CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, July 04, 2017

Asian 'Hawaii Five-0' stars quit after CBS refuses equal salary

Business Insider: "Hawaii Five-0" stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park have left the CBS show after the network refused to pay them as much as their white costars, Variety reports.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

The new Hawaii Five-0 used to be one of my favorite shows. I absolutely loved Daniel Dae Kim in Lost and seeing him succeed in Hawaii Five-0 was really nice. He was also a great great actor in this show, as well as his female co-star (whose name I don't remember). I am truly truly amazed that a studio as well known as CBS would actively refuse equal pay to both actors. Media does often tend to find the best headline, and there is a possibility that CBS believed because Alex O'Loughlin and Scott Caan are the "main" characters, they deserved higher pay, but it is very difficult to justify that. Especially in this day in age, and with the success of the show, it is utterly confusing that they would be so resistant to giving the "10-15%" pay increase. With the loss of them, I doubt the show will remain successful and will likely decline in the following season.

Unknown said...

After reading this article, it shocked me to know that two of the main characters from a show that has been running for so long are no longer part of the series. I never knew that they got paid less than the other two lead male characters because of their race. As an Asian American myself, I understand the struggle of not getting recognized for the work that you do because of your race. The two characters that left the show have been part of it for as long as the other two male lead characters, and it troubles me to think that they aren't being paid equal amounts of money when they all work similar amounts of time for Hawaii Five-0. I was hoping that I would see both of those characters return for the eighth season, but because of the underlying racism of the industry, their plot lines won't be continued.