Daniel Dae Kim And Grace Park Quit “Hawaii Five-O” Over Pay Equality, CBS Claims They Were Offered Big Raises 

Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park left CBS’ Hawaii Five-O after the network reportedly refused to pay them as much as their white co-workers Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan. CBS’ “inside sources” are talking and claim that the network offered Daniel and Grace a pile of money to stay and “insiders” claim that the difference in pay isn’t about race. Um, it looks like CBS can afford to pay Daniel and Grace what they wanted, because it’s not like they’re spending their money on well-trained Photoshop artists (see: that Photoshop Awards Hall of Fame masterpiece above).

Both Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park have been on the Hawaii Five-O reboot since season one in 2010. Their roles were supporting in the beginning , but after doing intensive research and holding focus groups with regular viewers (aka glancing at blog comments about this story for 4 seconds), I learned that their parts got bigger in recent seasons. Variety reported last week that Daniel and Grace didn’t sign on to season 8 after money talks with CBS hit the gutter and they said Hawaii Bye Ho! No need to strain your arm muscles, I’ll GONG myself for that.

Daniel and Grace reportedly made 10-15% less than Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan. Alex and Scott also get percentage points on the show’s back end. And yes, I wink and get the tingles every time I type “show’s back end.” Hawaii Five-O still does pretty well in the ratings, so those percentage points probably bring Alex and Scott a lot more cash.

Yesterday, Daniel said goodbye to the show’s fans in a Facebook note and found a really gracious way to say, “CBS should stand for the Cheap Bitches System since those tight assholes refused to pay us as much as our co-workers!”

I’ll end by saying that though transitions can be difficult, I encourage us all to look beyond the disappointment of this moment to the bigger picture. The path to equality is rarely easy. But I hope you can be excited for the future. I am. 5-0 continues on after one of its strongest seasons. I’ve got new acting projects on the horizon, and as a producer, my company, 3AD, has its first show, THE GOOD DOCTOR, set to air this fall on ABC. I hope you’ll tune in. There’s a lot to look forward to and I’ll be sure to share it with you.

Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that CBS offered Daniel a raise that was within 2% of what Alex and Scott make. But CBS didn’t offer him percentage points. Grace was also offered a “substantial increase” even though she wanted to do less episodes next season. Those sources also say that Daniel and Grace’s contract issues have nothing to do with race.

What I want to know is, during negotiations, did Daniel ever say to the CBS execs, “You can’t pay me what I want but you paid Ashton Kutcher $24 million a year for Two And A Half Men?!” Because really, what do you say to that?

Pic: CBS via Wenn.com