'It was a shock': Jay Hernandez on surprising 'Magnum P.I.' cancellation, February return

PASADENA, Calif. – Out of all of the dangers private investigator Thomas Magnum faced, cancellation could've proved the most deadly.

Thankfully for fans, NBC stepped in and saved "Magnum P.I.," a remake of the '80s Hawaiian crime-fighting action series originally starring Tom Selleck. The reboot, led by  Jay Hernandez aired on CBS for four seasons but was axed in May. It topped USA TODAY's 25th annual Save Our Shows poll, with nearly half of nearly 70,000 votes (49%) pleading for "Magnum" back.

NBC greenlit a 20-episode fifth season, debuting Feb. 19 (Sundays at 9 EST/, which will be split into two parts.

Hernandez, 44, told the Television Critics Association Sunday that the show's cancellation caught him completely off guard.

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"It was a shock that the show was going to go away in the first place ...and  then just (as) surprised that it found another home," he said. "It's such a rare thing to happen, and watching the things that were taking pace on social media, billboards and petitions and just seeing the amount of support that the show was getting from the audience, that was humbling to me. I kind of put my head down, we do our work and sometimes you forget about people and the impact that the show has."

Executive producer Eric Guggenheim said he began searching for a new home for the series "within minutes" of learning of the cancellation.

"NBC stepped in immediately," he said, (NBC's sibling Universal Studios owns the series.) "That began about a four- to six-week period where we were in limbo and discussing with NBC how to keep the show and how we would move forward."

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At the end of Season 4, Magnum and Juliet Higgins (Perdita Weeks) kissed. The upcoming season explores the two in a budding relationship in episodes Guggenheim says are steamier than those that aired on CBS.

"I think that would’ve happened regardless, just once we put them together," he said. "But for sure this season it is sexier. It is more romantic. It's more emotional."

Contributing: Gary Levin

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Magnum P.I.' cancellation and resurrection shocked Jay Hernandez