‘Magnum P.I.’ Moves to New Night and Time as CBS Announces Premiere Date

Magnum P.I. has been renewed for a second season on CBS, but it’s moving to a new date and time. The rebooted series premiered on the network in 2018 to much fanfare.

CBS announced on Thursday that Magnum P.I. would be coming back for Season 2 on Friday, September 27. The show will be airing in the 9 p.m. slot, according to The Wrap. Magnum P.I. had been airing on Monday’s initially.

TV Line reported in January that Magnum P.I. had been renewed by CBS. At the time, CBS entertainment president Kelly Kahl said the show, as well as several others that were renewed,”made their mark” on viewers.

“Our goals this season were to introduce new series’ that audiences are passionate about, add more strength to a winning schedule and create more inclusive programming,” Kahl said, according to TV Line.

The CBS drama ranked 10th overall out of CBS’ 14 drama series’ with an average of 5.9 million viewers per episode.

The show, a reboot of the 1980s classic starring Tom Selleck, stars Jay Hernandez at a retired Navy SEAL-turned-private eye. Hernandez’s character uses his military training to solve crimes in Hawaii. Perdita Weeks, Zachary Knighton, Stephen Hill and Tim Kang also appear on the Magnum P.I. reboot.

Selleck wasn’t involved in any way in the Magnum P.I. revival, but he did speak with CBS ahead of the show’s premiere. He told TV Guide Magazine executives wanted to see if he “had a problem” with them moving forward with the remake, and vowed not to do it if he did.

“CBS is kind of my home network,” he said. “I’ve done The Young and the Restless and (most of) the Jesse Stone movies as well as Magnum and Blue Bloods with them.”

“Peter (Lenkov) was very effusive about the project; he grew up with Magnum and this was his dream,” Selleck continued.

The actor took some time to think about the reboot, and ultimately decided to allow them to move forward.

“I went home,” he recalled. “And thought about it for about a day. In the end, I thought, ‘We couldn’t have a better bow tied around our show. We went off with our final episode as the number one show on all of television. We’re in the Smithsonian for recognizing Vietnam veterans in a positive light, the first show to really do that. And it let to countless other opportunities. I just felt success is so hard to come by in this business, why do I want to root for somebody to fail. I just stepped back, and said, ‘I won’t get in your way.’”

He was approached about appearing on the show, but wasn’t interested.

“They asked and I said, ‘Absolutely not. I’m busy with Blue Bloods,’” Selleck said. “It will never be what in my fantasy world, I would make it to be.”