1 of 4 | Mayim Bialik attends the Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 29. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI |
License Photo
March 1 (UPI) -- Five Big Bang Theory stars will reportedly take a pay cut so Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch can receive raises.
Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar agreed to each give up $100,000 per episode to benefit the actresses, according to Variety.
Bialik and Rauch, who both joined the CBS sitcom in Season 3, were renegotiating their contracts when their co-stars reportedly made the offer. Galecki, Parsons, Cuoco, Helberg and Nayyar are rumored to make $1 million per episode.
The extra $500,000 per episode would bump Bialik and Rauch from $200,000 to nearly $450,000 per episode in the show's prospective 11th and 12th seasons. The series is in its 10th season, and has yet to be renewed.
Deadline had reported last week that Parsons, Galecki, Cuoco, Helberg and Nayyar were in the process of finalizing new two-year contracts. Sources said at the time that Bialik and Rauch were "primed for a major salary bump."
"We are in negotiations," CBS Entertainment president Glenn Geller said in January. "These are going to be, I think, the normal tough negotiations when you're in a situation like this but we are guardedly optimistic."
The Big Bang Theory stars Bialik and Rauch as Amy Farrah Fowler and Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, respectively. The sitcom airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.