After two longtime “Hawaii Five-0” stars reportedly walked out of the show due to salary negotiations earlier this month, CBS has found their replacements.
The network announced Wednesday that it would promote Ian Anthony Dale, who has appeared on the show as Adam Noshimuri, a character Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) will now recruit to work for the task force.
Dale will be joined by Meaghan Rath and Beulah Koale. As Tani Rey, Rath is recruited from her gig as a hotel pool lifeguard, where she took a job after being kicked out of the Police Academy. Koale will play Junior Reigns, a former Navy SEAL who recently returned from service.
The trio join the show’s eighth season after two Asian stars, Daniel Dae Kim, who played Chin Ho Kelly, and Grace Park, who played Kono Kalakaua, sought equal pay to leads O’Loughlin and Scott Caan.
Kim and Park quit when CBS reportedly offered them 10 to 15 percent less than their white co-stars, whom the network considered to be the show’s leads. The actors’ perceived value to the cast was put under a microscope in a time when diversity in entertainment has never been more discussed.
“They’ve helped us build an exciting new ‘Hawaii Five-0,’ and we wish them all the best and much success in their next chapters,” a CBS spokesperson said at the time, adding a Hawaiian farewell, “Mahalo and a hui hou ...”
Writing on Facebook in response to headlines on the controversy, Kim stated that “the path to equality is rarely easy.”
“Hawaii Five-0” returns Sept. 29 at 9 p.m. ET.
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