It took months of negotiations, a cancelled table read and a lawsuit but the adult cast of ABC‘s Modern Family have successfully concluded their salary renegotiations with 20th Century Fox TV. As part of that, the sextet have dropped their lawsuit against the studio, a spokesman for 20th TV confirmed. Filming on the fourth season premiere will begin on Monday as scheduled with co-creator Steven Levitan directing.
Related: Are ‘Modern Family’ Actors Nearing Salary Agreement?
The conclusion comes after a big meeting with all parties after the rescheduled table read yesterday, in which 20th TV presented the actors with a new offer, higher than the $150,000 an episode for Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet and Sofia Vergara, which the quintet rejected on Sunday. (They originally had been seeking $200,000 an episode, up from the $65,000 an episode each of them made most recently.) I hear the final salary is in the $170,000-180,000 an episode range for this coming season with bigger year-to-year increases than the previously offered rise to a $325,000 in Season 9, and a small piece of the series’ lucrative back-end. Ed O’Neill, who was at a little over $100,000 an episode and already had back-end participation, negotiated separately but joined his colleagues in their lawsuit out of solidarity. As is the practice in salary renegotiations, the cast have agreed to add another year to their seven-year contracts in exchange for bigger paychecks. The news came during ABC’s all-star party where Modern Family co-creator Steve Levitan hinted at the pending resolution. “I think it will be settled extremely shortly, maybe even before I get my car,” he said. Word of the agreement started coming in a few minutes later. Levitan later explained that things were getting very close at 6:30 PM when he was leaving the office to come to the party. “I’m extremely relieved that the distraction is over, and I’m happy to get back to work on Monday,” he said, declining to elaborate whether he and fellow profit participants contributed to the actors’ back-end share.
The renegotiation drama was watched closed by the reps for the kids who co-star on the series. They will go in next the way The Big Bang Theory‘s supporting players renegotiated their salaries after stars Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco and Jim Parsons completed their deals.