TLDR: The 2010 reboot of Hawaii Five-O premiered on CBS on September 20, 2010, ran for ten seasons, and ended on April 3, 2020.
It kept the theme song, the catchphrase, and the Hawaiian setting but reimagined nearly everything else, including gender-swapping the character of Kono and replacing the original’s formal, authority-driven tone with a faster, more action-oriented buddy-cop dynamic.
The reboot drew 14.2 million viewers for its premiere and set a Guinness World Record as the highest-rated new show in the US in 2012.
The original Hawaii Five-O ended in 1980 with Jack Lord choosing to walk away rather than continue under conditions he could no longer fully control.
Thirty years later, CBS brought the franchise back with a new cast, a new title spelling (Five-O with a zero rather than the letter O), and a conscious decision to rebuild rather than replicate.
The two versions are different enough that fans of the original often find the reboot disorienting, and fans of the reboot sometimes discover the original feels like a different show entirely.
What the Reboot Kept
The producers made a deliberate decision early on to preserve the original theme song rather than update it. They initially experimented with a heavy guitar-based version, which leaked to fans online and generated an immediate negative reaction.
The team then tracked down three musicians who had played on the original 1968 recordings and had them rerecord the theme as faithfully as possible. The result is audibly a tribute rather than a revision, and hearing it still carries the same immediate recognition it always did.
“Book ’em, Danno” was also retained, with Alex O’Loughlin delivering the line as a conscious nod to the original.
The reboot framed its McGarrett as the son of Jack Lord’s Steve McGarrett, making the two shows a generational continuation rather than a clean break.
One of Steve’s hobbies in the early seasons was restoring his father’s 1974 Mercury Marquis, which was actually Jack Lord’s real car from the latter half of the original series’ run.
The Iolani Palace reappears as a visual landmark, though the reboot moved the headquarters to the Aliiiolani Hale building directly across the street.
What Changed
The most significant structural difference is in tone.
Jack Lord’s McGarrett was authoritative and formal, the undisputed center of every scene he was in, operating with the weight of genuine command authority behind every decision.
Alex O’Loughlin’s McGarrett is warmer, more physically active, and defined more by his banter with Scott Caan’s Danny Williams than by solo authority.
The reboot is essentially a buddy-cop show wearing the Hawaii Five-O name, while the original was a character study dressed as a procedural.
The character of Kono Kalakaua was gender-swapped, with the male detective played by Zulu in the original becoming a female detective played by Grace Park in the reboot, a change the producers made specifically to avoid an all-male task force.
Dennis Chun, the real-life son of Kam Fong who played Chin Ho Kelly in the original, appeared in the reboot as a recurring character named Duke Lukela, a quiet piece of continuity casting that devoted fans of the original appreciated.
Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, two of the reboot’s four original leads, left the series after Season 7 in a widely publicized pay dispute, reportedly seeking equal compensation to their white co-stars O’Loughlin and Caan.
Their departures significantly altered the show’s dynamic in its final three seasons.
How They Performed
The reboot’s first season premiere drew 14.2 million viewers, a strong debut for a network procedural in 2010.
The series set a Guinness World Record as the highest-rated new show in the United States in 2012.
It ran for ten complete seasons, ending on April 3, 2020, with the finale shaped in part by COVID-19 production restrictions that prevented the conclusion the producers had originally planned.
By comparison, the original Hawaii Five-O had finished its debut season as the second-highest-rated show in America, a stronger relative performance given the competitive landscape of late 1960s network television.
Both versions ran for a decade or more, which by any measure is a substantial run.
Which Is Better
The honest answer is that they are doing different things and it depends what you are looking for.
The original is a product of its era, slower in pacing, more formally structured, centered entirely on a single magnetic performance that dominated every scene.
The reboot is faster, more ensemble-driven, and more concerned with the relationships between characters than with the authority of any one figure.
Fans of the original who expect the reboot to feel the same are usually disappointed. Fans who approach the reboot on its own terms tend to find it more enjoyable than the comparisons suggest.
What both versions share is Hawaii itself. The islands serve as a genuine presence in each, not just a backdrop but a reason for the show’s existence.
That may be the most important thing the reboot inherited from the original, and it may be why the franchise has proven durable enough to sustain twenty-two seasons across two separate runs.
How is the 2010 Hawaii Five-O different from the original?
The 2010 reboot replaced the original’s formal, authority-driven tone with a faster buddy-cop dynamic. It gender-swapped the character of Kono, framed its McGarrett as the son of Jack Lord’s character, and moved the headquarters location. The theme song and “Book ’em, Danno” catchphrase were retained.
How many seasons did the 2010 Hawaii Five-O run?
The 2010 reboot ran for ten seasons on CBS, premiering on September 20, 2010, and ending on April 3, 2020.
Why did Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park leave Hawaii Five-O?
Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park left after Season 7 in a pay dispute, reportedly seeking equal compensation to their co-stars Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan.
