Actors of The Big Bang Theory try to raise their fees
This summer, CBS and Warner Bros TV waiting for talks with actors from "The Big Bang Theory" who want to raise their salaries. Raising fees is well deserved - series draws huge ratings, and was recently sold into syndication for the fabulous price.
Few times critics have already compared The Big Bang Theory with Friends. Both series are sitcoms, the main characters - the twenty-year boys and girls, most of them live in two apartments in the neighborhood, both series are extremely popular, and from next season TBBT move on Thursday, the former timeslot of Friends.
Actors from Friends have always participated in the negotiations for higher wages together, and thus achieving remarkable success. After two seasons, they have increased to 100 thousand for the series, and later to the 10 season they brought the fees up to a million per episode. But it seems that the actors of The Big Bang Theory will go the other way. One of the three major actors is Jim Parsons, decided to negotiate separately from Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki.
Parsons strategy makes sense – he is an undoubted star of the show, and only one was nominated for an Emmy for his work in The Big Bang Theory, so it can count on the largest increment. On the other hand, Parsons has not too many other options, unlike Kaley Cuoco, who recently received three proposals for the shooting in the movie, and was forced to accept only two of them, because it is banal that in the third she has no time to shoot. Cuoco, seems, could become the second Jennifer Aniston, if we will continue the analogy with "Friends." Nevertheless, Cuoco, as a veteran of television Galecki agreed to negotiate with other actors, in contrast to Parsons.
The irony in the fact that at the very beginning and Cuoco, and Galecki have earned more than Parson, as both were more experienced and famous (Cuoco played in 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, and Charmed, Galecki - in Roseanne). By the end of the third season the trio have equalized in royalties - all received 60 thousand for the series. That is, Parsons, and had been receiving greater gain. However, this does not mean that he will be able to get greater and an increase at this time. Studios like to pay the actors from the ensemble series similar fees. So, ladies of Desperate Housewives, too, started with different salaries, but with the fourth season each of the four actresses received 250 thousand for the series.
The Big Bang Theory actors has already signed multi-year contracts (Parsons, Cuoco and Galecki have contracts until the sixth season), in which there is not provided significant improvement of fees. However, the studio may well want to sign a new contract, extending the contractual obligations of the actors a few more years, and "paying" for this increase in fees. Since the series is already sold in syndication for 9 seasons, the studio clearly does not want a repetition of the situation with Charlie Sheen in a few years.
While forecasts for negotiations are rather favorable - the actors most likely will get generous allowances and to extend the contract for 2-3 years. But the situation with Friends at the time also differs - after the second season the actors threatened to strike and collapse of shooting, if the studio refused to give them their 100 thousand per episode.