Kim and Park — the actors behind Detective Chin Ho Kelly and Officer Kono Kalakaua — had been series regulars on the reboot of the hit police procedural since it premiered on CBS in 2010.
The actors decided to depart from the show after failing to reach satisfactory salary agreements with CBS Television Studios.
Sources told Variety that Kim and Park had been seeking pay equality with co-stars Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan. CBS reportedly refused to raise the Asian-American actors’ salaries to match those of their white colleagues.
Many numbers have been reported in the days since Kim and Park’s departure was announced, and none have been confirmed.
“CBS’s final offer to Kim and Park was believed to have been 10-15% lower than what O’Loughlin and Caan make in salary,” according to Variety. The outlet also said that O’Loughlin and Caan earn about “$200,000 per episode apiece for the upcoming season” and that “CBS’ last per-episode salary offer to Kim was about $5,000 apart from the two lead actors.”
O’Loughlin and Caan reportedly also get a cut of the show’s profits through lucrative back-end deals. It’s unclear whether similar back-end deals were offered to Kim and Park.