10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

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  • 28 Apr, 2016  |
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You're going to be shocked when you find out just how expensive it is to bring all of these TV shows to life.

Terra Nova
$4 million/episode
Fox skipped the standard practice of ordering just one pilot episode to start out and went for the whole shebang- 13 episodes, including a $14 million premiere. The sets and special effects proved way too expensive for the network to keep going with the Australia-based show however, and it probably won’t return to the small screen.



1 10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

Deadwood
$4.5 million/episode
HBO really went for it with this show; they actually created an real old west town instead of just building-front sets.


2 10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

Boardwalk Empire
$5 million/episode
The pilot episode cost $18 million, since they recreated a 1920s Atlantic City boardwalk. They had authentic music, cars, clothes, and guns all from the days of the flappers. Not to mention it was directed by Martin Scorsese.


3 10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

Frasier
$5.2 million/episode final season
NBC didn’t have the luxury of contract negotiations with Kelsey Grammer, seeing as he was already established with the network. By the 11th season of the show he was making $1.6 million an episode, equaling 30% of the total budget. Even the dog who played Eddie made $10,000 an episode.


4 10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

Camelot
$7 million/episode
Heavy promotion, big budgets and good pre-launch reviews couldn’t save this expensive show from its downfall. The first episode aired only 2 months after a little show called Game of Thrones, and fans of knights and sword-fighting had their appetites satisfied. It was canceled after the first season.


5 10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

Marco Polo
$9 million/episode
With a budget of $90 million for the 10-episode 1st season, Marco Polo was a giant gamble for Netflix. Luckily for fans season 2 will premiere this year.


6 10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

Friends
$10 million/episode in final season
The cast banded together and demanded to be paid at the same rate, making their work environment more harmonious. By the final season they were each earning $1 million per episode which was 60% of the per episode budget.


7 10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

Rome
$10 million/episode
Overlapping Deadwood by one season, HBO had the tricky situation of airing 2 super expensive shows at once. Luckily they partnered with BBC who contributed 15% of the cost in exchange for the airing rights for the UK. The show won 7 Emmys and was loved by critics and historians alike, but after 2 seasons it was cancelled due to the growing lengths that had to be made to keep it as accurate as possible.

They couldn’t even use the Roman set for other future projects because a fire destroyed part of it.


8 10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

Game of Thrones
$10 million/episode
This season has its biggest budget yet. The episodes may even go over the budget, seeing as it promises the biggest battle scene in the show’s history. Get excited.


9 10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

ER (1998-1999)
$13 million/episode
This little hospital show starring George Clooney was obviously a gigantic hit for NBC. When Clooney’s movie career took off the show faced losing their bread and butter. NBC agreed to a gigantic 2-year budget to pay the salary while keeping up with explosive nature of the big episodes.
This was seen as a big mistake, and the show lost 15% of its ratings for those 2 seasons, and Clooney ended up leaving in 1999 anyways. I guess this is a prime example that money doesn’t solve everything.


10 10 Of The Most Expensive TV Shows To Ever Hit The Small Screen (10 pics)

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№1 Author: MWarrior (28 Apr 2016 04:04) Total user comments: 1024


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So Game of Thrones is $10 million per episode, which includes the enormous cast, their salaries, their travel expenses everywhere, and costumes. Then there's the production crew and equipment, prop department, graphic artists, CGI budget, musical score, etc.

And Friends, a show off the air for 12 years and at 1/3 of the running time per episode (GoT is a solid hour due to no commercials) and had only 6 regular cast members, the same three sets, and also cost $10 million per episode.

HBO really knows how to stretch a buck.

Also, this list states that the show budget includes salaries, and the cast of The Big Bang Theory collectively makes over $8.75 million dollars per episode*. It didn't make the list, but Terra Nova's 4 million dollar budget did. I know it's picky, but it's not a correct list if they're just leaving things out.

*http://www.people.com/article/friends-big-bang-theory-cast-salaries-instagram
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№2 Author: Glen Coco (28 Apr 2016 04:30) Total user comments: 125


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Correct me if I'm but I remember viewing another post on AC and it said that Got cost 28 mil per episode.
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