Big Bang Theory

By Rappy
in The Media Room

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

Rappy Veteran

Posted
  • Author
  • Veteran
Posted
One of the more fascinating salary negotiations in TV history involved the Friends cast, when Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc chose to negotiate their salaries together, having decided that no one actor on the cast was worth more than the other. That pleased Warner Bros. TV to no end, of course, because it meant they could say, ?Pay everyone LeBlanc money, not Cox money!? Even today, former execs from that era brag about how the actors left money on the table at the expense of keeping things harmonious on the set. (That might be true, but the cast?s friendships sure remained intact.)

Cut to 2010, when another salary renegotiation is winding its way through the halls of Warner Bros. TV. It just so happens to involve a comedy that?s pretty much replaced Friends in terms of popularity, critical praise, and its ability to generate millions in revenue: The Big Bang Theory. As is customary for any successful show approaching its fifth and sixth years (Bang is currently in its fourth season), the core ensemble of five have jockeyed for more money. Interestingly, three of those castmembers ? Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki ? initially decided to follow in the footsteps of the Friends actors by negotiating as one but, as first reported by Deadline, the Emmy-winning Parsons made the decision to break away and negotiate on his own. Lucky for Cuoco and Galecki, his strategy didn?t work, and now all three are earning roughly $200,000 per episode this season ? up from $60k last year ? and will see $50,000 bumps each year over the next three years, as well as a piece of the comedy?s rich syndication profits.

That left Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar, who negotiated separately. Though it can be argued that Parsons, Cuoco and Galecki are lead material, both Helberg and Nayyar are certainly integral to the show?s success. Indeed, some of the comedy?s best moments are when Parsons, Galecki, Helberg and Nuyyar are together. But clearly, the studio wasn?t looking to follow a favored nations strategy because Helberg, who plays Howard Wolowitz, just closed a deal to earn north of $100,000 per episode, EW has confirmed. That?s up from around $40,000, but nowhere near what Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco are making.

Though Nayyar (Raj) has yet to sign a new pact of his own, it doesn?t appear that he was offered the same amount as Helberg or else he would have signed by now. Reportedly, Nayyar is expected to close a deal shortly; if not, the negotiations could be postponed to season?s end and he?ll have to continue earning around $25k per episode under his current, six-year contract. But it would be wrong to assume this was a contentious negotiation, said one interested party. ?Granted, no one was skipping to the mailbox and cashing a check ? there was some teeth pulling ? but in the end, everybody is going to make a ton of money,? the source said.

Grand Master

Draconian Guppy

Posted
Posted

Man they should negotiate as a whole. Even though Jim is the lead man, it won't be the same show with out everyone else (Just like how "Kramer" tried to make a show of his own and failed). They should have the same salary and negotiate some "prosperity" bonus of some sort. Eg The actor who gets a certain amount of airtime per episode gets paid X amount. The same would be if that actor gets less amount of air time per episode = some other bonus. That's how I would've negotiated anyway... Nayyar earning 25k is just ludicrous !

Grand Master

Rappy Veteran

Posted
  • Author
  • Veteran
Posted
Who makes a better superhero, Howard Wolowitz or Raj Koothrappali? EW snagged this exclusive first look from the Dec. 9 episode of The Big Bang Theory in which the two characters (played by the brilliant Simon Helberg and equally hilarious Kunal Nayyar) try to figure out which one has the right (or should we say better?) stuff. They test each other with various challenges. We may have to go with Koothrappali in this one.

Qjcn0.jpg

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • Microsoft's new Xbox Shutdown change promises massive power efficiency gains

      By PWazzle · Posted

      We need a game update frequency setting. * Right now your recent games will be auto updated overnight, and your unrecent games won't be updated. The bifurcation of recent and unrecent is fine, but we should be able to control the update frequency for both, with any of the following options: 1. Don't auto update 2. Auto update weekly 3. Auto update overnight 3. Auto update immediately (push) i.e. When I'm playing a lot, I want my recently played games to have push updates, so if a dev releases an update at 4pm, it's already downloaded on my Xbox by the time I get home. The current overnight cadence leaves a lot of wasted time waiting for updates on slow connections. My infrequently played games in ok with deferring to overnight, or maybe weekly, but let the users control their frequency. Basing it on data and last played sounds smart but ignores the human reality that often when I'm busiest and have the least time for games is when it sucks the most to come home and find a huge update list waiting for you.
    • U.S. delegation throws away all burner phones and gifts from China before takeoff

      By AsherGZ · Posted

      Genocide is intent to exterminate and both the Israeli government AND its people openly declare, even boast about their intent to exterminate Arabs. This society of sick psychopaths has even made songs about it. Zionist means believing Israel should exist as an religious ethno-state where only Jews have rights and everyone else is second class citizen. As for the blood libel thing, we already know zionists get off on killing children. We also know Israel is a safe heaven for all the pedophiles and rapists of the world. Honestly, after what we saw in the Epstein files, I wouldn't put anything past this depraved death cult. Of course all atrocities committed by tHe wOrLds mOsT mOrAl aRmY are always "unproven or taken out of context". Unfortunately for them, their soldiers are dumb enough to leave a trail of their war crimes all over social media. Then again, when you live in a society that's obsessed with death and destruction, posting videos of yourself in the act of ransacking homes and desecrating religious monuments earns you brownie points I guess. Israel is the only society in the world where people come out on the roads for the right to **** prisoners. Also claiming that the BBC said this and AP said that without so much as a link has gotten me curious. Are all zionists this dumb? I really hope you aren't getting paid for this because this is some low effort propaganda.
    • Should Microsoft be forced to stop promoting Edge over other browsers?

      By Som · Posted

      Why not just disable it?
    • Microsoft is bringing big performance improvements to OneDrive on Mac

      By TarasBuria · Posted

      Microsoft is bringing big performance improvements to OneDrive on Mac by Taras Buria Microsoft has announced a major update for the OneDrive client on macOS. Today, the company released version 26.098, promising significantly faster sync, optimized CPU usage, a smaller memory footprint, and better energy efficiency. In a newly published blog post, Microsoft acknowledged that changes implemented in OneDrive for Mac in 2022 brought some unwanted side effects. Due to architectural changes and the need to keep the OneDrive sync engine unchanged, Microsoft created a hidden cache folder. With time, it would cause reliability and performance issues for customers. Now, Microsoft is ditching the old engine for native sync, delivering a faster, more reliable experience. As a result of this change, OneDrive for Mac now integrates more deeply into the operating system, offers about two times faster sync performance, and uses fewer system resources. While the hidden folder still exists, the app only uses it to store files that have not been uploaded yet, link file types, and macOS-related packages. In total, even when holding hundreds of files, the temporary folder does not take more than a couple of megabytes on the drive. Besides optimizations, the new sync engine enables external drive support, allowing you to keep your OneDrive folder on a removable drive (it should meet all the requirements). Microsoft is now rolling out the updated OneDrive client for Microsoft 365 Insiders. To check if your Mac has the new sync engine, go to the About tab and check the app version. If it ends with something like 26H, you are on the new engine. If not, you are on the old one. Microsoft says it will take a few weeks to complete the rollout to Insiders, but it won't say when to expect the update in the stable channel. Big performance updates for OneDrive on Mac came right after Microsoft confirmed it would soon kill document editing in Office 2019 for Mac due to expiring certificates. This change will force users to look for alternatives or switch to Microsoft 365.
    • Hi my name is Olivia and I am from Australia

      By +Good Bot, Bad Bot · Posted

      Sorry but that makes no sense. What does using the same laptop have to do with anything? 

  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      StaticMatrix earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Rookie
      lamborghiniv10 went up a rank
      Rookie
    • One Month Later
      pinnclepd earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • First Post
      X-No-file earned a badge
      First Post
    • One Month Later
      johnjacobb40 earned a badge
      One Month Later

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      516
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      211
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      147
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      92
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      82
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!