Big Bang duo follow mega-bucks deal
“Production on season 8 of The Big Bang Theory will begin" after Simon Helberg & Kunal Nayyar agree to lucrative deal.
- Published by David Knox
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“Production on Season 8 of The Big Bang Theory will begin Wednesday, August 6, with contract negotiations now having been concluded,” Warner Bros TV has said in a statement.
Co-stars Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar were the final two cast members to sign on the dotted line for a new deal, reportedly worth $70m over the life of Seasons 8-10, or 72 episodes.
Deadline reports a deal was closed with just minutes to spare, clearing the way for production to begin tomorrow. One observer recently described the talks as “battle royale” noting TBBT was conceived as a series around 3 characters but has developed into an ensemble comedy.
It follows Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Katey Cuoco having secured three-year contracts that would pay each of them at least $90 million.
Hollywood Reporter notes the duo also will receive the same cut of the show’s ownership as the leading trio – 1.25 percent, up from 0.25 percent in their previous deals.
Co-stars Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch secured pay increases in September that lift from $30,000 per episode to $100,000.
In the US Season seven regularly topped 20 million viewers per week, up 4 percent year-over-year, with an impressive 6.1 rating among the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic. In Australia it’s been a blessing to Nine both for premiere eps, and especially for early-evening reruns as Lorre’s other hit, Two and a Half Men imploded.
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11 Responses
@TV Fanatic – the show makes a ton of money for the network, so why shouldn’t the stars get their fair share of it?
@typher – given the show makes the network and studio some $3 Billion per season it was never in doubt they would be back.
With 3 more seasons set to air thats a lot of money they all will be making. Just hope the crew are getting a good deal out of this also.
Wow. I had no idea these actors were paid that much money. Amazzzzzing!
having sat in the studio for the taping of one of these shows, yes they are talented and yest the show is popular, and i suppose that after this run some of these actors will be Type cast and find it hard to move away from their on screen personalities and finding it hard in some cases to find new roles in the future… but 1 million dollars an ep…?? good if you can get it!!
The whole arms crossed, stamping the floor demanding a ridiculous salary increase is obscene.
It was a great show. Now all I see is a bunch of greedy, arrogant overpaid actors who consider their bank balance over their fans.
They should take a leaf out of Jonah Hill’s book after asking for the lowest rate of pay just to work on Wolf Of Wall Street. That’s class
With the big increases in payments to the “talent”, will this mean Nine will be asked to fork out even bigger bucks for the “product”?
Not specifically for TBBT. They have an output deal with WBTV.
I would of fired them and cancelled the show 🙂
Financially that would not have made sense. WBTV still comes out in front.
I wonder how long it’ll be before The Big Bang Theory implodes on Nine?
And now Nine can breath easy…
Its good to see the guys got deals almost as good as the 3 others and the show can now go back into production.