Alex O'Loughlin's Hawaii Five-O reboot officially picked up by CBS

Not surprisingly, CBS has given the green light to Alex O'Loughin's new tv show. As you know, it is the remake of Hawaii Five-O. Many have speculated about whether or not Alex will be trying to step into Jack Lord's shoes, or create a totally different character. That is mentioned in this great article by Mari-Ela David.

Alex's program will air on Monday nights at 9:00 PM Central Time / 10:00 PM Eastern Time.

CBS picks up new Hawaii Five-O series
By Mari-Ela David
Hawaii News Now

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - 'Hawaii Five-O', take two! In showbiz slang, the Five-O pilot has been picked up.

That means the episode filmed here in March will be on CBS in prime time this fall.

That could also mean big bucks for Hawaii's production industry and tourism.

At Big City Diner at Ward on some of their TV screens, there were re-runs of the original 'Hawaii Five-O' playing. Folks there said they're excited about the remake although some say they're a little skeptical.

"It won't be the same, but maybe it'll be better, we'll see. I'll check it out," said Sandra Blazel, a fan who says she used to watch the show whenever she felt homesick while off to college on the mainland.

"I was in the Marines and it was a hot show and it's just great to have it back. I hope it's as good as it was," said Gary Mynatt, a fan.

Alex O'Loughlin will take over Jack Lord's shoes, and 'Lost' celebrity Daniel Dae Kim will star as Chin Ho Kelly. Jean Smart, famous for playing Charlene in the sitcom "Designing Women" has been cast as Hawaii's governor.

This past March, the new 'Hawaii Five-O' shot pilot episodes all over Oahu, including Chinatown, Downtown Honolulu, and inside the post office on Richards Street.

"My knee jerk reaction is fantastic! Fantastic for Hawaii! Because this gives us an opportunity to be in the mainstream of television," said Al Harrington, who played Detective Ben Kokua in the original Five-O, which aired on CBS from 1968 to 1980, making it one of the longest running crime shows on American TV.

Harrington says the drama exposed Hawaii to the world.

"People used to think that Pearl Harbor was some place in the Caribbean. There was a lot of misconceptions," he said.

Harrington hopes the remake will continue to portray Hawaii as it really is.

"I just wish them the very best. And I hope that if they need an old actor, come see Al Harrington," he said chuckling.

The challenge is how to cater the show to this generation without compromising the integrity of the classic Five-O.

Rumor has it that O'Loughlin will actually play Steve McGarrett's son.

"Perhaps you've heard it's not really a new Jack Lord character but part of that family and you might be right about that but I think we have to wait and see when the up fronts come out on Wednesday," said Georja Skinner from the Hawaii Film Office.

Skinner says pre-production starts in mid-June, and shooting starts mid-July.

Exact numbers aren't in yet but the state says the new version of 'Hawaii Five-O' could bring in more than a million dollars per year to Hawaii's economy. That's based on how much revenue the series 'Lost' raked in.

Honolulu mayor Mufi Hannemann applauded the decision to green light the series.

"The City and County of Honolulu pulled out all the stops to assist with the making of the new pilot episode because a network television series translates into significant economic development for Hawaii. We look forward to supporting the production as it goes forward into series" said Hannemann in a statement.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/global/story.asp?s=12497198

Photographs ~ Alex O'Loughlin and Daniel Dae Kim

Three Rivers has been picked up for Fall 2009

It is official! CBS has picked up Alex O'Loughlin's new tv show, Three Rivers, for their Fall 2009 television schedule. His series will air on Sunday nights @ 8pm Central/9pm Eastern.

Photograph ~ Dr. Andy Yablonski (Alex O'Loughlin) in promo photo for new CBS television series, Three Rivers

TV Guide ~ CBS picks up Three Rivers!

CBS isn't hosting their official up front presentation until Wednesday. However.... TV Guide's Matt Mitovich is already reporting that CBS is picking up Alex O'Loughlin's new television series, Three Rivers! *CHEER*

Today's News: Our Take

Fall TV: CBS Picks Up Seven New Shows, Including Alex O'Loughlin's
by Matt Mitovich

CBS in one fell swoop ordered seven new shows for the 2009-10 season, including projects that will bring familiar faces Alex O'Loughlin, Jenna Elfman and Julianna Margulies back to the tube, sources say.

The new shows getting the OK from the Eye are:

-Three Rivers, starring O'Loughlin and revolving around organ transplant surgeons

-Accidentally on Purpose, a comedy about a movie critic (Elfman) who inadvertently gets pregnant in a fling with a younger man

-The Good Wife, starring Margulies as a woman who returns to work as a lawyer when her hubby gets incarcerated

-The NCIS spin-off sneak-peeked in two recent episodes of the hit procedural, and starring Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J

-Miami Trauma, a medical drama from Jerrry Bruckheimer

-Undercover Boss, an unscripted series summed up by the Hollywood Reporter as "Secret Millionaire meets Dirty Jobs"

-House Rules, about a freshman class of U.S. representatives

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Fall-TV-CBS-1006165.aspx

Photograph ~ Jenna Elfman and Alex O'Loughlin

Will Three Rivers be on the CBS Fall television schedule?

A week from today! CBS Network will hold its upfront presentation on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009. That is when we should find out if Alex O'Loughlin's new television series ~ Three Rivers ~ will be picked up for the Fall schedule. *fingers crossed*

Nikki Finke @ Deadline Hollywood Daily is reporting "I also hear that MIAMI TRAUMA and THREE RIVERS are still in skintight competition at CBS for the medical show Les Moonves wants." And.......

MIAMI TRAUMA (Warner Bros/CBS-Paramount) is Jerry Bruckheimer's medical show, and I'm told Les wants a medical show. But this may not be the one because sources say it was a "soft screening" and is in competition with Three Rivers.

THREE RIVERS (CBS-Paramount/Deuce Three) is looking likely to be the medical drama Les wants (and wants more than rival Miami Trauma). CBS liked what they saw. And the network loves star Alex O'Loughlin. Not only might he bring his small but rabid Moonlight fanbase, but he recently starred in a Criminal Minds sweeps episode. And I hear CBS Films just put him in the feature film Plan B opposite Jennifer Lopez. Insiders are betting this show with a 24 splitscreen feel will go.


http://tinyurl.com/pxj6xu

http://tinyurl.com/r7s4eg

Ask Matt answers a fan's questions about Alex O'Loughlin's Three Rivers project

TV Guide's Matt Roush fields a great fan question about Alex O'Loughlin and his new tv show pilot, Three Rivers.

Ask Matt

Question : There's been a lot of buzz about the Three Rivers pilot. I don't think I've ever heard this much about a pilot being filmed before. Is this an indication that it has a higher than normal chance of being picked up for the fall schedule? Do the networks push certain pilots to the top of the heap for better chances of being chosen? Alex O'Loughlin fans (me included) are chewing their nails off waiting for news on new pick-ups. Any inside news about this? The show sounds fascinating beyond the fact that it will star our handsome and talented Aussie hunk. —Cindy R

Matt Roush : The buzz about Three Rivers is magnified by the fandom for Alex O’Loughlin. Nothing wrong with that, but keep it in perspective. Industry buzz, including in the Hollywood Reporter just this week, indicates the show is a “strong contender” for fall, no doubt enhanced by the star’s enthusiastic following, especially since the demise of Moonlight on the same network. (There’s a reason he was given a high-profile guest role on Criminal Minds in an episode airing next week.) Is all of this enough to clinch Three Rivers an on-air spot? Maybe, maybe not. For me, the show makes some sense because with ER gone, there’s an opening for a new medical drama with sexy leads. The transplant-surgeon angle also sounds promising, but just the very idea of Alex O’Loughlin around blood (even if it’s being pumped into patients instead of being drained from necks) no doubt has millions swooning. Hard not to see why.

http://www.tvguidemagazine.com/ask-matt/ask-matt-say-it-br-aint-so-tony-750.html?page=2

Matt Roush on Moonlight's cancelation

TV Guide's Matt Roush writes about Moonlight's cancelation.... and how it surprised even himself. Unfortunately, he feels that it is unlikely another network will pick up our show. But ~ you never know!

The Moonlight Goes Out

I’ll admit it. I’m floored. I was wrong. I was naïve. I drank the bloody Kool-Aid and started thinking like a fan (even though I always had my critical reservations). Up until last weekend, when the prognostications started turning sour, I truly thought CBS would give its cult romantic-mystery vampire drama Moonlight a long leash and a chance to work out its kinks—the narrative ones, that is; the kinkiness of the vampire romance was actually working—with a second-season renewal, or even a midseason backup order.

But no, they went and put a stake in Mick St. John, who as played by the charismatic Alex O’Loughlin had arguably the greatest potential for breakout buzz of any freshman-series character this season (and yes, I’m including the nubile fleshpots of Gossip Girl in this statement). My initial reaction, beyond despair at the thought of the unforgivingly bitter and relentlessly anguished mail that’s starting to arrive in my mailbag, was: Did CBS learn nothing from Jericho? And then I pondered: Well, maybe they did. They brought Jericho back, and despite massive media hype over that nearly unprecedented resurrection, it was a dud.

The circumstances are a bit different here, but the shows shared a few crucial roadblocks to success. Both Jericho and Moonlight were disrupted midway through their first seasons: Jericho by a misguided programming strategy that took the show off the air from November to February, stalling its momentum; Moonlight by the writers’ strike, which damaged network TV across the board. They aired in tough time periods: Jericho in the challenging lead-off Wednesday position, and in its comeback, in the Tuesday at 10 pm/ET death slot, while Moonlight struggled on Fridays as most shows do on the night. Both are what’s known as “off-brand,” experiments in serialized and genre formats for a network that finds its greatest success in traditional crime dramas and classic-style sitcoms.

It doesn’t help that CBS isn’t a producer of Moonlight (a Warner Bros production) the way it was for Jericho (from CBS/Paramount). The business side of the equation was no doubt also affected by all of the backstage turbulence on a show that bled show-runners as if an actual curse was in place. (Explains a recent Variety article: “It's understood that Eye execs were not impressed with the show's creative development, and there was much drama and turnover behind the scenes among producers and scribes and tussling between the network and studio over budgetary issues. The final straw was the show's sagging ratings perf during the past few weeks after its post-strike return.”)

Whatever the reasons—and why argue them; a show like this is always a crapshoot for a mainstream network—this goes down in my book as the most disappointing cancellation of the season. And again, for the record, I’m not even completely sold on the show, though as I recently argued in my Review column, it had plenty of potential and a star who’s an absolute keeper. (Not to mention a passionate fan base that literally gave blood to raise Moonlight awareness.)

So what are the odds that Mick will rise from the dead, in classic vamp fashion? Pretty steep, I’d think. No other broadcast network is likely to step in to save it—not even the CW, which at least has a corporate connection. (The CW being already satiated with genre programming like Smallville, Supernatural and the just-renewed Reaper.) Cable? Probably too expensive, even for Sci Fi—and fans are still smarting over that channel’s handling of The Dresden Files. But I’d be foolish to ever say never. Look what happened to Jericho, at least for a while.

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Roush-Dispatch/Moonlight/800039595