The Big Bang Theory‘s eighth season is a go… and just in the nick of time.
On Monday, we told you about how the show’s leads, Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, and Kaley Cuoco inked new deals and on Tuesday with just one day to spare before the show’s first table read of the new season, Simon Helberg (Howard) and Kunal Nayyar (Raj) confirmed that they would be back.
Prior to the new deals, Helberg and Nayyar had been making $125 and $75K per episode, respectively. There’s no word yet on what their new salaries are, but they certainly won’t be close to the $1 million-an-episode Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco will be will now be making.
Deadline.com has posted a detailed account of the talks and how Helberg & Nayyar’s strategy of playing hardball right up until the last minute ended up working out for the supporting castmembers.
They reportedly netted more than $70 million over the life of the three-year deals for Seasons 8-10, or 72 episodes (with each season of Big Bang consisting of 24 episodes). In addition to their base salary, Deadline reports that all five castmembers now have parity on the back-end participation (more than a point each), which is the most valuable part of the deal, and that Helberg and Nayyar will catch up with their counterparts on per-episode fees in Season 10. 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 Big Bang is signed in for next season and will meet for the first table read today.
To read a full and juicy account of the negotiations, visit Deadline.com.
