Fox President Of Alternative Programming Mike Darnell To … 
FIRST BOX OFFICE: ‘Fast & Furious 6′ Easy … 
NBC Sets Oklahoma Tornado Benefit Concert For May 29 
Cannes: Directors’ Fortnight Honors ‘Les … 
SHOCKER: Tom Cruise Exits ‘Man From … 
A+E Rebuild: BBC’s Jana Bennett To Run Bio And LMN … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Hannibal’ Hits Low, … 
‘Katie’ Shakeup: Rachel Miskowiec Replaces … 
Hammond On Cannes: French Hero Jerry Lewis On His Return To … 
Cannes: Another Jewelry Heist? $2.6M Necklace Missing After … 
Hammond On Cannes: Leo DiCaprio’s Moon Trip Tops … 
Specialty B.O. Preview: ‘Before Midnight’, … 
2012-2013 Season Network Rankings: CBS Sweeps In Final … 
Full 2012-2013 TV Season Series Rankings 
TOLDJA! Paramount Pocketing $190M From Disney For Marvel … 
‘Good Morning America’ Hits 19-Year Viewership … 
MGM Buys ‘Modern Family’ Producer Ben … 
‘Fashion Police’ Writers Chant On Picket Lines: … 
Universal Makes Seven-Figure Deal For ‘The School For … 
Steven Soderbergh Will Interrupt Retirement To Direct And … 
Cannes: EOne Announces Itself As Player In U.S. … 
I’ve confirmed that Laurence Fishburne is being paid “north of $14 million” for his CSI gig. And here the world thinks Les Moonves’ CBS Inc is flat broke. His debut on the show, which was also William Petersen’s finale, logged its best ratings since its season premiere, averaging 20.9 million viewers and a 5.8 rating/15 share among adults 18-49, easily winning its hour. Since then, it’s still a Top 5 show. Meanwhile Fishburne’s Cinema Gypsy gets a fat first look production deal with CBS Paramount TV. Former Paramount TV exec Rose Catherine Pinkney is overseeing his television arm.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
Good for Fishburne, and kudos to his agent for negotiating that deal.
Gentlemen I salute you.
best thing going on cbs right now is flying under the radar. Harper’s Globe saved my life.
After a rocky start his character is brining new life into an old show. The newbie mistakes and fumbling is getting old. I’m just waiting to he really blows a case down the road because of his newbieness. I can’t imagine they are doing this for comic effect. And if they are oy boy times are rough for this show.
Overall after losing three main characters in two seasons this show looks like it will live on. Good or bad it will live.
Love Rose Catherine. Good for both of them.
This is not good. Disproportionate pay, be it for CEO’s or for select performers is part of the problem, especially these days. Networks complain scripted shows are too expensive. Gee, wonder why. Viewers lose because there’s little choice on tv, so viewers move on, then the networks complain that tv is dead, and the downward spiral continues. People want to watch tv. There’s simply not much on anymore.
Hey where did that $14 million come from? I thought there wasn’t even two pennies to rub together for my new media residuals when I have two lines opposite Laurence Fishburne and it streams ad-supported on cbs.com.
Good for him, he earns every penny. And kudos to Rose Catherine. She is a lovely woman and deserves every success in the world.
The high ratings for his “debut” were due to the fact it was Petersen’s last episode. For the record, the ratings are off since Fishburne took over, with the exception of the Taylor Swift stunt episode.
CSI will be Law & Order in 2 years. A forgotten staple against better, fresh-er programming.
The devil made CBS pay Fishburne $14 million!
ROTFLOL!!
The devil’s list is long & hardy! LOL!!
There was a time when 20.9 wasn’t the be all and end all it is now. In its prime, ER brought in over 30 million viewers.
Not. Worth. The. Money.
i agree with peter….I planned my schedule around the change episode, but can’t get that interested in the new structure…I think what I liked about the Petersen’s crew was the subtle dynamics that developed…it made for edgy relationships which lurked under the main story lines. I can’t see that developing here, and the other lead characters wouldn’t be believable if they immediately bonded with Fishburne’s character. The rest of the show continues with excellent support in all the areas that make it so much better than the other two CSIs…Miami is so…so….Davido Caruso….not edgy, not sharp…snark..
I think Petersen will be missed, and not just by the characters in the show
So CBS stock is at $4, Les has two huge offices on the lot, Larry gets $14M and they are cutting the writing staffs on all the shows 30% and making existing ones take pay freezes? WTF????
laurence fishburne is mega. give it to him.
I don’t buy it, at least not for one season. That would mean he was making 600K+ an episode. Which he most assuredly is not. My guess is that number is for at least two seasons, guaranteed, which puts him more in the realm of 300K an episode – Charlie Sheen gets ~350K an episode on his show for example. At those numbers, it’s not unfair. The guy starred in one of the highest grossing film trilogies of all time, is a fantastic actor, and lends gravitas to whatever he is in. Good for him.
Nikki – can you clarify how many seasons/episodes that 14 million number refers too? Lotta people here with their panties in a bunch.
Gotta say that the writing on the show has significantly improved since LB came on board. Don’t get me wrong; Petersen was great, but his time was up. He made the right move.
The last two episodes were well crafted by the talent –writers, actors, directors. Great ensemble.
Worth 14 mil? I hope he’s a patriotic American who pays his fair share of taxes, and not like the unpatriotic Wesley Snipes.
How insulting to the remaining original cast of Marg, George, Paul Robert and Eric. These people have been with the show since the beginning (exception of Robert) and CBS didn’t trust that the team dynamics were strong enough to carry the show after William’s departure.
Truth is, many hardcore fans including myself are weary of CSI: Laurence Fisburne and would prefer the show be about the entire cast and the cases again.
I’m happy for Mr. Fishburne. CSI seems to be a good fit for him.
Not so certain for his production company. His creative point person has only a ton of bland urban-based “sitcoms” under her belt. Ugh!
he’s making $400,000 per episode so times that by 22 and thats $8.8 million. If it’s 24 eps than it’s 9.6 million. 26 eps it’s $10.4 million. not sure how Nikki gets to $14 million. It must include his producing deal as well and probably over a number of years.
SO what nails it. Assuming the $14M is correct, it has to be a guaranteed two year deal. $630K, $640K doesn’t make any sense. Everyone keep your poor math & populist rage in check. Now, the production deal I’d be very interested in hearing about.
Wasn’t William Peterson making about the same
Fishbourn’s pay is equaled with his commodity status to CBS, plain and simple.
But it does seem a number of people forget, or are too young to know the days when actors were paid in the thousands per episode then the hundreds of thousands per episode.
But then again, that’s when there was one Executive Producer, one Line, one UPM and staff of three or four Writers for a twenty two episode series, not the top heavy staffing all shows seem to require in today’s market.
At first the mistakes were some what funny, but come on he should be more intune with his job by now.They need to show more about therest of the team than just focusing on him, don’t get me wrong he does great on the big screen, but some actors can do both, like petersen,and some just can’t.
Fishburne’s CSI contract was roughly for a year and a half, which equates to 16 episodes this season, 24 for next season. That equates to about $350,000 per episode for 40 episodes. Petersen was pulling in about $650,000 per towards the end.
I really liked Petersen’s character on the show, but he whined so much after the Miami and New York franchises were launched that I wasn’t sorry to see him go.
I did not expect to like Fishburne’s character, couldn’t imagine how the writers would carry it off, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Laurence Fishburne is an excellent actor–he brings to much subtlety, complexity, finesse to the role–I am really impressed. I also believe his character has brought a freshness to the show–reminds us about the things we liked about CSI in the first place. (CSI’s describing why they do procedures to other seasoned CSI’s gets old–I know it’s for the audience benefit, but it still strains credibility.)