#SuckADeek.✨

Jim Parsons was making $1 MILLION per episode on The Big Bang Theory when executives asked him and four co-stars to give up $100,000 each so Amy and Bernadette could get raises The cast eventually agreed, but the show's creator has now revealed that the negotiations weren't nearly as smooth as people thought. Back in 2017, Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch were earning around $200,000 per episode, compared with $1,000,000 for the show's five highest-paid actors Executives proposed cutting $100,000 from each of those five salaries, freeing up $500,000 per episode to help increase the two actresses' pay When news of the agreement came out, it was widely reported as a generous gesture by the original cast. but in his October 2026 memoir, creator Chuck Lorre recalled that the actors were initially outraged at being asked to take a 10% pay cut. According to Lorre, the executives left that first meeting without a deal. The cast eventually accepted the cuts, reducing their reported salaries to around $900,000 per episode Bialik and Rauch went on to negotiate new contracts worth roughly $500,000 each per episode, more than double their previous salaries!