Through his attorney, Lenkov denied making these statements or anything like them.
Two Magnum P.I. sources say that, a couple of years back, Lenkov took a dislike to the CBS comedies The Neighborhood, about a white family moving into a predominantly Black community, and Happy Together, about a Black couple who suddenly find themselves living with a pop star. These sources say episodes of both programs were often viewed in the writers room as staffers gathered to watch Magnum P.I. together. One of the sources, an Afro-Latina writer, said that when Happy Together concluded, Lenkov told her, “Get used to it. That’s the kind of shit you’re going to be writing on.” (“Peter denies making that statement,” Kinsella told Vanity Fair.)
This year, the advocacy group Color of Change published a report on the way TV depicts race and crime. The study, which analyzed 26 scripted crime programs during the 2017–2018 season, found that 75 to 83% of Hawaii Five-0’s writers were white. Only three shows had a worse “racial integrity index score,” because the program had so many characters of color onscreen and so few people of color in the writers room. “There were never very many people of color and our voices were not given any prominence,” said a woman of color who worked on a Lenkov show. “We were tokens.”
According to sources, problems of representation sometimes found their way into the episodes themselves as a result. “In my opinion, when I was on the show, the depiction of Native Hawaiian characters was clunky at best and offensive at worst,” said a woman who worked on Hawaii Five-0. A woman of color added, “During my time at Hawaii Five-0, I saw multiple offensive stereotypes in a number of scripts.”
One of Lenkov’s lawyers responded by writing, “Particularly considering that Hawaii Five-0 is set and filmed in Hawaii and features a diverse cast, all of the writers and producers, Peter included, worked hard to respect and celebrate various cultures and avoid stereotypes. Peter has never heard accusations previously that this show (or any of its scripts) contain inappropriate stereotypes, and we would note that the show has in the past received a CAPE award from the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment.”
Three Frustrated Stars
Perhaps the most high-profile controversy of Lenkov’s time as a CBS showrunner involved the departures of Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, both of whom left Hawaii Five-0 after the show’s seventh season. In late June and early July 2017, trade publications reported that the actors had requested, but not obtained, pay parity with the leads of the show, Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan.
Part of the public outcry that ensued arose from the fact that Park and Kim are both Asian Americans, and the majority of Hawaii residents are people of color. The treatment of the two actors prompted widespread incredulity. Many commentators decried the fact that pay parity for men and women of color was still difficult to achieve in television, even for actors with Park and Kim’s résumés.
“Kim and Park were, arguably, the most prominent actors out of the four when the show launched in 2010,” Vanity Fair’s Laura Bradley noted. “Kim was just coming off of a long-running role on Lost as Jin-Soo Kwon, and Park had already made a name for herself for five years on Battlestar Galactica. Caan, by contrast, was known best for appearing in 19 episodes of Entourage…O’Loughlin’s résumé may have been the thinnest of all.”
In his only public comment on his departure, Kim thanked the show’s fans and producers, while also noting that “the path to equality is rarely easy.”