So Warner Bros filed in LA Superior Court seeking $49M over its agreement to give CBS options to order its Two And A Half Men for a 5th and 6th season. CBS, which airs the series, agreed that if it exercised those options and the show was a hit, the network would pay back at least some deficit financing incurred by Barry Meyer and company over the first 4 seasons as well as pay premiums on the 5th and 6th year license fees. There’s no question that 2.5 Men has, by any measure, been a hit for Les Moonves et al for the last 4 years as well as broadcast TV’s No. 1 sitcom. So Warner Bros wants its dough, claiming that CBS has refused to pay even a portion of what was agreed. Oh, I love it when Big Media stop colluding and start to sue one another. I’ll read through the lawsuit later for any juicy bits.
Warner Bros Slaps CBS With Lawsuit Over Deficit Financing Of ‘Two And A Half Men’
By NIKKI FINKE | Wednesday December 24, 2008 @ 12:05pm PSTTags: Law
This article was printed from http://www.deadline.com/2008/12/warner-bros-slaps-cbs-with-lawsuit-over-deficit-financing-for-two-and-a-half-men/
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“So Warner Bros wants its dough, claiming that CBS has refused to pay even a portion of the sums it agreed to. ”
And so do the actors, writers, directors, crew….
I wonder if this means the WB will ever pay the woman who created Charmed all the back-end money they owe her? Fair is fair, right? (Or is that only if you have the lawyers of a large corporation on your side?)
Michelle — Warner Bros. didn’t produce “Charmed,” I believe Spelling (now a part of CBS Paramount) did. In that case, CBS Par is your villain.
CBS not pay! what a surprise. It is surprising the industry let’s CBS get away with not paying Actors on hit shows what they would make on other Networks. Along, with not paying other vendors or production companies on time or all the money. They always pay 50% of what is owed and then figure if it goes to court they will never have to pay the full amount. It is getting embarrassing.