It’s finally May 27th and could we BE more excited? Today, we will witness the reunion of stars from the 90s hit sitcom FRIENDS for a special reunion episode after a long period of 17 years.
Indian fans have been anticipating this episode for ages and Zee5 is finally delivering it. As they say, good things are never cheap, and the cast has been paid an unbelievably massive price for the episode.
As per a report, the cast would have been paid about $2.5 million each for the reunion episode which amounts to nearly ₹18.2 crores. Another report suggests that they might have been paid between $2.5 million and $3 million. Even during the show’s original run back in the day, the cast was the highest-paid ensemble in comparison to any other TV show.
The excessive demand for bringing back the cast was not cheap for HBO either. They paid a whopping $425 million for the show’s rights.
In 1996, The Los Angeles Times had reported that each member of the cast would get $22,500 each episode. They even demanded salary increases to $100,000 each per episode, along with a percentage of the series’ profits in syndication after the success of the show.
According to the reports, Jennifer and David got salary hikes while others made about half of their amount in season two. However, by season five, they were reportedly minting $100,000 per episode and about $1 million per episode by the final season.
Jennifer is still one of the highest-paid female actors on television. She was reportedly paid about $2 million per episode for her Good Morning America series.
Hard work does pay off, doesn’t it?