Later this week, the 8th season of the incredibly popular sitcom Modern Family will finish filming. There’s no denying that the show has been one of the most financially and critically successful comedies of the last ten years, but as of this moment, there’s no guarantee that there will be another season. A series of contract negotiations with some of the leading actors have thrown the whole series into turmoil, creating uncertainty at what will happen next.
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Arguably the show’s biggest stars, Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet, Jessie Tyler Ferguson, and Ed O’Neill, have all yet to even begin contract negotiations. There’s no doubt that there will be demand for another season, but supposedly there are complications between 20th Century Fox Television and ABC about the show’s cost.
The award-winning cast’s salaries have increased over the year’s, making each episode cost that much more as time goes by. According to insiders, the stars are making roughly $350,000 per episode and are in a place to ask for even more money, considering the popularity. As opposed to networks like HBO or Netflix, which produce much shorter seasons of their shows, Modern Family typically has more than 20 episodes every year and all those salaries add up.
Technically, the parties involved have until mid-May to make a decision about whether the negotiations will move forward.
Ahead of the show’s fourth season, the six actors united to ask for a considerable raise for their work, which resulted in a very heated process. In addition to upgrades being made to their salaries, the stars were offered back-end profits from the series while they agreed to star in the series through Season 8.
Despite how long the show has been on, ratings continue to prove the sitcom’s success, as it’s still ABC’s most-watched show. One of its competitors on a rival network, The Big Bang Theory, is the series many of their stars cite as an example of how much they should be making.
All signs point to the show being renewed for further seasons, but from the sounds of it, it won’t come cheap.
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[H/T The Hollywood Reporter]