Kelly Rowland, Paulina Rubio In Talks To Join ‘X … 
Cannes: Latest Theft Affects China Film Group VP 
UPDATE: Yahoo Board OKs $1.1B Deal To Acquire Tumblr … 
‘Epic’ Toon Begins $14.5M Overseas Rollout 
Cannes: Sony Classics Wins Stateside Rights To Asghar … 
‘Fast & Furious 6′ Breaks Records In … 
Specialty Box Office: ‘Frances Ha’ Triumphs As … 
‘Saturday Night Live’ Season Finale Posts … 
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ $164.5M Global: Lower … 
Cannes: Backup Media, Memento Bring Heat To Fest Helmer Jim … 
Cannes: Sundance Selects Acquires Dardenne Brothers’ … 
Cannes: Wrekin Hill Acquires U.S. On Gabriele … 
Bill Hader’s ‘SNL’ Stefon Farewell: Video 
Cannes: The Weinstein Co. Books ‘Suite … 
BBC Confirms ‘Doctor Who’ Season 8 
Finally, Cannes Dealing! Radius-TWC Nabs Director’s … 
Hammond On Cannes: Wet Fest’s Official Competition … 
‘Vampire Academy’ Adds ‘Modern … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Shark Tank’ Finale Up, … 
Cannes: Worldview Options Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn … 
UPFRONTS 2013: The Overachievers 
EXCLUSIVE: I hear that House co-stars Robert Sean Leonard and Omar Epps have closed deals to return for the series’ upcoming eighth (and likely final) season, which is inches away from reality as a renewal agreement between Fox and House producer Universal Media Studios is being finalized tonight. Leonard, Epps and Lisa Edelstein are the three original cast members whose current deals expire at the end of this season. Edelstein’s deal is still not done, with the process delayed by the fact that she has been overseas. However, she is expected to close. Star Hugh Laurie has one more year on his three-year contract, and newer cast members, such as Olivia Wilde, also have more time on their deals.
Faced with a 15%-20% license-fee reduction sought by Fox in light of House‘s declining ratings, UMS has been looking for ways to cut above-the-line costs, including asking Leonard, Edelstein and Epps — who most recently have been making $175,000 an episode — to take both an episode and salary cut for next season. I hear the across-the-board guarantee for next season has been set at 18 episodes. I also hear that Leonard will be returning at his old salary, while Epps and Edelstein’s paychecks would go down some. UMS had been looking to close the actors ahead of signing a new license-fee agreement with Fox for what is expected to be House’s final season. That is now imminent.
TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.
Loading ...
Final season? Why? It still dominates Monday nights doesn’t it? I figured the show would go for at least 10 seasons.
It’s consistently posting series-low ratings lately.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_episodes
It hasn’t reached series low ratings yet. Those were in season 1, and were mid 2s. It did hit a season low last week (2.9), unfortunately, but it’s still winning Monday night scripted TV for it’s time slot… which tells you how much EVERYTHING has dropped.
People are switching off live TV these days and watching on DVR and online.
After watching last night’s episode it would not be a terrible thing if House went off the air. Instead of being an interesting character, House has become annoying, childish, and downright stupid. The writers of this series have played this character to its limit. Now the character just continues to repeat the same, boring, destructive actions over and over. Maybe knowing this is the final season will help House regain some of the creativity it lost in the last couple of seasons.
I agree with some of the comments regarding content. The show has gotten off-track with story-lines that are near-unbelievable and out-there.
Running his car into Cuddy’s home? No SANE PERSON would do that, not even a narcissistic doctor like “House”. Many of his antics would see him fired from his position, regardless of how “good” he is.
It’s just getting harder and harder to watch, and I can understand the drops in ratings.
Also, they should have simply kept the “honest” one, even with the return of “13″.
So, now they are bringing in the girl from “knocked-up”? Hmmmmm. It just seems doomed to fail this year. But, who knows?
Yes, some of the stories are ridiculous. It appears that the writers are at a complete loss for new ideas.
I would like to see more with the relationship between House and Wilson. As far as I’m concerned, those two are the best actors on the set. All the others are just too boring.
One more thing, why must they show so much of Hugh Laurie playing the piano, singing, etc.? O.K. so he’s a pianist with a band in real life. No need to incorporate that in any story lines.
Too bad that Lisa has left the show. Now we’re stuck with the dullest women on TV.
How does Olivia Wilde find the time to do House and have a movie career?
Have you been watching? She took the bulk of the season off, and just returned a couple of weeks ago. Amber Tamblyn was brought in as a med student.
They should have kept Amber’s character in the mix, especially with “Cuddy” leaving the show. Asking her for a paycut was a lame move. They should be punishing the writers for bad writing instead.
Thanks for this. I’ve been wondering about the show getting renewed for some time. Also, I was worried for a bit because you didn’t mention Lisa Edelstein till further down. I need her back on my screen next season for me to keep watching.
Again, thanks for the article.
Word. I will have a heart attack if she doesn’t sign a new deal, and it’s crap cutting the episode count of three ORIGINAL cast members in the final season. House doesn’t need FOUR fellows; sort that out…
Also FYI to TPTB, Taub is irritating and 13 isn’t nearly as fascinating as you insist, while the emphasis on how she’s “just like House” has gotten so heavy-handed.
Yea,no kidding. I like Taub but I find 13 a complete bore and it is heavy-handed how she is the only one that knows House. Please. Give me a break. No offense to OW but her acting ia average at best.
Why would they agree to this?
So Lisa Edelstein is coming back? I hope. She’s my favorite on the show.
Why is it probably going to be the last season???? Recently it was the most watched tv show in the world. If it’s due to tv contract network junk they had better get there crap together
i hope they give “Cuddy” a wonderful ‘boy-toy’ (like “Chase”? ) to play with next season- that would be fun to watch! Maybe giving “House” and “Wilson” time to discover how they are relevant and sexy at their age cuz i’m bored with the Vicodin. Give me my Cuddy or i’m so outta there. Give us all a season “Cuddy” in high heels! The best role model out there according to my daughters!
You sound like a high price call girl, then again that what Edelstein’s character is on that Crap show.
Great there is another season, just a little sad if it’s the last one, but we’ll see… Just hope Lisa Edelstein will renew her contract too but I find unfair if she has to agree to a salary cut
”but I find unfair if she has to agree to a salary cut”
I find unfair they treat Jennifer Morrison like garbage, that’s a real shame.
Finally! Love this show. And good for the actors for willing to take a pay cut.
House is one of the highest rated hour-longs on network TV, so why the heck would these three agree to a pay reduction?
House WAS one of the highest rated shows. During season 4, they consistently were over 15m viewers. This season, they’re lucky if they’re over 10m. And the audience for the show has been aging, so there’s less of the coveted 18-49 demo, the only one who truly matters.
Until the ratings started to fail, everybody involved got a raise and part of the syndication money. Now, they’re adjusting the costs and the pay to the current ratings.
It’s the same story as 24, except that 24 was even easier to renew as it was a Fox production. House is a Universal production, so Fox doesn’t get a cut of the international sales.
Cause the ratings have sucked this season. Next season will be worse.
Because they put house in one of the most competitive time slots opposite dancing with the stars and how i met your mother/mad love. Plus its in the lead off spot. NBC should really just pick up this show.
What are you talking about? It’s dropped like a rock this season.
Actually the big drop starte mid-season last year.
Love the show, but I can see why they’re wrapping it up. The whole “Huddy” story arc was pure “let’s connect the last two dots” desperation, is likely the reason for the low ratings, and demonstrated that they’ve now mined the concept for all it’s worth.
WHY no mention of Jesse Spencer??? Will he not be back as ‘Chase’??
I would miss him very much!
One character I would NOT miss at all is TAUB!!!
Save some $ and don’t renew his contract.
Sometimes writers don’t spell everything out in an article. You have to pick things up by inference. The contracts for Epps, Edelstein and Leonard are the only ones up for renewal at the end of this season. The inference being no other cast member’s contract is up for renewal. So, calm down, Jesse Spencer isn’t going anywhere.
$175,000 per episode for House stars…. $500.000 for Mark Harmon from NCIS… I look at these numbers and can’t believe that that idiot Charlie Sheen was getting $2 000 000 per episode. And all those other actors actually have to act. While Sheen was just laying down, sad few lines and got that check. And they pay him so much money. And that stupido was dumb enough to blew it all away.
Now if he will ever find another pilot so star in that’s maximum what he will get – $100 000 per episode.
This is why they agreed on the cuts and it doesn’t matter that the show wins its timeslot: Still an old, and REALLY expensive show that’s been posting sub-3.0 ratings. That just can’t be profitable to FOX, unless the license fee gets cut.
One thing I don’t understand is this: If the studio is the one that gets all the extra revenue, like syndication, overseas sales, DVD sales etc… and FOX only makes money out of commercials, why would they have to pay for the whole production cost, like stated in a previous article?
Indeed the ratings have dropped & even worldwide it’s dropped too. I still think they could eek out another 2seasons out of this. I should not be talking since I stopped watching the show about 2seasons ago…. I guess it all came down to money.
I’ll bet the actors are willing to take a pay cut for the last year because the royalties they’ll get for the last season once its sold into syndication would be MUCH more than what they’ll make in salary/per episode money.
This is absolutely outrageous. The writers reduced the quality of this show with their sloppy writing, but the cast has to suffer?
Lisa Edelstein is the female lead, consistently promotes the show and is one of the biggest draws internationally, and yet (presumably because she is a woman?) she is expected to be paid less than Robert Sean Leonard?
You try writing 150+ episodes of a formula show and see how fresh your writing is. Shows, like baseball players and your car, eventually get old and don’t perform the way they used to.
I respectfully disagree with that. These writers aren’t writing 150+ episodes. They are writing two episodes a year. Each. That’s six whole months to come up with witty dialogue and intelligent storylines.
And it’s not as though they haven’t had excellent material to work with – a lot of the concepts they started off with this season have been perfectly valid and interesting (such as House/Cuddy, Thirteen’s comeback, etc) but have been extremely badly executed with stereotypical dialogue and shallow exploration.
A TV show is not a “machine” it doesn’t naturally “decay”, if it’s getting worse it’s because they’re not trying hard enough.
HOUSE almost jumped the shark this season, so great as season 6 ended, so bad season 7 started. But they got it together, kind of.
It may not be an option, but why not let House have a sabathical year? Just a year off, after season 8, to start fresh in the fall of 2013 with the 9th. A show can’t run forever, but it might improve if everybody on the show gets some air, to reinvent the series.
What about Jesse Spencer? Did he alreday have a deal for season8? He got a new deal when season 6 started. For season 6-8 I think. Is he staying with the show? He must, he is my favorite!
Here’s final few episodes for next season… House becomes the patient when for some reason he’s dying.. Him and his team try to figure out whats wrong with him. Just as house figures it out he falls into a coma. The team desperately tryies to save his life but the show ends with house dying.. With him being the only one that knows why.
It’s time for the show to retire. The writers have the show in a rut. First, it’s the mysterious illness, which they treat with a variety of interventions that are invariably wrong at first, bringing the patient to death’s doorstep, after which House has his show-end revelation to save the poor patient. And House, himself, still remains a world class jerk. It was a terrible tease to pretend that he may have changed, even a smidgen enough, to give Huddy a chance.
So glad to hear it’s returning next season, I’ve really enjoyed this one, and to hear it will be with RSL, LE and OE is great. Hopefully JS will be returning too. This series deserves a planned ending, and to go out with style.
I’ll be sad to see it end when it does, but w/ HL’s comment about not planning to sign up for more seasons in the future and dropping ratings it sounds like season 8 will be it. But 8 seasons is a great run, feels right, and I rather it go out on a good note than it run until it gets canceled.
House has become a night time soap opera. Watching it now compared to seasons 1 and 2 is as different has night and day
Still one of my favorite shows. Consistently smart and entertaining.
Without Lisa Edelstein in the cast, I will not bother to watch the show. House’s latest effort to regrow muscle which turn into tumors make me wonder why Dr. Cuddy would want to be with such a stupid guy. He should know better. As 13 said, he’s an idiot. Hope he finds his brain so he’s worthy of Dr. C. She’s my fave reason to watch the show. A hot woman in her 40s isn’t a rarity but it sure is on TV.