'Big Bang' Co-Star Simon Helberg Gets Big Salary Bump; No Deal For Kunal Nayyar Yet

UPDATED: Simon Helberg will have a lot more money to buy those bright-colored turtlenecks. The Big Bang Theory co-star has just landed a big raise from the series’ producer Warner Bros. TV. I hear Helberg’s new salary is in the range of $100,000-$125,000 an episode, up from the roughly $40,000 he is currently making. Helberg and fellow co-star Kunal Nayyar entered salary re-negotiations shortly after series’ leading trio, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, and Jim Parsons finished theirs in September, netting identical salary increases from about $60,000 last season to $250,000 in Season 5, $300,000 in Season 6 and 350,000 in Season 7, in addition to a piece of the CBS series’ backend. With Helberg set, Nayyar remains the only Big Bang cast member who has not reached an agreement with Warner Bros. for a new higher salary. I hear such deal is expected and, just like with Parsons, who held out for more money before accepting the terms of the studio’s final offer that Galecki and Cuoco had agreed on, if he doesn’t, his re-negotiations may be tabled until the summer. That would leave Nayyar at the current salary of about $25,000 per episode. It is not clear if Warner Bros. offered Helberg and Nayyar “favored nations”-type deals with equal financial terms the way it did with Galecki, Cuoco and Parsons. While not featured as prominently as Galecki, Cuoco and Parsons early on, Helberg has grown into a key cast member and a regular scene stealer. In a testament to his character’s increased importance on Big Bang, Melissa Rauch, who plays his character’s girlfriend, was recently upped to a regular on the show.

Big Bang, now in its fourth season, has successfully relocated to Thursday where it has ranked as the top program of the night in adults 18-49 for the past five weeks. In May, the ensemble comedy landed a blockbuster syndication deal that netted Warner Bros. $2+ million per episode.