Big Bang Theory Star Trio Gets $1 Million Per Episode for Season 8

[Alex Co]

Big Bang Theory Star Trio Gets $1 Million Per Episode for Season 8

Production is set to resume for Big Bang Theory's eighth season as the stars have inked new deals -- with Raj and Howard almost being written off due to salary issues.

Fans of CBS' top-rated comedy The Big Bang Theory can rest easy, as production has now resumed for the show with all five core cast members resolving their payment issues. After salary negotiations pushed back Season 8's production start date, Warner Bros' and main star trio Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper), Johnny Galecki (Leonard Hofstader), and Kaley Cuoco (Penny) have finally agreed to the tune of new three-year contracts of $1 million per episode for Season 8. In comparison, the trio used to earn "just" $300,000 per episode. Once you factor in all the perks such as signing bonuses and back-end fees, the trio will most likely net north of $90 million over the three-year span.

As for Kunal Nayyar (Raj Koothrappali) and Simon Helberg (Howard Wolowitz), the duo have also agreed to new terms. While no exact figures have been revealed just yet, it's said Nayyar and Helberg's pay will jump to the "mid six-figure" range from the $75,000 and $125,000 (respectively) the two were paid previously. Sources also say that the duo negotiated through a lawyer who pushed hard for salary parity with Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco. Unfortunately, the studio didn't budge and reportedly even handed a take-it-or-leave-it offer and a deadline, with the actors' reps advised that both characters would be written out of the series if negotiations didn't pan out. Allegedly, it was not just the studio who was playing hardball, either -- exec producers Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro were so frustrated by the prolonged salary negotiations that they were already preparing a script that did not involve both Helberg and Nayyar.

In a statement, Warner Bros. said, "Production on season eight of 'The Big Bang Theory' will begin Wednesday, August 6, with contract negotiations now having been concluded." There you go, Big Bang fans. Your favorite nerds will once again be back to tickle your funny bone -- and get insanely rich in the process.

Source: Variety [http://www.deadline.com/2014/08/big-bang-theory-stars-jim-parsons-johnny-galecki-kaley-cuoco-close-big-new-deals/]

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[SeventhSigil]

Kind of reminds me of the six stars of Friends; in the early seasons I think they were paid something like $40,000 per episode, on average, with different ones making different amounts of money.

The difference here being that all six of them basically banded together when it came to contract negotiations, and made it abundantly clear that any price increases they insisted upon had to be throughout the group, so that each of them got paid the same amount. Their initial demands I believe for about 100,000 per episode, but they continued to press as the series went on and got increasingly popular, and I believe that actually they reached the same $1 million per episode payment scheme, as well as a cut in syndication profits I believe. It was definitely notable, because of their focus on collective bargaining strategy, making sure that regardless of year-to-year popularity for each individual character, they were all benefiting equally. And God only knows having all six of them pushing for better salaries was a pretty successful tactic. Nayyar and Helberg might very well have gotten what they wanted if the other three had banded together with them. xD

 

[Alex Co]

Kind of reminds me of the six stars of Friends; in the early seasons I think they were paid something like $40,000 per episode, on average, with different ones making different amounts of money.

The difference here being that all six of them basically banded together when it came to contract negotiations, and made it abundantly clear that any price increases they insisted upon had to be throughout the group, so that each of them got paid the same amount. Their initial demands I believe for about 100,000 per episode, but they continued to press as the series went on and got increasingly popular, and I believe that actually they reached the same $1 million per episode payment scheme, as well as a cut in syndication profits I believe. It was definitely notable, because of their focus on collective bargaining strategy, making sure that regardless of year-to-year popularity for each individual character, they were all benefiting equally. And God only knows having all six of them pushing for better salaries was a pretty successful tactic. Nayyar and Helberg might very well have gotten what they wanted if the other three had banded together with them. xD

Good point. Yeah, I remember that about Friends. Maybe the trio are in better terms with each other or maybe they have better lawyers? I gather the studio assumed the show can survive without Raj and Howard but not without the core three.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Why can't this series just die already? I mean, when was the last time it was actually funny? I quit season 4 when I finally realised they weren't going to go beyond mocking geeks and nerds for the same negative stereotypes over and over.

 

[endtherapture]

The series was kinda funny at the start but now has become played out and incredibly boring. Cancel it now. The most fun I've had out of it in recent seasons is these stupid memes which basically sum up the entire show now:

 

[Hiramas]

When I read this news about contract negotiations my first thought is always "Who needs that much money??"
But then I remember the galactic profits the Networks are shuffling in with this and the actors deserve their fair share.
I still think writers and directors are underrepresented in US TV Land, though. They need more fame for their awesome work!

On the show itself:
Yeah, it had better times. But guys, millions of people still enjoy this, so why do you even take the time to write "die already?"
Don't be that person....

 

[Super Cyborg]

I never really got into it myself, but I can see why people like it. Yes they are making fun of nerds to a degree, but not all of them. Some people seem to get angry at a TV show about a bunch of folks who are walking stereotypes.

Beyond that, I was going to say they don't need that much money, but then someone pointed out that with all the money that the show makes, they deserve a certain portion, and with all they make, it makes sense to get that kind of money. Still, funny how they are asking for 1 million per episode, when they were making a years salary or even more per episode before getting the contract up to a higher amount.

 

[LazyAza]

I am sickened by this. The shows popularity, how much money these hack actors earn, the fact its still getting more episodes. All of it, just fills me with disgust.

 

[elvor0]

Well this seems like a massive dick move to Howard and Raj, without them, the show has no room for any growth whatsoever. Was Raj just going to randomly pack up and go back to India? What about Bernadette? Where they just going to have Howard die in a catastrophic space accident and leave Bernadette to pick up the pieces?

I can only assume that Penny and Leonard have some really good lawyers, because they're not really any more important to the shows success than Howard and Raj, Sheldon is the one that makes the show popular, they one they can't do without.

In fact, Penny is the least important character I'd say, she basically has nothing to do other than to soley exist as an annoyance to Sheldon (which is unnecessary for obvious reasons), the relationship between Leonard and her is like smashing a square into a round hole, and before now just knocked about because the writers wanted to telegraph the most obvious shipping situation ever.

Leonard, Raj and Howard should be getting equal pay, it makes sense that Sheldon gets more money, for the reason that he's the shows breakout character who they could never do without, but otherwise out of the four MAIN CHARACTERS, Raj and Howard are getting screwed over big time.

 

[AndrewC]

I enjoy the show occasionally, but you cannot justify these types of payments. Sure they're decent at what they do, but not $1m dollars decent.

Same applies to footballers, they do not deserve the stupidly high amounts of $$$$$ transfers, weekly wages they get for kicking a ball about and falling over clutching their legs if there's a slight breeze in the air.

But whatever, that's how the world sadly works.

 

[Kingjackl]

That's a lot of dough, though this seems to be the norm once these sitcoms get off the ground. That's about how much Jerry Seinfeld was earning when that was at the peak of it's popularity. Same goes for the Simpsons cast, though I think they earn slightly less because they're voice actors.

Will Melissa Raunch and Mayam Bilak be getting any windfall from this deal? It would be unfair if they didn't, since I reckon the Big Bang Theory was at it's best when they joined the main cast.

 

[Dragonbums]

I enjoy the show occasionally, but you cannot justify these types of payments. Sure they're decent at what they do, but not $1m dollars decent.

Same applies to footballers, they do not deserve the stupidly high amounts of $$$$$ transfers, weekly wages they get for kicking a ball about and falling over clutching their legs if there's a slight breeze in the air.

But whatever, that's how the world sadly works.

As someone else stated before, we don't know how it works behind the scenes. For all we know, the fat cats in charge of the news station, and the directors are probably getting paid a fuck ton more money than them, while the actors (you know, the visible people we actually see) are getting paid peanuts to them. I wouldn't be surprised if they all banded together to get more of the slice all the higher ups are sharing.

 

[AndrewC]

As someone else stated before, we don't know how it works behind the scenes. For all we know, the fat cats in charge of the news station, and the directors are probably getting paid a fuck ton more money than them, while the actors (you know, the visible people we actually see) are getting paid peanuts to them. I wouldn't be surprised if they all banded together to get more of the slice all the higher ups are sharing.

Yeah, the producers etc rake in TONS of money.

The thing is, these actors held out on letting the show continue until they got more money, they were already earning 'a metric fuckton' to put it one way. Just seems like good old fashioned greed.

 

[PunkRex]

The funniest thing about the show is watching the geek community react to it, so much rage. I'm not into the show but...

Spoiler

Bazinga!

 

[Skeleon]

I only saw a couple of minutes from different episodes of this show while channel-flipping every now and then. A buddy of mine really loves it and recommended it to me, but I couldn't see too much enjoyable in it (I didn't really give it a chance, though). It seems like your regular sitcom with a bit more "nerdy", "geeky" and "sciencey" jokes, although the "nerdy" and "geeky" stuff seemed about as fake as it usually is when done for a wider audience and the "sciencey" stuff seemed... meh, well, I'm not a physicist. Maybe, if I was, I'd find it funnier. Or, maybe, I'd tear my hair out because it's so awful, I dunno. Guess it's nice for these actors, but I can't really understand earning that much money for so little work. I guess it's just that successful, so it's justified via the audience numbers.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

This is really sick greed...
They are just actors, and no actors should not make that much money for the job they do.
Give the writers some more, THEY make the actual jokes.
This show is entertaining, but not THAT great.

Give all those millions to people in poverty!!!

 

[CommanderL]

maybe they can give the money to the much better show community

 

[Epic_Bubble]

I really don't like this show, its essentially all that's wrong with societies view on nerd culture. Many times when I tell people my hobbies they think I am a nerd from the show and thus socially awkward.

BEING A NERD DOES NOT MAKE YOU SOCIALLY AWKWARD, BEING SOCIALLY AWKWARD DOES!

The "nerd" jokes are complete trash, the only one I remembered from the one episode that I watched was along the lines of "Sheldon cheating , penny saying he was like Kert from Star-trek during his exam and Sheldon acting impressed."

The only reason the script writer knew about this lore from star-trek was cause it was in the film which every person watched.

It simply points out how shallow the so called geeky jokes are.

The Big Bang Theory is nothing but a show that panders cheap sitcom style jokes at the cost of poking fun at a certain aspect of society while pretending they are actually supporting it.


How I Met Your Mother was miles ahead in terms of story and jokes than TBBT is ...

 

[Zen Bard]

Good! Maybe this will cause a rift among the rest of the cast who will strike or hold out for more money causing production to cease and finally resulting in this show's cancellation.

That was a long sentence. But it felt good to type it.