Blue Bloods Cast Agreed to 25% Pay Cut to Save the Show: How Much Do They Lose?
Rejoice, Blue Bloods fans: the show was officially renewed for season 14, so the Reagan family stays with us for at least one more season!
However, as we wrote earlier this month, it did in fact come at a steep price: the main renewal blocker was budget, and the showrunner had to find a way around this problem. And they did.
We know that CBS decided to go the most obvious route — cast and production team pay reduction, but we are yet to learn if they cut the budget on anything else like we were thinking.
To ensure the Blue Bloods ' survival, both the actors and the crew accepted quite a pay cut: now, they'll be paid 25% less! But how much money are they losing?
Note: our calculations are based on the reported earnings per episode for each actor and the assumption that season 14 will have 20 episodes.
Tom Selleck ( Frank Reagan), who was earning $200k per episode, will be missing out on around $1M for the new season.
For Donnie Wahlberg (Danny Reagan), whose previous salary was $150k per episode, the losses in season 14 will sum up to $750K.
Bridget Moynahan (Erin Reagan Boyle) was getting $100K per episode before the pay cut, but now she'll receive $500K less at the end of the next season.
And the list goes on, but you get the picture.
As you can see, the cast members are losing some serious money to make sure Blue Bloods survives and appears on our screens again this fall.
But let's not forget that the actors are not the only ones whose salaries got cut.
The production team will also get 25% less next season, and while their losses won't look as impressive as the cast's, they're also earning far less than the actors, so they'll feel the difference much more.
So we should be thankful to all of them for agreeing to the channel's terms… And happy to have at least one more season of Blue Bloods this fall!