Spoilers - The Big Bang Theory S&S #63: Because the first S8 scripts are "amazing" - Bill Prady - Page 4

Jasper1975 · 08-01-2014, 10:50 AM

Same with Deadline.com

Quote:

‘The Big Bang Theory’ Negotiations Update: Production Start Date Pushed To Next Wednesday As Talks Continue

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday August 1, 2014 @ 9:00am PDT

‘The Big Bang Theory’ Negotiations Update: Production Start Date Pushed To Next Wednesday As Talks Continue

After taking things day by day on Wednesday and Thursday, I’ve learned that Warner Bros TV has tentatively slated production on Season 8 of The Big Bang Theory to start next Wednesday, August 6. That is a week after the CBS series’ eighth season was originally supposed to kick off with a table read last Wednesday, July 31. Of course, holding the postponed table read on August 6 will be contingent on the five original cast members closing new deals. I hear talks continue with Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco, Helberg and Kunal Nayyar. The contracts of all five expired at the end of last season. The only Big Bang cast members who have deals in place and available to start work immediately are Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik, who renegotiated their contracts last fall.

For now there is no danger of Big Bang not being able to make its hour long premiere on September 22. There is talk that the delay might lead to a minimal order reduction from 24 to 23 episodes, but I hear that could be avoided by shortening planned hiatuses or extending production in the spring. Like the 2010 salary renegotiations, Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco would likely end up with equal pay, more than doubling and possibly tripling their most recent salary of $350,000 an episode as well as their current back-end ownership, said to be around .25 point. Helberg and Nayyar, who are once again negotiating together, raised their per-episode fee to more than $100,000 an episode in the 2010 renegotiations. I hear they may be looking to close the salary gap with their three original cast mates.

bigbangsheldon · 08-01-2014, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jasper1975 (View Post)

Not looking good at the moment. When is the first taping? If they can't even hold a table read until deals are finalized, and if nothing happens until at least next week... I would have to see them having them push the first taping.

its cancelled now. it was supposed to be on tuesday

lancer1993 · 08-01-2014, 11:16 PM

Thanks for the latest, I doubt it will be cut back, we I hope it isn't

I still think the original 5 cast member should be on the same money, they are all there the same hours, they all appear in ever episode and for roughly the same amount of screen time. Also like some others I think Helberg and Nayyar are under rated for their acting abilities on the show. Why do Jim, Johnny and Kaley get all the press?

Now I just want the show back so I can see a taping report and spoilers

Jasper1975 · 08-02-2014, 05:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lancer1993 (View Post)

Thanks for the latest, I doubt it will be cut back, we I hope it isn't

I still think the original 5 cast member should be on the same money, they are all there the same hours, they all appear in ever episode and for roughly the same amount of screen time. Also like some others I think Helberg and Nayyar are under rated for their acting abilities on the show. Why do Jim, Johnny and Kaley get all the press?

Now I just want the show back so I can see a taping report and spoilers

They are the main faces. Yeah Helberg and Nayyar are underrated, but you probably could lose one or both and the show would still go on quite nicely focusing on Sheldon, Leonard and Penny and Amy.

There was always a pay disparity between them all! In fact none of them are negotiating together. Jim is trying to get the biggest slice of the pie and using his celebrity, Johnny ad Kaley are trying to keep pace with him. While the other two is looking for a significant bump.

While I do think the other two deserve more than they were being paid. I am not sure they all deserve the same paycheck. The main three are the main three. The other two don't drive the show for many (that is either Sheldon, Leonard or Penny). But the other two should be closer than they were...

lancer1993 · 08-03-2014, 02:14 AM

Could we now be seeing a Friends type situation where they stick together to get a fairer deal, even if it's not for the same rate, could this be delaying things?

Berserkrules · 08-03-2014, 07:34 AM

Quote:

I still think the original 5 cast member should be on the same money, they are all there the same hours, they all appear in ever episode and for roughly the same amount of screen time. Also like some others I think Helberg and Nayyar are under rated for their acting abilities on the show. Why do Jim, Johnny and Kaley get all the press?

Jim, Johnny, and Kaley get all the press because they are the main characters of the show and have been from day one. Their characters are the ones that are used more often than not to promote the show and the audience on the whole associates the show with them more than others.

Also Sheldon, Leonard, and Penny, on the whole do feature more prominently in the storylines for the show and do in fact get more screen time than the other characters do.

This whole series of reports is all smokescreen anyway. It's free press for the show because at the end of the day CBS is going to give the three leads what they are asking for, the show is simply too lucrative a money maker for CBS to walk away from at this point.

As far the leads not returning to work affect the crew of the show is concerned. I'm pretty sure the unions that those crew members belong to have protections in place that sees the the behind the scenes people get paid when stuff like this goes down.

Jasper1975 · 08-03-2014, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lancer1993 (View Post)

Could we now be seeing a Friends type situation where they stick together to get a fairer deal, even if it's not for the same rate, could this be delaying things?

Except they aren't sticking together. They are all without deals so they are all staying out until they get the deal they want. All friends were in a different situation because it was a clear situation where the show was based on all six friends.

Things have gone more essemble than what was initially in the beginning. Still if you lost Raj or Howard, the show could go on as long as you had Sheldon, Leonard and Penny. Reports have even the main three are holding out for their own deals. With Jim wanting the most because he is using his Emmy nominations and wins are leverage, with the other two trying to keep up. And the other two trying to get a significant bump.

They are all off work because they don't have a deal that compels them to go to work. The seven year contract is over.

But regardless it will all work out. There was hope that a deal would be finalized by the end of the weekend. With work to begin on Wednesday.

Time will tell!

Tomasina · 08-04-2014, 06:49 AM

Audiences Unlimited's changes and cancellations page shows the taping for August 5th has been cancelled.

bigbangsheldon · 08-04-2014, 08:15 AM

Jim, Kaley, Johnny have signed and now we just have to wait for Kunal and Simon 'Big Bang Theory' Stars Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki & Kaley Cuoco Close Big New Deals - Deadline.com

Jasper1975 · 08-04-2014, 08:17 AM

Which makes sense since production hasn`t started...

It looks like Johnny, Jim and Kaley have finalized new deals that are monsters in terms of a financial windfall for them and now there is waiting to close the other two who are indeed negotiating together but there have been some bumps in the road...but could be close to closing as well...

So it looks like they can continue back to work on Wednesday! Assuming the other deals close. Or we might see less Howard and Raj in the premiere.

Looks like Johnny and Jim and Kaley get a favorite nations deal which means parity for all three in terms of pay.

Source: Deadline.com

Quote:

‘Big Bang Theory’ Stars Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki & Kaley Cuoco Close Big New Deals

By NELLIE ANDREEVA

The Big Bang Theory is a big step closer to making the new July 6 production start date for Season 8 — I’ve learned that stars Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco have agreed to new three-year contracts. The deals for Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco came after marathon negotiations between Big Bang producer Warner Bros. TV and reps for the actors over the weekend, with Parsons’ pact closing first on Sunday, followed by the Galecki and Cuoco deals under “favorite nations” terms, giving the trio financial parity. WBTV declined comment and reps for Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco could not be reached for comment, but I hear the trio are in the long-rumored Friends salary territory, scoring paychecks of $1 million per episode for the 72 episodes the show is slated to produce in Seasons 8-10. What’s more, I hear the door has been left open to a potential 11th season.

I also hear that the complex deals go well beyond per-episode fees and also include larger pieces of the show, signing bonuses, production deals and advances towards the back-end. In addition to tripling their most recent salaries of $350,000 an episode, I hear Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco also quadrupled their previous ownership of the show, which has gone up from .25 point to more than a point. I hear Parsons’ pact includes a production deal that spans TV and features and possibly theater, with Galecki and Cuoco also getting producing arrangements. Galecki produced a comedy project for WBTV last season, No Place Like Home, which went to pilot at Fox. All in, I hear Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco are poised to make at least $90 million dollars each over the lives of the deals, with some observers noting that the total could conceivably rise towards $100 million if Big Bang continues to be as strong in syndication and auxiliary markets. With the big payday for Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco and the windfall for top profit participants, WBTV still is expected to clear $1 billion in profits, with some projecting that Big Bang could contribute to Time Warner’s bottom line twice that over its lifespan.

With Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco signed on and co-stars Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik already on board for Season 8 after renegotiating their contracts last fall, the focus is on wrapping negotiations with the last remaining original cast members, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar, before the table read planned for Wednesday. I hear the two are close and there is a possibility for them to reach new deals today though there have been some bumps in the back-and-forth. The close friends, who raised their per-episode fee to more than $100,000 an episode in the 2010 renegotiations, are once again negotiating together and had been looking to close the salary gap with fellow original cast members Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco. If Helberg and Nayyar close on time for the Wednesday table read, production on Season 8 will be only one week behind schedule, a delay that the actors and WBTV are hopeful they can make up later in the season so the order remains 24 episodes and is not trimmed down to 23.

Big Bang, whose eighth season is slated to kick off with an hour long premiere on Sept. 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 Scorpion before the comedy returns to Thursday post-football to once again lead the network’s comedy block.

The blockbuster deals for Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco were brokered by attorneys from Gang, Tyre Ramer & Brown (Parsons) and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller (Galecki, Cuoco) as well as the trio’s other reps, CAA and Principal Entertainment (Parsons), WME and Management 360 (Galecki) and SDB Partners and Brillstein Entertainment Partners (Cuoco).

lancer1993 · 08-04-2014, 03:44 PM

I hope Simon and Kunal get a good deal as well.

Given how the season ended I could see them doing more with Penny and Leonard looking for Sheldon, still hope they don't take the majority of the screen time.

bigbangsheldon · 08-05-2014, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Question: Any info on the Big Bang Theory season premiere? —Joey
Ausiello: For those curious about Sheldon’s whereabouts all summer, I can confirm that he did, in fact, get on that train (vs. just squatting in the station, as some have speculated). The bigger question you should be asking yourself is whether he ever stepped foot outside the train during his epic journey.

‘The Big Bang Theory’ Season 8 Spoilers: Did Sheldon Ever Leave the Train? | TVLine

***NikNak*** · 08-05-2014, 02:08 PM

Thanks for the news.

Jasper1975 · 08-05-2014, 03:11 PM

The standoff over contracts is over. All five are re-signed. No details yet on the deal for Howard and Raj. But probably a significant increase from what they were doing before...

Source: Tvline.com

Quote:

Big Bang Contract Update: Everyone's Staying (Howard and Raj Included)
By Michael Ausiello / August 5 2014, 2:59 PM PDT

The Big salary standoff of 2014 has been resolved.

A day after co-stars Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco inked lucrative new pacts, Big Bang Theory supporting players Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar have secured sizable raises in exchange for a new three-year commitment.

Helberg and Nayyar had been making $125 and $75K, respectively. No word yet on what their new salaries are, but it’s safe to say they will pale in comparison to the $1 million-an-episode Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco will be pulling in.

The news ensures that the cast will be present and accounted for at Wednesday’s delayed table read. (Later-season additions Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik are on different contract cycles, and thus already have deals for the coming season.)

A Warner Bros. rep said in a statement, “Production on Season 8 of The Big Bang Theory will begin Wednesday, August 6, with contract negotiations now having been concluded.”

Last month at the Television Critics Assoc. summer press tour, CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler said that she was “very confident” new deals would be struck in time to deliver the show’s hour-long Sept. 22 premiere.

So they return to work tomorrow!

Deadline.com has a bigger storyline. No salary confirmed. But it looks the final two deal could be about 70 million over the three years. But the show was even thinking of a future without Howard and Raj if it came to that while the other three were considered irreplaceable!

Quote:

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

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday August 5, 2014 @ 2:56pm PDT

Will Big Bang Theory‘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, Aug. 6. Because people associated with the 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 The Big Bang Theory will begin Wednesday, August 6, with contract negotiations now having been concluded,” WBTV just said in a statement.

Playing hard ball 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. I hear that the quintet all have parity on the back-end participation, 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 dollars, including a $1 million salary per episode. With Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik renegotiating their contracts last fall, now the entire cast of Big Bang is locked in for next season.

While the focus had been on the contract negotiations of the duo’s higher profile cast mates, stars Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco, Helberg and Nayyar’s negotiations proved to be even more difficult. One observer recently described them as “Battle Royale.” The roots of the problem is in the natural evolution of the characters on the show. Conceived as a series about two brainy roommates and a hot woman who enters their lives, 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 Leonard, Sheldon and Penny. Gradually, the presence 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.

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 been seeking a different kind of parity, with their co-stars Parsons, Galecki and Cuoco, which became a major sticking point. The two actors, who are close friends, had a valid argument — Big Bang 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 Friends, it has been virtually impossible for those who start off as supporting characters to reach salary equality with their more established cast mates.

When Big Bang started, it had three leads. Of them, Galecki was the biggest name, with Cuoco also fairly well known from her starring role on 8 Simple Rules. Parsons was an unknown but quickly became a breakout star and soon a three-time Emmy winner. Even on Modern Family, which, like Friends, 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 to win Emmys, but when salary renegotiations came along 2012, O’Neill stayed on a separate, higher-paid track. With Friends, there was hardly a big name among the young cast, who were pulling in equal checks by the first salary renegotiatins after Season 2 and stayed that way til the end.

Now, looking to set a precedent, the cast of Big Bang, which had drawn comparisons to Friends, will end the way their NBC counterparts did — with equal pay for the entire original cast in Season 10. (Though there is a possibility that the CBS sitcom would 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.

Big Bang, whose eighth season is slated to kick off with an hour-long premiere on Sept. 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 Scorpion before the comedy returns to Thursday post-football to again lead the network’s comedy block. The series will start production after only week of delay, which will likely be made up later in the production cycle.

lancer1993 · 08-05-2014, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigbangsheldon (View Post)

‘The Big Bang Theory’ Season 8 Spoilers: Did Sheldon Ever Leave the Train? | TVLine

LOL I can see Sheldon spending months on a train.

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