Baywatch reboot boosted by Hollywood's $750M tax credits program hoping to save industry jobs

For Hollywood productions, the "survive til '25" mantra didn't deliver as promised. But, now there's hope for a comeback.

LOS ANGELES — After 27 years, it is finally time to fill the empty lifeguard stands. In 2026, beleaguered California entertainment industry workers will see the return of what was once a major local employer: the TV show “Baywatch.”

A planned Fox reboot of the beach drama, which filmed in California in 1999 before it picked up its rescue buoys and moved to Hawaii, became one of 17 TV shows to receive an award from California’s recently expanded film and television tax credit program. Twenty-eight films, including a Snoop Dogg biopic, an Ang Lee Western and Michael Mann’s long-awaited “Heat” sequel, also received the credit, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in November.

California has been losing business to production hubs in regions with generous tax incentives, including New Jersey, which has recently become an East Coast production hot spot. In October, Paramount signed a 10-year lease to build a studio there. Lionsgate, the studio behind the “Hunger Games” franchise, and Netflix also began construction on compounds there in the last year.

California officials hope the new tax credit, which more than doubled from $330 million to $750 million in 2025, will help them reverse what has been a brutal, yearslong slowdown in production in Hollywood’s home state.

Add NBC News to GoogleParamount expands to New Jersey studio as East Coast production booms 02:05“Workers are going to be getting back to consistent employment in California in 2026,” said Colleen Bell, executive director of the California Film Commission, the state agency that administers the film and TV tax credits. “Grips, electricians, costume designers. We had to sound the alarm. Something bold and urgent needed to be addressed.”