2. Helen Hunt
Project: Mad About You
Proposed Salary: $100,000 per episode*
Outcome: Agreed
Mad About You was a top-rated sitcom that generated significant advertising money for the network. It ensures hundreds of millions of dollars in profit from reruns and original episodes in the years after its premiere. Helen Hunt and Paul Riser, the show’s two primary stars, would have been nothing if it hadn’t been for their contributions.
Riser and Hunt sought a substantial salary as a thank you for their assistance in getting the sitcom off the ground. The network eventually agreed, offering each of them $100,000 every episode in exchange for their cooperation. Although it is not the $1 million per episode that the Big Bang Theory comedy stars would receive decades later, these upstart actors struck a good deal for themselves in the mid-1990s.
2. Helen Hunt
3. Simon Cowell
Project: American Idol
Proposed Salary: $35 million per season*
Outcome: Agreed
In addition to being one of the most popular talent competition shows on television, American Idol and comparable shows like the Got Talent and X-Factor series have generated billions of dollars in revenue. For the first five seasons of American Idol, the show’s infamously sarcastic judge Simon Cowell had a consistent presence.
As an introductory offer, he demanded substantial compensation. From the beginning, he earned $35 million per season, which distinguished him from his colleague’s judges, who made only $5 million per season. After season five, he quit the show, which was the end of his contract, due to an unspecified disagreement between him and the executive producer, Simon Fuller.
3. Simon Cowell
