Hawaii Five-0 actor pens heartfelt letter to fans about show exit

Cape Town – We reported recently that Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park will not be returning for the upcoming eighth season of Hawaii Five-0. (Read more here.)

Kim opened up about his departure in a touching Facebook post to his fans. 

In the post he reveals that he made the difficult decision not to come back when he and CBS weren’t able to agree to the terms of a new contract.

"As sad as it feels to say goodbye, what I feel most is gratitude. I am so deeply thankful to our crew, writers and everyone associated with the show – and especially the cast, who have been nothing but supportive through this entire process. They and the crew have been my second family for seven years and I wish them nothing but success for season 8 - and beyond," he wrote. 

He went on to thank the executive producers: "I also want to say thank you to Peter Lenkov, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and everyone at CBS. I will always be grateful for their faith in me to bring Chin Ho Kelly to life. As an Asian American actor, I know first-hand how difficult it is to find opportunities at all, let alone play a well developed, three dimensional character like Chin Ho. I will miss him sincerely."

He went on to thank all the fans saying that interacting with them "has been one of the greatest joys of this entire experience."

"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," he ended the note. 

See the full post here:

In response to his post CBS released a statement on Wednesday saying that both Kim and Park were offered “large and significant salary increases”.

They went on to say that they have "tremendous respect for their talents on screen, as well as their roles as ambassadors for the show off screen, and with hopes to work with them again in the near future.”