to local stations this fall as an all-barter weekend offering, likely to those who were airing Bull, another show CBS canceled this year. 

Regardless, both CBS and Universal need to act quick – the cast’s contract options expire June 30. 

The reboot starred Hernandez – one of the few male Latino leads in a current prime-time series, as a private investigator (hence the P.I.) who is a former Navy Seal who solves crimes in Hawaii after returning home from Afghanistan (in the original series, it was Magnum returning from Vietnam.) 

Starring Tom Selleck, the original Magnum ran on CBS for eight seasons from 1980-88 and enjoyed tremendous success, ranking as high as third in the 1982-83 season. In 1983 and 1984, MCA TV (the predecessor to NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, who holds the rights to the original series), sold Magnum in off-network syndication for record prices and began airing on local stations in September 1986, including WGN-TV in Chicago (who paid $65,000 per episode); WWOR-TV in New York (about $98,000 per episode); and KTLA Los Angeles – who paid an insane amount of $125,000 per episode. Magnum was a ratings success, coming at a time when local stations were shifting away from off-network dramas and to first-run talk and game shows, thanks to the success of The Oprah Winfrey Show. The original Magnum was also reran on USA, starting in the mid-1990s. 

Of note, the Magnum P.I. reboot for the last few seasons led into Blue Bloods, a cop series starring….Tom Selleck (Selleck did turn down an offer to appear on the revival.)