The adult leads of “Modern Family” — Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, and Sofia Vergara — each receive a salary of $65,000 per episode, with the exception of the more-established Ed O’Neill, who gets $100,000. But that’s all about the change. Their contracts are up after this season, and they’re looking to make bank. According to the Hollywood Reporter:
Now the series is heading into its all-important fourth season, when casts often renegotiate their contracts, scoring big paydays in exchange for agreeing to extend original seven-year deals by an additional year or two so the studio can generate bigger syndication revenue. One source suggested the cast could ask for a jump to the $200,000-an-episode range for season four, which would be on par with the three stars of CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” when they re-upped after their show’s third season in 2010. Reps will seek additional boosts of $50,000 to $100,000 for subsequent seasons, but 20th is likely to resist opening the vault for a cast with twice as many leads as the Big Bang trio.
“It’s going to get ugly,” says a source close to the dealmaking. (Via)
Let’s say they do get $200,000-an-episode. That would mean $1.2 million would be spent on the leads each week, with the child stars earning much less. (Rico Rodriquez gets roughly $15,000 now, for instance.) Charlie Sheen alone earned $1.25 million/episode for “Two and a Half Men,” and Ashton Kutcher will increase his salary to $1 million if he signs on for another year, so sitcoms have doled out the big bucks to keep their stars before. (The cast of “Friends” also earned $1 million/episode.) ABC gets nearly $250,000 for every 30-second spot that airs during “Modern,” which also has a rich syndication deal with USA for $1.5 million/episode.
That’s a lot of figures, so to simplify things, “MODERN FAMILY” = $$$, which is exactly what the cast is about to get. Except for Lily. Sources tell me she’s being a total BITCH, demanding not only more money, but also an increase in footie pajamas. Expect her to be Bobby Draper’d next season…again.
