CBS Boss Kelly Kahl on ‘Magnum, P.I.’ Cancellation and ‘Survivor’ Outlasting the iPod

CBS chose not to renew “Magnum, P.I.” for another season, and the network’s entertainment president told TheWrap saying goodbye to the series was a tough call.

“Every year, there’s a couple of tough ones, and this was one of them,” he said. “There’s rarely a single factor. More often than not has to do with how is the complete schedule affected by what we do? Can we find room for new shows? Where can we maybe find some growth? And as you know, unfortunately, ‘Magnum’ came out on the short end. It’s a show we all loved and it was definitely one of the heartbreaker decisions we had to make. The producers and cast are all first class individuals.”

During the 2022-2023 TV year, “Survivor” will enter its 43rd season. It’s a show that has regularly made changes to its format, and even after all this time, it still ranks as one of the top shows on TV, outliving a tech device that was launched a year after the reality competition began.

“I have to give credit there to Jeff [Probst], who’s very involved and always wants to keep the show moving forward. He’s never he’s never happy having a static show and I think you can link that to the success the show has had for so long. The show came on in 2000, and it changed the face of television. The iPod came out a year later,” Kahl said.

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“The iPod is going away, but ‘Survivor’s’ still going strong,” he continued. “But I think that is a credit to Jeff who insists that we keep challenging not only the players but the audience, to keep the game fresh. I think that’s been borne out. ‘Survivor’s’ the only non sports show that’s in the top 10 with adults 25 to 30, for adults 18 to 49 and adults 18 to 34, which shows kind of the incredible range that the audience has.”

“NCIS: Los Angeles” will shift to Sunday nights at 10 p.m. ET/PT across the 2022-2023 TV season. It’ll join “The Equalizer,” which will air at 8 p.m., and now air after new drama “East New York,” which gets its 9 p.m. ET/PT slot.

“When you move one piece then it affects another piece,” Kahl told TheWrap when asked about moving “LA” to Sunday nights.

He added that putting “East New York” between “The Equalizer” and “NCIS: Los Angeles” has a “flow” they love at the network.

“‘LA’ will do a great job for us at 10 o’clock because we know it has a loyal audience and that’s not an easy place at the end of the week. But we know our team will do a great job there. We also aired a few episodes at 10 o’clock and they’ve done quite well,” he said.

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