NBC takes ‘Hawaii’ TV
series off the air

The police drama will continue
production to finish 13 episodes

NBC's police drama "Hawaii," which has produced poor ratings since its premiere last month, has been pulled from the network's lineup indefinitely.

The series will remain in production here through early December to complete its 13-episode commitment to the network. Eight episodes have been filmed so far.

There is no word from the network whether "Hawaii" will get an order for the next nine episodes to complete a full 22-show season, but that now seems a long shot, sources said.

NBC will let the production know early next month whether it has an order for the other nine episodes.

While "Hawaii" has not been officially canceled, this is as close as a production can get to that and still be breathing, a "Hawaii" source said.

"We are indefinitely on hold," the production's publicist said.

"Hawaii" struggled to attract viewers in its early going and then got clobbered when ABC's hit series "Lost" begin airing late last month.

Earlier this week, NBC officials were considering moving "Hawaii" to either Monday or Friday nights. "Hawaii" co-star Eric Balfour had been telling people the show was moving to Friday.

"We don't know what changed the network's minds," a production source said.

The cast and crew were called together yesterday afternoon at the production's Mapunapuna sound stage to hear the news.

"People naturally were very somber," one source said. "Glum would be a good description."

Each "Hawaii" episode cost more than $2.1 million, or more than $26 million in all so far, most of it spent here.

"Hawaii" stars Balfour, Michael Biehn, Sharif Atkins, Ivan Sergei, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Aya Sumika.

"Hawaii" producers had been feeling confident that the show would not be removed from the schedule because two other series on NBC were also struggling and the network did not have anything to replace "Hawaii."

Then today came the surprise announcement that the unscripted series "$25 Million Dollar Hoax" would premiere on Monday, Nov. 8, and the struggling "LAX" series was moving to Wednesdays in "Hawaii's" slot.