Their deals do not put them on pace with “Two and a Half Men” star Charlie Sheen, but the three leads of CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” just scored lucrative pay raises that last through season seven.
According to Deadline, stars Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco will earn $200,000 per episode for the upcoming fourth season. That fee will bump to $250,000 for season five, $300,000 for season six and $350,000 for season seven. At least two instances of $1 million advances are built into the deals, and they will also receive a backend percentage.
As had been known without the entertainment community, while Galecki and Cuoco opted to negotiate in tandem, Jim Parsons, who just won an Emmy for his work on the show and is considered the true standout, negotiated separately. Despite that situation, the studio was planning to offer a “favored nations” deal regardless (essentially meaning that all would be paid the same per episode, in line with whomever negotiated the best deal).
A lot of hardball was reportedly played, and as of this week, Parsons was told that the aforementioned deal was either “take it or leave it”–if he left it, re-negotiations for his contract would allegedly have been tabeled until next summer.