Monday, September 19, 2022

Get ready for a history-making Monday night when 3 AANHPI shows premiere

From left, The Cleaning Lady's Elodie Yung, NCIS: Hawai'i's Vanessa Lachey and Quantum Leap's Raymond Lee.


This Monday, Sept. 19, for the first time in the history of American television, three shows with Asian American leads are premiering on the US networks on the same night.

The Cleaning Lady and NCIS: Hawai'i will begin their second season. Quantum Leap is coming back after a 30-year absence but with an entirely new cast that has Dr. Ben Song as the new central character.

Recording devices will be helpful as the air times conflict with each other.

If you subscribe to the streaming networks, you can also stream the shows: The Cleaning Lady on Hulu, NCIS: Hawai'i on Paramount and Quantum Leap on Peacock.


The Cleaning Lady

The Cleaning Lady, Season 2, premieres Sept. 19. On Fox, 9 p.m.

One of the most original series of last year, Thony de la Rosa, as played by Elodie Yung, who is an undocumented immigrant, came to the US seeking medical treatment for her son. Unsuccessful, she begins to live a double life, keeping secrets from her family, while cleaning crime scenes for Arman and dodging the law, including the smooth-talking FBI Agent Garrett Miller who is in pursuit. Using her cunning and intelligence to forge her own path in the criminal underworld, Thony does what is necessary to save Luca – even if it means sacrificing her own soul and values in the process. Last we saw Thony and her sister-in-law, played by Filipino Aussie Martha Millan, are about to embark on a path that will take them deeper into the underworld. Asian American fingerprints are all over this series developed by Chinese Canadian Miranda Kwok and produced by Filipino Canadian Shay Mitchell and Filipino American Rose Marie Vega.

NCIS Hawaii

NCIS: Hawai'i, Season 2 premieres Sept. 19, 10 p.m. CBS

The NCIS franchise really is trying to reflect Hawai'i's diversity with its casting. It features Filipino American Vanessa Lachey as Special Agent in Charge Jane Tennant, along with NCIS agents Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) and Jessica Knight (Katrina Law), track The Raven’s whereabouts to the island of Oahu and learn about his plans to attack RIMPAC (The Rim of the Pacific Exercises), the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise, on the exciting conclusion to the special crossover event and the season two-hour premiere. A warning to fans, the NCIS and NCIS Hawai’i season premiere will be a crossover event merging the two teams. The two-hour premiere event starts at 9 p.m. on NCIS and ends on NCIS: Hawai'i at 10 p.m. The story has the teams on the hunt for a dangerous suspect and unveils a complex network and a larger sinister plan that will take the D.C. team to Hawai’i in a race to thwart the next large-scale attack. It also stars Filipino American Yasmine al-Bustami, Alex Terrant, Noah Mills and Jason Atoon. 
I would love to see Tennant cook a Filipino meal for her family and friends. It's the Filipino way, hindi ba?


Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap, premieres September 19, 10 p.m. on NBC

Fans of the original Quantum Leap adventure series won't recognize the 2023 reboot. It's back and its features an Asian American in the lead role. Quantum leap, which ran for four seasons starring Scott Bakula, went off the air in 1993. The 2023 version stars Raymond Lee as Dr. Ben Song. It's been nearly 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now, a new team, led by physicist Ben Song (Raymond Lee), has been assembled to restart the project in hope of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it. Also on the ensemble cast is Nanrisa Lee playing Jenn Chou, a computer whiz.
FYI: for more programs this Fall featuring AANHPI actors in leading and prominent roles, click here.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

 


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