#peter lenkov

caveat I: This is how I recollect things happening, but please feel free to correct me if I got stuff wrong!

caveat 2: I have seen a lot of questions from other people new to the fandom, so **cracks knuckles** I am going to try to answer everyone's questions.

CBS had told the crew there would be a Season 11 and even ordered Season 11 hats for the crew. There was also a lot of hints dropped throughout Season 10 that Alex was going to either leave, or significantly cut back his role in Season 11.

Alex had a lot of injuries thanks to doing his own stunts. His back was so bad by Season 7 that they wrote in the radiation sickness to create a reason for Steve not to be present as much in Season 8. Fortunately, Alex found treatments that helped his back enough that he was able to continue.

Side note: All four original actors signed 7 year contracts when they did the pilot, instead of the usual 3 year contracts. So Season 7 was written to include the possibility that Alex, Scott, Grace, or Daniel might not return. Writers were still given standard 3 year contracts and the Orci Brothers (who were co-producers) also left after Season 3. So if you are wondering if it feels like the show's tone changed after Season 3, that's why.

Second side note: Scott's significant other (they now have two children, but are not married) is a makeup artist and returned to LA for her career sometime in 2014. That's why Scott negotiated missing five episodes each season. Peter Lenkov (the show's producer) being the narcissist he is, couldn't fathom that some makeup artist's career could be as important as HIS show.

Since Chi Bride is one of Peter's close friends, he tried to ease Danny out and Lou in. Except episodes that didn't focus on Danny and Steve's partnership saw a significant drop in ratings, so I suspect Peter was told to knock it off by the higher ups. Which I'm sure only made Peter even madder. If you are wondering why Danny's character and story arcs were all over the place in later seasons, that's what was going on behind the scenes.

Third side note: Producers are upper management, and the big dogs at TV studios. They make the calls on actor contracts and pay, and can pretty much do what they want on their shows as long as ratings stay high. I bring this up because Peter Lenkov has insisted yet again in a recent Instagram post that he had no say over Daniel and Grace not getting more pay after Season 7. Thats complete BS.

Michelle Borth got into fights on social media with fans and also started calling fans names. CBS ordered she be fired and her social media scrubbed. Normally, that would have been the end of her time on H50, but Peter being the producer had the clout to get the studio execs to relent and let her come back as a guest star.

It was one hundred percent Peter's decision not to pay Daniel and Grace more money. He's tried to point fingers at everyone else ever since, but the buck stopped at his desk. Literally.

Back to your question. The crew had been told that Season 11 had been greenlit, so it was a shock when CBS reversed course and abruptly ended the show. This meant Peter Lenkov had to rewrite the final episodes last minute.

Which is also why Cole was shoe-horned in so abruptly. Cole was supposed to become a major character in Season 11, giving Alex a chance to leave. Danny's character was also going to be cut back in Season 11. The death of the woman in the bar was supposed to lead into a story arc that would explain his absence.

There's been a lot of rumors of why the show got canceled so abruptly. The studio's official answer was economics and the show had reached its natural ending. More likely, it was two things.

First, Alex's health. Alex had so many back and shoulder issues, that continuing to play a physical character like Steve was no longer possible. He pretty much vanished for a while after the show ended, so I wonder if there were additional injuries we don't know about.

The other factor was that CBS had finally been forced into investigating Peter Lenkov. Not only was he the boss from hell, who was known for calling employees after hours and having epic temper tantrums - but he also had a long and sordid history of racism. Peter was eventually fired in July of 2020. Some of his treatment of employees on Magnum can be found online.

Hopefully that answers your questions and everyone else's as well. It's sad that Peter's narcissism and pettiness caused so many problems, because the actors and the crew all loved the show, and they worked their butts off to create a reboot worthy of the original H50. Also, there aren't a lot of film and movie jobs in Hawai'i, so thanks to Peter, 400 people, many of them Asians and Island Pacifiers, lost their jobs when H50 ended. I really wish the NCIS: Hawai'i had succeeded so some of those jobs could have been saved🥺