OK, the not so great news first; the season finale of Castle beat out Alex O’Loughlin’s return to Hawaii Five-0 as Steve McGarrett by 3 millions viewers. The good news; DVR enthusiasts gave the episode enough of a boost to tie Castle with a 3.2 share among the 18-49 audience, and this is the number on which advertisers place the most importance. Whew!
It’s become the rite of spring; cliffhangers threatening to kill off favorite television characters in hopes of keeping viewers on tenterhooks throughout the summer and bring them back in the fall. What do you think?
The close of the TV season for many an actor signals the opening of “Waiting Season” — aka the sometimes torturous few weeks during which they watch for an official “pick-up letter” inviting them back for the fall. And make no mistake, even those with the cushiest of gigs eyeball Mr. Postman.
“I don’t think as an actor you ever feel confident,” Community’s Yvette Nicole Brown shared with TVLine recently. “Until I get the letter… saying [my option has been] picked up, I don’t rejoice. I could be on Modern Family and not feel confident about it.”
For at least four Smash cast members and one 90210 resident, to cite some early examples, option pick-ups were not meant to be. And for more than a dozen other primetime stars, the future is to varying degrees colored by a big question mark — in some instances only because of how the season-gone-by ended.
Grace Park, Hawaii Five-0
WHY SHE’S A KEEPER: Kono is part of the original Five-0 task force, she’s Chin Ho’s cousin and she’s pretty badass (as well as just plain ol’ pretty).
BUT IF SHE IS A GONER….: The Season 2 finale sure left the law woman in dire straights, all tied up and sinking ever deeper into the Pacific. Plus, Michelle Borth’s Catherine Rollins is now a regular, and the producers did say that tragedy would make Chin Ho a changed man come Season 3. Maybe Malia isn’t the great loss he suffers as result of that season-ending Sophie’s Choice?
Undercover Special Agent Sandi Peck caught the elusive Grace Park on the set of Hawaii Five-0 during the filming of season 2. Officer 808 is a bit envious.
Although the television landscape has changed considerably in recent years, giving us at least two “seasons,” the traditional broadcast year has come to an end. The final numbers have the sophomore year of Hawaii Five-0 tying at a respectable 41st place (out of 195) for the advertiser-desired 18-49 viewer group. In overall viewers, the show did even better, coming in at number 26. For the complete list, go to TVbythenumbers
Photo: Norman Shapiro/CBS
2011-12 Season Adults 18-49 Ratings (33 weeks of Live+7 Day and 2.5 weeks of Live+Same Day ratings)
The hardest working group in television also knows how to play. Check out this fun crew video celebrating the wrap of Hawaii Five-0′s second season. Mahalo, kimikai12!
Terry, Mel and yours truly, Officer 808 here at the 50undercover.com want to know how big a fan of Hawaii Five-0 you are! Do you have a photo collage of Steve up on your wall? Do you have a tiki bar in your house festooned with Hawaii Five-0 memorabilia? Do you stitch together huge pillows in the form of Kamekona’s shave ice? Do you doodle “Kono 4 eva” with hearts in your notebook like I do?
Take a photo or your most extraordinary fan made art, creation or devotional shrine to our favorite show to demonstrate how dedicated a fan you are! There is no limitation but your creativity. Take a photo of your work and send it to me at officer808@yahoo.com. Your photos will appear in the Facebook album “Show us your shrine” for all of the fandom to enjoy. Other fans will vote by submitting “Likes” to your photo, and the person with the most “Likes” at the end of the contest time will win…
Win this cool Hawaii Five-0 badge!
Yes, this is *the* official Season 2 badge keychains that Executive Producer Peter Lenkov made for the crew. He has generously given us a few of these to inspire you fans! The badge measure about two inches high, it’s in shiny gold, with the classic Five-0 symbol embossed on the front. On the rear it reads, “Season 2, 2011-2012″ with a unique number stamped on it.
Here are the official rules:
1) CREATE a Hawaii Five-0 inspired creation. It can be anything: a photo collage, a decorated corner of your house or workspace, a Hawaiian themed room in your house, a homemade craft or shirt…anything that you’ve made yourself. Please don’t submit any photoshopped images of things you “could” or “would” make, we want to see things you’ve actually created!
2) SUBMIT your photo entry via email to officer808@yahoo.com. I will screen entries for suitability. I will upload into the Facebook folder “Show us your shrine”. Enter multiple times if you’d like.
3) VOTE for your favorite submissions via the Facebook “Like” button. Only votes in this album will be counted! If you don’t have Facebook, email me your vote and I will count it manually.
4) ENCOURAGE your friends on the social networks to vote for your photo by sharing your photo on your own wall or twitter feed.
5) Vote counting will close at Friday, June 22, 2012 at midnight Hawaii Standard Time, and the official winner announced that weekend.
GOOD LUCK!
Legal disclaimer: please don’t break any laws in showing your devotion. Spray painting “I LOVE YOU ALEX” across a highway overpass sign will get you arrested, killed and most importantly disqualified from this contest. Don’t harm any animals either. Do not tattoo your significant other while they sleep. This list is not inclusive of all disqualifying acts.
"I have to use this ID until Peter issues me my badge keychain." (Photo CBS)
CBS drama Hawaii Five-0, has been holding onto a devoted fan base despite the competition. Mike Gordon at the Star Advertiser gives us some insight into this season’s numbers.
With a massive explosion at police headquarters, a few murders and a lot of mayhem in the streets of Honolulu, the CBS drama “Hawaii Five-0″ ended its second season Monday, and by the time the smoke cleared, it had a ratings victory.
“Five-0″ drew 11.42 million viewers, the third-largest audience of its sophomore season, according to Nielsen ratings information released Tuesday by the network.
The crime drama outpaced ABC’s “Bachelorette,” which drew 7.65 million viewers, and NBC’s “Smash,” which drew 5.96 million viewers.
“Five-0″ gave fans a wild ride during the 23-episode second season, which started with thousands of fans watching a sneak preview at Sunset on the Beach and a season-high draw of 12.19 million viewers a few days later.
The second season featured a steady parade of guest stars — including James Caan, Ed Asner, Jimmy Buffett and Peter Fonda — for added star power.
Semiregular “Five-0″ team members Lauren German and Larisa Oleynik were written out of the show.
And “Five-0″ headliner Alex O’Loughlin took a short break this spring to deal with a problem he had with prescription pain medication.
The show averaged 10.66 million viewers for original episodes.
“What do I think?” said Peter Lenkov, the show’s executive producer. “Whew. We made it. I now get to sleep for a week, then start writing again. Very proud of our cast and crew for an outstanding season two.”
CBS said in March it will bring back “Five-0″ for a third season. Filming is expected to start in July. The network hasn’t said whether it will host a Sunset on the Beach preview this year.
Among its key target audience, adults 18 to 49, the “Five-0″ season two finale was respectable, said Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. The finale drew 2.7 percent of the total viewing audience and 7 percent of those watching TV at the time, according to the Nielsen numbers.
The 2.7 rating is only a few tenths of a point lower than the season one finale, which means the show has a faithful audience, said Thompson, who keeps an eye on Nielsen ratings.
“It is definitely holding its audience,” he said.
The show would be in jeopardy should that number drop significantly, he said.
“‘Hawaii Five-0′ is by no means getting huge numbers, but at the same time it is beating a lot of stuff out there,” Thompson said. “But it doesn’t have too far to go down before it would start being a marginal show.”
By comparison, the CBS show “Unforgettable” was canceled after a rating that averaged 2.3, he said. The drama, which averaged 11.3 million viewers, was one of the higher-rated shows this season to be canceled, he said.
Donne Dawson, who was recently reinstated as the state’s film industry development manager for the Hawaii Film Office after being gone for two years, said she applied an unscientific “gut level” check to “Five-0,” and the second season came up a winner.
“I know that the industry depends on ratings for survival, but I think you can get carried away to a degree, hovering so closely over them,” Dawson said. “You sometimes need to pan back and say, ‘Does this have the necessary ingredients for a successful show?’ I say it does.”
The show has storytelling and eye candy, she said.
“In my mind that equates to success,” Dawson said. “I think that bodes well for longevity.”
If you haven’t had a chance to watch the Season 2 finale, you might want to avoid the below article from TVLine. It certainly sounds as though Peter Lenkov has already put plenty of thought into exactly how he’ll be torturing each member of the Hawaii Five-0 team in Season 3. Is it September yet?
The Season 2 finale of CBS’Hawaii Five-0 packed quite a Hawaiian punch on Monday night, killing off one recurring character, putting a bullet in another, leaving the lives of two women in jeopardy and bringing McGarrett face-to-face with the mysterious Shelburne – who is someone he knows, but surely never expected to see again.
Here is what executive producers Peter Lenkov and Elwood Reid shared about the shock and awe and aftermath, during a recent press gathering.
MAMMA, MIA! WAS THAT SHELBURNE? | Just to be clear, connect the dots and put to rest any worries about semantics, Joe did in fact lead McGarrett to the mysterious Shelburne – whom a shocked Steve greeted with a “Mom?” “The identity of Shelburne will be revealed [in the final five seconds],” Lenkov confirmed. And make no mistake, we’ll get to witness all of the most unexpected reunion. “[Next season] really picks up a second later,” says Lenkov.
WHO WILL CHIN HO LOSE? | Delano made Chin Ho choose between rushing to rescue wife Malia, who was being held at gunpoint at home, or cousin Kono, bound and about to be pitched over the side of a boat. Chin Ho ran to his missus, who nonetheless seemed very much worse for the wear, while Kono was last seen flailing and falling deeper and deeper into the Pacific. Without revealing either woman’s fate, Lenkov said that in Season 3, “We’re going to break [Chin Ho] and have him get rebuilt up again. When we found him he was already broken, but you never got to see him when he was a strong cop and got everything taken away from him. Now we want to see things taken away from him and see how he deals with it. We’re very deliberately altering his character.” And Daniel Dae Kim’s take on the sad Sophie’s Choice? “He loved the challenge, emotionally,” Lenvok shared, “with what he was going to do with his character.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR DANNO? | Detective Williams got off easy compared to everyone else in the finale, save for some domestic strife between him and ex-wife Rachel, who is threatening to move Grace to Las Vegas. Nonetheless, “There’s a lot of wood on the fire in the finale [that's] going to give us a lot of stuff to play” in Season 3, said Reid. “There’s some stuff that played during the middle of the season, particularly with Danny, that’s going to come back next season too.”
HAVE WE – AND MCGARRETT – SEEN THE LAST OF JOE WHITE? | Though Joe vanished into thin air before taking McGarrett to Shelburne, and despite Terry O’Quinn’s 666 Park Avenue pilot landing on ABC’s fall schedule, the Five-0 bosses are hoping for the occasional encore. “[Terry] is open to it, which we were all very surprised and excited about,” said Lenkov. “We love him, and hopefully he’ll come back.” After all, as Reid noted, “Joe is integral to the McGarrett mythology.” (With reporting by Vlada Gelman)
helps to support the blog, mahalo!