Magnum P.I. wrapped the first half of its fifth season back in April with a spring finale that forced Magnum to deal with some of his hard-to-swallow actions while T.C. was gravely injured and Rick was on the run. As star Jay Hernandez had previewed beforehand, it was a complicated episode that fans were right to be nervous about. Fortunately, it didn’t end on a life-or-death cliffhanger when fans had no idea of when the show would return. Now, NBC has confirmed when to expect the second half of Season 5, to go along with Hernandez’s thoughts on writing an episode of the show.
Would Jay Hernandez Ever Write An Episode?
Jay Hernandez spoke with CinemaBlend ahead of the Season 5 spring finale, shortly after the trippy episode he directed aired on NBC. That was of course before the 2023 WGA writers strike began and put the future of scripted television on hold, and the actor addressed whether he’d be interested in penning an episode of Magnum P.I. one day. Hernandez said:
Yeah! It's funny – I've written a couple feature scripts. Writing for television is kind of a different thing, but I have consumed so many scripts at this point that I feel if I were to sit down and do it, I can pull it off. I know the show. I know the tone of the show and the characters intimately. I know the types of stories that we like to tell on Magnum, so if it was for Magnum, I feel like it would be pretty straightforward.
As Hernandez previously noted, he’s in almost every scene of the show and already directed more than one episode, so who could possibly know Magnum P.I. better after five seasons than him? Add in his experience in writing feature scripts, and it sounds like an episode written by him isn’t out of the realm of possibility someday if the series is renewed for Season 6 to hit a major milestone. The star continued:
I've actually thought about doing it. It's just my time off, when I'm between seasons – last season during the hiatus, I went out of town, shot a movie, produced that movie. There's a lot of other things that I'm doing outside of the television show, and if I had more time, I probably would have written an episode by now. But I would like to. I would really like to write an episode of Magnum P.I. It'd be fun and it'd be a challenge. I just feel like I need to check that box.
The future of scripted television is uncertain at this point in light of the writers strike, the last of which lasted for 100 days. That said, members of the cast (including Zach Knighton on Instagram) were celebrating a wrap on Season 5 back in April, so it seems safe to say that filming has concluded, and the final stages of production can be finished without the strike forcing a halt. And that leads us to…
When Season 5 Is Coming Back
In the midst of spring finale season, NBC has released the fall TV schedule for new and returning shows. Although it’s much too soon for precise dates, we now know which will return in the fall and which will be back in midseason. Unfortunately for Magnum P.I. fans, the Jay Hernandez-led series won’t be back until 2024.
It’s not altogether shocking after NBC premiered the show as part of its midseason lineup in the 2022-2023 TV season, but a hiatus presumably lasting the better part of a year is still bound to be a bummer for fans everywhere. Still, considering that Magnum P.I. was cancelled by CBS in May of last year, a return with any new episodes at all is still good news. Plus, the first ten episodes of Season 5 are available streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription.
Also returning to NBC in midseason are Law & Order: Organized Crime, La Brea, Lopez vs. Lopez (which recently set up Season 2 with its first season finale), the latest America’s Got Talent spinoff, and Canadian medical drama Transplant after its previous finale in July 2022. Only time will tell when exactly the shows will premiere; in the case of Magnum P.I., hopefully it will be earlier rather than later in the new year.
