The Season 2 Finale has aired four weeks ago, so no new episodes at the moment. Fans don’t have to be sad, though: Filming for Season 3 should start next month in Atlanta.
(Minor Spoiler Alert: You might get spoilered about Season 3 by reading this post and its comments or by clicking on the links provided!)
What are Cast and Crew up to?
The Season 2 Finale aired on May 4. Some of the cast and crew enjoyed some downtime while others already started working on new (and old) projects.
Reboot-related, it’s gotten pretty quiet on social media. Every now and then, cast or crew upload a never-seen-before BtS photo (e.g. Jake Alvarez or Steve Serna), but it’s not always clear what episode it belongs to.
Lucas Till has been spending some time in LA since production wrapped. Besides live-tweeting from the Paramount studio lot when the Season Finale aired, he also celebrated Peter Lenkov’s birthday. On May 19, he attended the 10-year-anniversary-screening (including a Q&A) for Dance of the Dead, a zombie comedy filmed when he was 16. On May 23, Lucas and his manager Tom attended one of Justin Hires’ stand-up-comedy-shows. Judging by the videos, they all had a good time.
Justin did a handful of comedy shows in different cities during the last few weeks. We haven’t heard any news about the movie project he is attached to. It’s possible the movie got delayed and might not go into production this year.
George Eads enjoyed some holidays on the Bahamas and keeps making the most of his time to spend with his family, the dogs or his two wheels.
Executive Producer Peter Lenkov’s long-time dream project Magnum has been ordered to series by CBS; meaning that at the moment, he’s the showrunner for three shows (MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum) while co-producing another show (Salvation). He already had meetings with the writer’s team for Magnum; securing the first scripts.
Season 2 Ratings (encore)
As expected, there has been a slow, but steady loss of audience numbers nearing Summer. The Season Finale (2×23: MacGyver + MacGyver) reached 6.10 million live viewers and an all-time-low rating of 0.6 in demo. If you felt that my comments on the ratings in my latest blog update post (e.g. regarding risk of cancellation or budget cuts) were too negative, be aware that the other CBS shows have been suffering losses in ratings as well – even more this year since due to the Olympics, most Season Finale Episodes aired 2 to 4 weeks later than they usually do.
Looking at the Season Finale of Hawaii Five-0 on May 18, the show garnered an all-time-low of 6.62 million viewers and a 0.7 in demo when it aired between Celebrity Undercover Boss and a re-run of Blue Bloods. The ratings for the Season Finales might not be that important as how the shows did overall this season.
Due to Celebrity Undercover Boss, there are no Reboot re-runs at the moment – contrary to H50 or Blue Bloods. Last year, there had been MacGyver re-runs through all of June and the first half of July. Celebrity Undercover Boss is scheduled for Fridays 8pm until at least July 13, so we can only hope there will be some re-runs after that date to keep people interested in the show.
Season 3 News
Sadly, we didn’t get any additional promo by Lucas or Lenkov for the Season Finale. A year ago, Lucas attended the Corus Upfronts in Toronto and the Monte Carlo Television Festival during hiatus. It’s not clear yet if he will do some more promo this Summer as well before they start filming for Season 3.
There’s a good chance there will be a Magnum Panel at Comic Con San Diego next month. If Lenkov attends, there’s a possibility of some interviews and him talking about MacGyver as well. It would be nice to hear something about Season 3 and what’s in store for us.
The Reboot has been renewed for a 3rd Season and will air in its old timeslot (Friday, 8pm), starting this Fall. The Premiere Date still hasn’t been set yet, but it’s probably either September 21 or September 28. Unless we hear otherwise, I’m assuming it will be a direct Full Season Order of 22 episodes.
Both Showrunner Peter Lenkov and Co-Showrunner Craig O’Neill signed on for a new overall deal for CBS TV Studios. Lenkov will continue as Executive Producer on his four drama series (MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0, Magnum PI and Salvation). Additionally, he is ramping up his production company (101st Street Entertainment), to develop new projects. O’Neill also will continue as Executive Producer and Co-Showrunner on the Reboot, in addition to developing new series for broadcast, cable and streaming services.
Otherwise, there’s no mentionable news that I know of. No Casting Calls have been made yet. Last year, Justin Hires revealed the title of Episode 2×01 (DIY or DIE) around June 5 by posting a picture of the script title page on Instagram. If we’re lucky, someone will let us in on the secret for 3×01 soon.
I doubt it will matter much for filming, but: In case you have some spare money around, you can buy rebooted MacGyver’s house that they used to film some outside scenes; e.g. of them playing basketball in the S1 Pilot Episode. (As far as I know, they never filmed any scenes inside since the interior they used for filming is a stage set.)
The Vault: New/Old interview with Lucas Till
There were times when the promo load was so intense that I couldn’t cover it all in my blog posts. Here’s an excerpt of a Yahoo! interview done back in April 2017 for the Season 1 Finale.
Sometimes, all the experience in the world can’t help you and you just have to tough it out. “The Colton episode [episode 16, “Hook”], we start off in quicksand. That was weird. It was a cauldron of goo,” Till recalls, “We had to move it to another day because the goo was 215 degrees in some parts and 60 degrees in other parts. It had to be stirred like a witches cauldron. We got into it in wetsuits. And the compression… let’s just say your extremities can get a little bunched up. The pressure was insane!”
They couldn’t move until all the shots were done, so sweat began burning his eyes. “I started swatting at it, trying to get away. They actually inserted a fly, digitally,” to explain his odd behavior. Finally, they finished and he went back to his trailer to shower, only to find that a leak had sprung in the water heater, so the refreshing shower smelled like sulfur. Till doesn’t mind, though. “That pain, that weirdness, is where the fun and the better moments come from.”
I really want to see some BtS material of these two guys in a “cauldron”.
MacGyver in Germany
German FreeTV channel Sat.1 will start airing Season 2 on July 9. It’s not clear yet if they’ll also air the skipped Episode 1×19 (Compass) as promised. Like for Season 1 in June last year, they will air 2 episodes every Monday at prime time, starting 8.15pm – followed by the premiere of SEAL Team, another CBS show.
Dashboard On Fire 
I have read on the page “Filmstarts” that the 3rd season has only 13 episodes is that correct? Would be a pity if there were only 13 episodes in Season 3. I was hoping that it would be 21 or 22 episodes again. The series is absolutely great. I am happy about any news. Thank you! Greeting Ute from Constance on Lake Constance
PS: Sorry, I accidentally wrote my comment under “MacGyver Reboot Update # 53”, but he probably belongs to “MacGyver Reboot Update # 57”. I wrote it here again, I hope that’s ok.
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