‘Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg & Kunal Nayyar Reach Rich New Deals 

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‘Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg & Kunal Nayyar Reach Rich New Deals; Series To Start Production Tomorrow

‘s Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar walk away from $70 million? That was the question on the mind of everybody involved in the contract negotiations between the two actors and series producer Warner Bros TV this morning as the clock was ticking on the two sides to reach a deal in time for the first table read for Season 8, rescheduled for tomorrow, August 6. Because people associated with the CBS series needed time to make travel arrangements, I hear the studio wanted to make a decision whether to keep the table read by 3 PM today, making that a de facto deadline for reaching an agreement with Helberg and Nayyar. A deal was closed with just minutes to spare, clearing the way for production to begin tomorrow. “Production on season 8 of

, with contract negotiations now having been concluded,” WBTV just said in a statement.

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Playing hardball in seeking parity with co-stars Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco seems to have paid off for Helberg and Nayyar. I hear each of them netted more than $70 million over the life of the three-year deals for Seasons 8-10, or 72 episodes. (Each season of

consists of 24 episodes.) I hear that the quintet all have parity on the back-end participation (more than a point each), which is very valuable, and that Helberg and Nayyar will catch up with their counterparts on per-episode fees in Season 1o. Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco just secured big new three-year contracts that would pay each of them at least $90 million, including a $1 million salary per episode. In the final hours of negotiations, Helberg and Nayyar’s team was able to sweeten the studio’s final offer that had been for each actor to get 75% of the compensation secured by Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco. There had been some rumblings that, in light of the difficult negotiations, the studio was exploring continuing the series without Helberg and Nayyar, but insiders stress that that was more of a negotiating tactic than a realistic possibility. With Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik renegotiating their contracts last fall, now the entire cast of

is locked in for next season and will meet for a table read tomorrow. The script for the eighth-season premiere, which they will rehearse, features all cast members, I’ve learned.

While the focus had been on the contract negotiations of the duo’s higher-profile castmates — stars Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco — Helberg and Nayyar’s negotiations proved to be even more difficult, with emotions running high because of the parity issue. One observer recently described the talks as “battle royale.” The root of the problem is in the natural evolution of the characters on the show.

was conceived as a series about two brainy roommates and a hot woman who enters their lives, so Helberg and Nayyar’s characters or versions of them were not even in the original pilot. They started off as supporting characters to Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco’s respective Leonard, Sheldon and Penny. Gradually, the presence of Helberg’s Howard and Kunal’s Rajesh expanded as the series became more of a true ensemble. That is especially true for Helberg, whose character had been at the center of major plot lines, including his wedding and trip to space. (“Rajesh didn’t even speak for the first five seasons,” an observer exclaimed, a reference to the quirk in the character that rendered him mute in the presence of women, leading to Nayyar having a limited number of lines in the show’s first seasons.) During the 2010 salary renegotiations, Helberg and Nayyar’s talks followed those for Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco, with the duo raising their per-episode fee to more than $100,000 an episode. That was about a third of what their three colleagues had just secured, making the raises in their new contracts even more impressive.

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This time around, because all five original cast members needed new contracts in order to start work on Season 8, talks ran on parallel tracks in the two “favored nations” groupings established in the 2010 renegotiations — with Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco in one tier, despite negotiating contracts separately, with Emmy winner Parsons leading the way, and Helberg and Nayyar in another. Using favored nations, a system that gives actors financial parity, is crucial for studios to avoid discord on the set. Of course, Helberg and Nayyar had been seeking a different kind of parity, with their three co-stars, which became a major sticking point in the negotiations and an emotional issue and matter of principal for Helberg and Nayyar that was behind their willingness to walk away from combined $140 million. The two actors, who are close friends, had a valid argument:

today is an ensemble. But if history is any indication, if a series did not originate as a true ensemble of equals, which was the case of NBC’s

, it has been virtually impossible for those who start off as supporting characters to reach salary equality with their more established castmates.

started, it had three leads. Of them, Galecki was the biggest name, with Cuoco also fairly well known from her starring role on

Parsons was an unknown but quickly became a breakout star and then a three-time Emmy winner. Even on

, has been a true ensemble from the get-go, Ed O’Neill — who had gone onto the show as the only household name with a deal far more lucrative than the other cast members — had remained the highest paid with the biggest ownership piece. Many of his originally lesser-known co-stars went on to win Emmys, but when salary renegotiations came along in 2012, O’Neill stayed on a separate, higher-paid track. With

there was hardly a big name among the young cast, who were pulling in equal checks by the first salary renegotiations after Season 2 and stayed that way until the end.

will end the way their NBC counterparts did: with equal pay for the entire original cast in Season 10 (although there is a possibility that the CBS sitcom could go on beyond that). Helberg’s deal was negotiated by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment and Myman Greenspan; Nayyar’s by Innovative, Lovett Management and James Hornstein.

, whose eighth season is slated to kick off with an hourlong premiere on September 22, is a major piece of CBS’ fall plans. It is first being used on Monday as an 8 PM anchor and a launch pad for new drama

before the comedy returns to Thursday post-football to again lead the network’s comedy block. The series will start production after only a week of delay, which likely will be made up later in the production cycle.

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Yeah, let’s make sure overpaid celebs get even more money. What could possibly be more important?

Certainly not making the studio execs even more money. Why would you begrudge the creatives that do a huge part to make the show so financially successful a fair share in that success?

Better the money goes to the actors than the studio heads who sit on their butts all day.

Pssst. Your non-industry status is showing. They are creatives or actors on a show.

Certainly not making sure the talentless do-nothings that will still make a lion-share of the cash from the show steal even more cash from the actual talent.

this puts all 5 over/at 1 million an episode right?

People love them some highly advertised average quality.

Way overpaid but at least sort of equal. Hopefully they won’t take the goody bags given at the emmy’s

Glad to hear the only Talent Of Color gets a sweet deal equal to the other cast members.

i hope the laugh track got $1M an episode. without LT the audience would start to think about what they just heard, scratch their heads and hit the remote.

Big Bang is filmed in front of a live studio audience. It’s been stated numerous times. There is no laugh track.

and a helicopter to get around the LA traffic hahahahahaha still gots to drive in traffic hahahahahahahaha !!!!!!!!!

It’s studio audience laughter, not a laugh track. So, by your logic, $1M should be divided amongst the studio audience every time they tape…

So, can anyone estimate what the new per-episode salaries of Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar are now for the three upcoming seasons of TBBT?

Each season of The Big Bang Theory typically has 24 episodes. 24 times 3 is 72. So they’ll each net around 960,000 per episode.

The 70 million isn’t just episodic. It also includes backend money and other bonuses, etc.

For seasons 8 & 9, Helberg and Nayyar get either 75% or 80% (I’ve read both) of what Parsons, et. al., get. For season 10, they’ll get the same as Parsons, et. al., make. And they all get some points for syndication, DVDs, overseas, etc. You should be able to do the math from that.

The most interesting part is that this prediction made 4 years ago became true.

Funny how many of the comments were referring how The Big Bang Theory is local in USA, but 4 years later the news about the new enormous paycheck made new literally all over the world.

The studio I founded is now run by complete imbeciles. Are they crazy!? Who the hell would pay actors this much money? It’s insanity it’s madness. We could have gotten all of them for half of what we gave them. Who the hell is in charge at my studio now? I want him to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail on the freight train that goes through the north part of Burbank tonight. I am absolutely furious at what has gone on with this show. We are giving away over one hundred million dollars in pure profit! To a bunch of actors who are lucky to even have jobs. I am spinning in my grave here at Forest Lawn cemetary. I am very very upset.

Could save more money by just reusing scripts from old Warner Sitcoms and just changing the names…

Ah…….longing for the days when actors were little more than indentured servants.

Meanwhile, Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik are making Far Less than the rest of the cast….

They joined the cast later. It’s the way it works.

It’s disgraceful how little they are earning only $60,000 per episode with raises to $100,000 per episode for season 10. They are both essential to the show.

The entire renegotiation was badly handled by Warners and CBS. Parsons is the only one who deserves a million per episode he’s the star he gets the highest salary.

The studio and network could have re-signed every other cast member by giving them the same amount there was no reason for Galecki and Cuoco to also get a million per episode they are no longer essential they are now supporting players.

Everyone else should be earning no more than $350,000 per episode. The share holders of WB and CBS should be furious at how this was handled. They gave away hundreds of millions of dollars that they never had to give and to treat Melissa and Mayim so poorly is horrendous they deserve to be making the same as Simon and Kunal are making.

It is disgraceful that Rauch and Bialik make so little. Their agents should be shot. The negotiations were done last year and Helberg and Nayyar’s current contracts didn’t pay them much more, so maybe that’s why they couldn’t give them a big bump. But they should have inked one year deals and been part of the negotiations this year.

Good for Helberg and Nayyar, they deserve a degree of parity with the other three but the five of them don’t deserve that much money no matter how much the show is worth. Certainly not Galecki and Cuocco as you point out.

Rauch and Bialik should be at 350K an episode. Helberg, Nayyar, Cuocco and Galecki deserve more I think, maybe 600K and Parsons at 750-800k per. With some back end they’re all extremely wealthy and well paid. But if they can get more, good for them. Just too bad about Rauch and Bialik.

You say it was badly handled but I’m sure you wouldn’t be mad if they “overvalued” you and offered loads of money. Be glad they aren’t cheap.

No, Melissa and Mayim don’t deserve to make the same b/c they weren’t there since Day 1 and they were unfortunate to negotiate at that time. It’s like sports, it’s about timing. Contract ends on a slump year and you get burned but if a contract ends after a stellar year you get $$$.

Its a pity that their contract negotiations took place last year, it would have been interesting to see what kind of deal they got if their contract negotiations took place next year.

What about Kim /Bernadette … Was she not a ” winner “????

Props on holding out boys but the network could’ve easily replaced four of these cast members and nothing would’ve changed.

Would have liked to see Les really play some hardball here, but dudes outta gas, just like NCIS.

If anything is running out of gas–well, that would be your little used brain cells dripping out of your ears–how’s the job at Starbucks working out for ya’? God, I love stupid comments……..

I honestly feel a little sick to my stomach over this greed. These actors are not especially talented, there are far better performers, they are only lucky. I’m not sure I even want to watch the show any more.

It’s not about talent. It’s about revenue. BBT brings in a TON of money (over $1 Billion!) for CBS and Warner Brothers, just like Friends did a decade ago. So why is anyone surprised at the $1 Million/episode? At least with BBT, it’s only 3 people, not 6, like Friends.

I’m going to make my show with a talking horse ,2 dogs, and a mouse.

Great news but it brings the shows future in to question. Does this mean that the show will have its tenth season as the final season?

This puts the seven main actors at just under $6,000,000 an episode combined, add in the other 100+ people involved in the show for every episode and that dad’s up incredibly quickly.

As a matter of fact the main seven will now net around $420million over the next three years with over $400million of that going to the original five.

While the show is absolutely huge and it will be a cash cow for years to come if not decades, the next contracts will be increasingly difficult to deal with and should the actors want to continue with what will almost certainly be the most sizable and important payday of their career then they may need to be satisfied post season 10 with salaries that mirror this current contract.

Though the most important thing about this contract is the backend, they are being payed very nicely for each episode but a cut of the shows revenues of 1% or more is very sizable when considering the kind of money that is will make in worldwide syndication.

Wow. Nayyar isn’t worth $1 million, much less $70.

Parsons deserves all the money he can get, he’s the star, he’s the talent, the show cannot do without him.

Helberg, like Parsons, is exceptionally talented, he deserves way more money and praise than he’s given, but at least now the salary gap between him and Parsons isn’t so steep.

Nayyar is great but his character has been given increasingly crap and worthless material over the seasons, still glad he got a substantial raise.

Cuoco and Galecki were famous before the show and brought in their names and fanbases, I guess that’s what they’re getting paid for now, certainly not for their entertainment value (not saying they’re untalented, they just don’t hold a candle to the other three above and it’s outrageous that they get paid as much as Parsons… they are basically the 2 luckiest actors in the world).

Rauch and Bialik arrived late in the game and are extremely lucky to be on a hit show, and I’m sure they know that, which is why they took what they were given.

The least essential players are Johnny and Kaley. They are the two that could have and should have been written out, sent on around the world honeymoon never to return. They are repetitive and boring, their characters do nothing they go in circles with their romance and it’s dull.

It’s pathetic that WB agreed to pay each of them as much as Parsons is getting. Johnny and Kaley should have been offered a maximum of $500,000 per episode and 1/2 a point in syndication money. They are only worth half what Jim is worth.

And if they turned that down the studio should have told Chuck to write both of them out it would have been easy. The other four should all be getting the same amount of money: $350,000 per episode. That’s all they’re worth. Take it or leave it.

Whoever was in charge of negotiating for WB and CBS should be fired. Doesn’t matter how much money the show is going to make. But props to their agents and lawyers for taking advantage of the idiots in business affairs.

Keep in mind that Kaley Cuoco wasn’t in the original pilot. She’s a very lucky lady.

Keep in mind the show didn’t work until she was brought on board. They are all very lucky to have her.

Substitute 20000 any other goofball semi comedic passably goodlooking actress, and more, moving to LA everyday, semi talented studied theatre and has a highschool play acting list, lovable and cute. ……oh and that takes direction, gets along with others.

on interviews none of the actors have an interesting dialog. One exception, jerry sein, oh yah he was the creator of his show.

That’s like saying Julia Louis-Dreyfus was lucky to be in Seinfeld, because she wasn’t in the pilot. No, the show simply wasn’t as good without her. Your comment is some kind of ridiculousness and awfulness.

Screw the studios, pay it all to the writers, directors, staff and talent.

I don’t know what I would have done if I had to watch five people sitting on a couch eating take out instead of seven.

You could complain all you want. ubt any of these five guys quitting would be a terrible hit for the show. Raj without wolowitz (or viceversa) would kill the most of the scenes. Yes, it began as a duo with a girl but now they’re essential part of it. Are they bad actors ? could be (not for me – in fact simon is the real comic inside and outside of the show). But whatever they be, tbbt is a quintet now.

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