Hoping to ride the wave of good ratings to more viewers—on TV and the Web—CBS has launched Hawaii: Undiscovered, an original companion Web series to its reboot of '70s classic Hawaii Five-O.
Each of the eight episodes will highlight unique aspects of life on the island of Oahu tied (naturally) to plot points from the prime-time hit, which airs Mondays at 10 p.m. EST. For example, in one episode, host Jim Brasher (of Yahoo: Weekend Edition) will interview Hans “The Man” Hedemann, who serves as Five-O star Grace Park’s surfing instructor. Other episodes will dive deep with both a shark expert and a Navy Seal trainer, and feature both cast member interviews and behind-the-scenes clips.
Though Hawaii: Undiscovered will primarily live on CBS.com, the network also plans to distribute the show across the CBS Audience Network, which includes sites like CNET and CBSSports.com. New episodes will be posted each Monday at 3 p.m. EST; CBS will begin promoting the Web show during Monday’s (March 28) episode of the TV series.
Chevrolet has signed on to exclusively sponsor Hawaii: Undiscovered; some episodes of the series will feature the Chevrolet Cruze.
Hawaii: Undiscovered is at least the third original Web series to appear as the result of a CBS partnership with a major auto brand. In 2008, the now defunct Saturn brand underwrote the scripted, book-club-themed series Novel Adventures. More recently, CBS streamed several seasons of Ghost Whisperer: The Other Side, which was sponsored by both Saturn and the GMC Acadia.
According to CBS Interactive’s Joe Ferreira, Hawaii: Undiscovered is the first of at least six original Web series in development for the network.
“We’re going to be doing more of these,” he said. “In the past we’d do two or three a year. Now you’ll see us do six to ten Web shows. There is more money in the marketplace, more consumption and more fans. And we want to be a leader in this space.”
