{"id":504270,"date":"2026-06-21T17:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/504270\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T17:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T17:51:09","slug":"why-hawaii-five-0-uses-a-zero-instead-of-the-letter-o-according-to-cbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/504270\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Hawaii Five-0 Uses A Zero Instead Of The Letter O, According To CBS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                             &#13;<br \/>\n                                                    &#13;<br \/>\n                            &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/intro-1781524025.jpg\" data-slide-url=\"https:\/\/www.tvline.com\/2195652\/hawaii-five-0-title-zero-instead-letter-o-cbs\/\" data-post-id=\"2195652\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-slide-title=\"Why Hawaii Five-0 Uses A Zero Instead Of The Letter O, According To CBS: \" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" alt=\"Publicity still of Scott Caan, Daniel Dae Kim, &amp; Alex O'Loughlin in a boat in Hawaii 5-0\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                    CBS<\/p>\n<p>Many incorrectly believe the title of &#8220;Hawaii Five-0&#8221; contains the letter O, and CBS explained the reason why it&#8217;s actually a zero. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2010\/tv\/news\/cbs-shocker-the-o-in-hawaii-five0-is-not-an-o-14606\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Variety<\/a>, a 2010 press release from the network confirmed that &#8220;Hawaii Five-0&#8221; uses the digit. The news was a shock to some because the title is pronounced &#8220;Five-Oh,&#8221; but it makes sense given that\u00a0the crime drama&#8217;s name stems from Hawaii&#8217;s status as the 50th U.S. state.<\/p>\n<p>A CBS insider explained the unusual press release to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/blogs\/show-tracker\/story\/2010-07-07\/cbs-explains-why-its-hawaii-five-0-and-not-hawaii-five-o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Times<\/a>, clarifying,\u00a0&#8220;This is really for editors and for people who want to type things correctly. I know there aren&#8217;t many of them because accuracy has taken a back seat to immediacy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In addition to honoring Hawaiian statehood, &#8220;Five-0&#8221; represents the the elite police task force the show revolves around. The original &#8220;Hawaii Five-O,&#8221; which ran from 1968 to 1980, used a capital O in its title. When <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvline.com\/news\/hawaii-five-0-series-finale-quiz-how-well-do-you-remember-pilot-1179452\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#8220;Hawaii Five-0&#8221; revived the series with its 2010 pilot episode<\/a>, the title officially swapped out the O for a zero.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                Hawaii Five-0 left a lasting mark on TV history and culture<\/p>\n<p>                                             &#13;<br \/>\n                                                    &#13;<br \/>\n                            &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image \" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/hawaii-five-0-left-a-lasting-mark-on-tv-history-and-culture-1781524027.jpg\" data-slide-url=\"https:\/\/www.tvline.com\/2195652\/hawaii-five-0-title-zero-instead-letter-o-cbs\/\" data-post-id=\"2195652\" data-slide-num=\"1\" data-slide-title=\"Why Hawaii Five-0 Uses A Zero Instead Of The Letter O, According To CBS: Hawaii Five-0 left a lasting mark on TV history and culture\" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" alt=\"Detective Steve McGarrett wearing a gray suit in Hawaii Five-O\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                    CBS<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hawaii Five-O&#8221; actually came before the well-known slang term for police.\u00a0&#8220;Five-0&#8221; as a warning about nearby officers has become so commonplace that many aren&#8217;t even aware it derived from the TV show. Most of the police drama&#8217;s significant cultural impact surrounds its iconic theme song. Furthermore, it set a lasting high standard in the procedural genre, placing it with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvline.com\/2180158\/tv-shows-like-ncis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the likes of &#8220;NCIS.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The original &#8220;Hawaii Five-O&#8221; stood out for its thorough portrayal of life in Hawaii \u2014 which became a state only nine years before the pilot aired. Series creator Leonard Freeman made a point to accurately represent the island.\u00a0&#8220;I don&#8217;t want anyone writing this show until he knows Hawaii, until he gets the feel of the place, until he digs it,&#8221; Freeman once told the Southwest American (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.metv.com\/stories\/series-creator-leonard-freeman-went-to-great-lengths-to-make-sure-his-writers-understood-hawaii\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MeTV<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvline.com\/news\/hawaii-five-0-recap-series-finale-mcgarrett-leaves-hawaii-1180377\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#8220;Hawaii Five-0&#8221; reboot aired its series finale<\/a> in 2020, so the franchise currently remains dormant.\u00a0Paramount+ and Netflix subscribers can stream it, while Pluto TV has several seasons of the 1960s version of the show available for free.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; CBS Many incorrectly believe the title of &#8220;Hawaii&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-504270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}