…That all started with a big bang – BANG!
Reports have emerged that as CBS’ The Big Bang Theory gets renewed for two more seasons – 11 and 12, the cast are looking out for one another. At the moment, the main characters – Jim Parsons who plays Sheldon Cooper, Johnny Galecki who plays Leonard Hofstadter, Kunal Nayyar who plays Raj Koothrappali, Simon Helberg who plays Howard Wolowitz and Kaley Cuoco who plays Penny – get payed a whopping $1 million per episode. Their relatively newer co-stars – Mayim Bialik who plays Amy Farah Fowler and Melissa Rauch who plays Bernadette – get paid a lower $200,000. As further episodes are discussed and signed, the main cast is looking to get their co-stars a higher paycheck.
And how do they plan on going about with this? By taking lower salaries themselves! According to Variety, the original cast will take pay cuts of upto $500,000. This means, that if Bialik and Rauch split this amount, their own paychecks would rise to $450,000 each, per episode. While the main cast has already made that decision for their co-stars, payment discussions are still being made for the two, who would need to agree on parity. Both their characters have becoming main-stays on the show, with Amy now becoming the live-in girlfriend of Sheldon Cooper and Bernadette being a new mother and the wife of Howard. Also, Bialik has already scored four Emmy nominations for her groundbreaking role.
The reason why the main cast is willing to cut their own earnings is because The Big Bang Theory is an old show, having already completed 10 seasons. This means that it will not be incurring any addition revenue or viewers, since it already has a following. So, budgeting for the show will remain almost the same as previous seasons, therefore making it impossible for the addition cast to receive pay raises. Bernadette and Amy became guest stars in Season 3 of the show, becoming part of the main cast as their stories began interweaving with the lead characters.
Reps for CBS, Warner Bros. TV, Rauch or Bialik have not made any official comment yet.
