‘Big Bang Theory’ Cast Takes Pay Cuts So Mayim Bialik Can Get A Raise
Image by cbs
By Thea Glassman March 3, 2017
“The Big Bang Theory” cast sticks together.
With contract negotiations underway for the hit CBS show, Variety reports that the five original cast members have allegedly offered to take a pay cut to ensure that both Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch get raises.
Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, and Kunal Nayyar each make $1 million per episode, while Bialik and Rauch, who joined the show in season three, earn around $200,000. According to Variety, the five higher paid cast members have each volunteered to take a $100,000 pay cut per episode, which would mean paychecks for Bialik and Rauch could clock in at around $450,000 per episode.
Both Bialik and Roach have become integral parts of the show’s story, and Bialik has nabbed four Emmy nods for her role as neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler.
Executives have no end point in mind for “The Big Bang Theory,” which has rested comfortably as the #1 comedy show in primetime for the past six years.
“We’ll put it on for as long as everyone wants Big Bang on the air,” CBS president Glenn Geller said at the Television Critics Association’s press tour last summer. “I hope it lasts forever.”
Thea Glassman is an Associate Editor at the Forward. Reach her at [email protected]
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
