'Friends' extends
Cast of NBC hit, WB ink $200 mil, 2-yr. Deal
NBC and Warner Bros. Television can breathe easy: They've still got a few "Friends."
Ending months of oft-frenzied industry speculation and nearly non-stop media coverage, WBTV early Sunday inked a two-year, $200 million-plus pact locking in the six stars of the hit NBC laffer "Friends" for 48 more segs over two seasons.
Deal will pay each thesp $750,000 per seg to remain with the skein -- six times the $125,000 an episode each actor gets now. In addition, the stars will see their share of WBTV's "Friends" syndie backend profit increase; they'll also see more of that coin sooner.
The cast members' percentage of syndication cash remains relatively small according to sources, but the increase was characterized as "large" in relation to what they had been getting.
Mucho millions
Overall, industry insiders said the pact will pay each cast member $40 million over two years, counting both salary and backend advances.
NBC and WBTV last summer hammered out a deal to keep "Friends" on the Peacock for two more seasons at a $5 million per seg pricetag (Daily Variety, July 21, 1999). Pact, however, was contingent on the studio delivering the entire cast.
Warner Bros.' initial proposal would have given the "Friends" cast $700,000 each per episode. With negotiations dragging on, NBC earlier this month agreed to increase its per-seg license fee for "Friends," paying WBTV a few hundred thousand dollars more each week in cost coverages. Studio is still footing the lion's share of the cast members' extra coin.
That allowed Warner Bros. to broaden its offer to $750,000 each per episode -- a fee still lower than the $1 million per episode that the "Friends" reps had been pushing.
When a cast deal still hadn't been reached by Friday, Peacock brass gave WBTV a Sunday deadline (noon PST) to settle with the thesps.
Line in the sand
On Saturday at 4 p.m. ET, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, WBTV drew a line in the sand. Final offer: $750,000 per Friend, per episode.
After a few calls back and forth, as the "Friends" reps pushed and prodded for additional concessions, the studio and NBC made it clear that they were prepared to lose the show.
Indeed, the network had even begun preparing for the end of "Friends," cutting promo spots (which will now, obviously, never air) hyping this week's "Friends" as the show's final hurrah. Spots were set to air during NBC's Sunday coverage of the NBA playoffs.
Accord finally came at midnight Saturday PST, just 12 hours before the time NBC said it would walk away from the show.
WBTV topper Peter Roth called the new deal "fair and reasonable."
"I think everyone wanted in their heart of hearts to make it work, be treated fairly and be compensated equitably," he said. "In the final analysis, this was a true win-win for everyone."
NBC Entertainment prexy Garth Ancier said NBC was "more than pleased" that "Friends" would be back.
"This is our Mother's Day gift to America," he said.
Despite the hoopla surrounding the negotiations, sources said that in the end the debate was as much about money as whether or not the "Friends" stars wanted to continue with the series for another two years.
Future in features
According to sources close to the negotiations, leading the charge to end the series were Lisa Kudrow, who has a burgeoning feature career in the works, and David Schwimmer. The other cast members, including Jennifer Aniston, were ready to return.
The new deal means "Friends" will stick around through seasons seven and eight (through 2001-2002). "Friends," which debuted in fall 1994, is the No. 1 comedy in primetime, averaging a 10.3 Nielsen rating among adults 18 to 49 and 20.4 million viewers this season.
The series, which also stars Courtney Cox Arquette, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry, is executive produced by Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, as well as Greg Malins.
