Variety reports that Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, both stars on CBS’s long running surf-procedural, Hawaii Five-0, have left the series ahead of its eighth-season premiere. Kim and Park played Hawaii PD officers Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua, two of the show’s four original cast members. Their departure from the series apparently stems from their desires to be paid the same amount as their co-stars, Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan, who play Steve McGarrett and Danno, respectively. (Kim and Park were apparently both being paid 10-to-15 percent less than the other two.)
Park and Kim both came to the series off of high-profile genre turns, Park as Sharon “Boomer” Valerii (among others) on Battlestar Galactica, and Kim as Jin on ABC’s Lost. (His old co-star, Jorge Garcia, joined Five-0 as a regular in its fifth season.) Hawaii Five-0 has been on the air since 2010, with a number of cast members rotating in and out, but the four-strong core of O’Loughlin, Caan, Kim, and Park has been there throughout. A CBS spokesperson praised Kim and Park’s “aloha spirit” as they depart the series, wishing them—apparently with a straight face—a fond “Mahalo and a hui hou…“ in a statement about their departures.
