Post by Forever Xena on Jan 24, 2006 1:11:54 GMT -6
"Lost" Cast Finds Cash
by Gina Serpe
Jan 23, 2006, 9:40 AM PT
It ain't Hurley's mega-millions, but it's a start for the cast of Lost.
Show producer Touchstone Television has offered substantial salary hikes to the original ensemble of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning hit drama in exchange for the actors extending their current contracts to include an additional year of island-living, Other-dodging, number-punching duties.
And sorry, tailies, that's original cast only.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the studio is offering to pay the actors nearly $80,000 an episode starting with the show's third season, which is double, and in some cases quadruple, what they are currently earning. For the past two years, the Lost gang's salaries have reportedly fallen in the $20,000-$40,000 range per episode.
All surviving original cast members have been offered the same deal and are expected to take it, according to the trade paper. That includes Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun) and Harold Perrineau Jr. (Michael).
The notable exception is for Matthew Fox, who plays the good doctor Jack Shephard, the show's nominal lead, who was offered an additional one-time bonus of at least $250,000 in addition to the salary hike.
But don't read the pay increase as a spoiler. None of the cast members are guaranteed to last through the season (see: brother-sister duo Boone and Shannon, played by Ian Somerhalder and Maggie Grace, who have already met their demise).
The pumped-up checks are said to be the first salary bump for the Lost crew, who previously received a bonus of one extra episode fee between their breakout first season and the current second one.
And along with entering a new tax bracket, the raise has placed the castaways amid another rarified group.
They now rank on par with the stars of ABC's other ratings juggernaut, Desperate Housewives. The core quartet of Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria also started off their freshman year in the $20,000-$40,000 range only to be quickly rewarded.
Like Fox, the feisty femmes all reportedly earned bonuses, of $250,000 midway through their premiere season, as well as receiving salary increases for the second season, bringing each actress' per-episode fee to the high five- to low six-figure range.
Like the Wisteria Lane ladies, the Lost gang will be raking in the dough for quite some time: The actors on Lost, which has one of the largest casts, as well as highest production values, in prime time, were automatically committed to long-term deals when they signed on to the pilot, which usually run at least five years.
The J.J. Abrams-helmed drama has been a hit since debuting in fall 2004. The first season was the second-best-selling television-based DVD of 2005, with more than 1 million units sold. This season, the show ranks as the eighth-most watched, averaging more than 16.6 million viewers per episode.
The show is also making a splash on the really small screen, leading all Disney-produced series in downloads since becoming available on Apple's iTunes store in October.
Lost Video Diaries, a spinoff series designed solely for cell phones, is set to launch later this month.
by Gina Serpe
Jan 23, 2006, 9:40 AM PT
It ain't Hurley's mega-millions, but it's a start for the cast of Lost.
Show producer Touchstone Television has offered substantial salary hikes to the original ensemble of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning hit drama in exchange for the actors extending their current contracts to include an additional year of island-living, Other-dodging, number-punching duties.
And sorry, tailies, that's original cast only.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the studio is offering to pay the actors nearly $80,000 an episode starting with the show's third season, which is double, and in some cases quadruple, what they are currently earning. For the past two years, the Lost gang's salaries have reportedly fallen in the $20,000-$40,000 range per episode.
All surviving original cast members have been offered the same deal and are expected to take it, according to the trade paper. That includes Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), Dominic Monaghan (Charlie), Terry O'Quinn (Locke), Jorge Garcia (Hurley), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun) and Harold Perrineau Jr. (Michael).
The notable exception is for Matthew Fox, who plays the good doctor Jack Shephard, the show's nominal lead, who was offered an additional one-time bonus of at least $250,000 in addition to the salary hike.
But don't read the pay increase as a spoiler. None of the cast members are guaranteed to last through the season (see: brother-sister duo Boone and Shannon, played by Ian Somerhalder and Maggie Grace, who have already met their demise).
The pumped-up checks are said to be the first salary bump for the Lost crew, who previously received a bonus of one extra episode fee between their breakout first season and the current second one.
And along with entering a new tax bracket, the raise has placed the castaways amid another rarified group.
They now rank on par with the stars of ABC's other ratings juggernaut, Desperate Housewives. The core quartet of Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria also started off their freshman year in the $20,000-$40,000 range only to be quickly rewarded.
Like Fox, the feisty femmes all reportedly earned bonuses, of $250,000 midway through their premiere season, as well as receiving salary increases for the second season, bringing each actress' per-episode fee to the high five- to low six-figure range.
Like the Wisteria Lane ladies, the Lost gang will be raking in the dough for quite some time: The actors on Lost, which has one of the largest casts, as well as highest production values, in prime time, were automatically committed to long-term deals when they signed on to the pilot, which usually run at least five years.
The J.J. Abrams-helmed drama has been a hit since debuting in fall 2004. The first season was the second-best-selling television-based DVD of 2005, with more than 1 million units sold. This season, the show ranks as the eighth-most watched, averaging more than 16.6 million viewers per episode.
The show is also making a splash on the really small screen, leading all Disney-produced series in downloads since becoming available on Apple's iTunes store in October.
Lost Video Diaries, a spinoff series designed solely for cell phones, is set to launch later this month.
Source EONLINE