‘The Big Bang Theory’ season 8: Addressing misconceptions with cast contract dispute

Over the past few weeks, the internet has certainly exploded when it comes to stories related to “The Big Bang Theory” and the current cast dispute that is going on … but the irony is that a good bit of the information that is out there is not entirely true.

With that in mind, let’s go through a list now of some of the crazy rumors that we’ve heard in regards to the show, and also whether or not there is any sort of truth to them.

1. The cast wants “Friends” money

Not entirely true. While the big three of Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, and Johnny Galecki are asking for around $1 million an episode, Adjusting for inflation, though, the “Friends” cast would be getting close to $1.3 million an episode today. Pretty big difference.

Also, the “Friends” cast received a substantial pay raise a season earlier in season 7 … even though they did not get to that $1 million level until seasons 9 and 10.

2. This money is unheard of since “Friends”

Charlie Sheen was making well upwards of this salary in his final seasons on “Two and a Half Men,” and while there are more cast members here, this show does just as well in syndication.

3. This is Hollywood greed at its worst

Think about this for a minute. If the cast wasn’t getting these ratings, really you would just be giving studios and executives a whole lot more money. It’s not like this spare cash would be all dispersed evenly to the crew if it wasn’t spent on the cast.

4. This is going to cause serious problems with season 8

We doubt that very much. The cast doesn’t want to miss work; they’re missing money when that happens, and they don’t want to have a publicity nightmare on their hands. The sides are closer in negotiations than they were earlier in the summer, and we expect a deal to be done in plenty of time. The worst-case scenario we see is the order getting reduced to 22 episodes instead of 24, and we’re not even at that point just yet. If production resumes Wednesday, we could still have 24 and at the very least 23.

5. Everyone is holding out

Not true. Mayim Bialik (Amy) and Melissa Rauch (Bernadette) are technically under contract still.

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Photo: CBS