Magnum P.I.’s Season 5 finale “absolutely works” as a series finale, despite not being planned as one, showrunner Eric Guggenheim tells TVLine. As such, he sees no need to make edits or go so far as to shoot new scenes to put a tidier bow on the cancelled island drama.

In late June, NBC “opted not to order additional episodes” beyond the Season 5 it greenlit after CBS said aloha to Magnum after four seasons. That left 10 episodes to air this TV season, and though they were at first penciled in for “midseason,” NBC changed its mind and slotted them for this fall, airing Wednesdays at 9/8c (leading out of Quantum Leap Season 2).

Season 5A of Magnum, which was set adrift in a midseason, Sunday night time slot (leading out of Dateline reruns), averaged 5 million total weekly viewers and a 0.4 demo rating (with Live+7 playback factored in), down sharply from its final season on CBS (7.3 mil/0.7), which was very comfortably hammocked on Friday nights between S.W.A.T. and the well-watched Blue Bloods. 

Returning to the airwaves this past Wednesday, Magnum P.I. drew 3.57 million viewers and a 0.3 demo rating, up in viewers and holding steady in the demo vs. its Season 5A overnight averages (3.4 mil/0.3).

A #SaveMagnumPI fan campaign has been afoot since June; in fact, a fan-funded banner (seen above) was flown over the NBCUniversal lot in Los Angeles this week, saying “Save Magnum P.I. – Save the Ohana.” But in the likely event that the cancellation holds and no one rides to the show’s rescue (as NBC once did), showrunner Guggenheim feels good about where the 10th new episode will leave things — to a degree that he waved off our suggestion of making edits or even bringing back some cast, once the SAG-AFTRA strike is settled, to provide better closure.

“I actually think it’s quite satisfying. I’m really proud of the finale,” Guggenheim tells TVLine. “There are a couple of threads left dangling that would have been picked up in a Season 6, but I didn’t want to end on a cliffhanger. If I’m being honest, I guess I wanted to play it safe. Too many shows have gotten burned with cliffhangers” that were then left unresolved in the wake of cancellation.

“Is it how I would choose to end the show? No,” Guggenheim makes clear. “But if it has to be the last episode, I think it absolutely works as a [series] finale. So no, there’s no reason to go back and recut or reshoot.” 

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