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EXCLUSIVE: Showtime’s flagship drama Dexter opened its sixth season on Sunday with a stellar 2.2 million viewers, up 24% from last year to mark the hit series’ highest-rated premiere ever and Showtime’s best original series opener in at least 14 years. But the prospects of the hit drama going to a seventh season are now uncertain as negotiations between Dexter star Michael C. Hall and Showtime have broken down. I hear that the two sides reached an impasse yesterday, the same day Dexter‘s big Season 6 premiere ratings came out. Hall’s contract for Dexter is up after the current sixth season, which is about to wrap production. He has been negotiating with Showtime for a while, but I hear talks broke down after the two sides couldn’t bridge a $4 million gap in proposed salary for a new deal, with Showtime offering $20 million for two more seasons and Hall’s team asking for $24 million. Either figure would make Hall one of the highest-paid actors in cable. Sources indicate that the network brass remain hopeful about reaching a deal, with signing Hall for one more season vs. two also an option. Hall jumped on Dexter immediately after finishing Six Feet Under and, after working on a TV series for 10 straight years, the actor had been looking to do other things, including a Broadway musical. He won a Golden Globe for his role on Dexter last year.
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Kill off half (to all?) of the secondary characters and
pay him with that. This show is often great, but I’ve come to regret
not fast forwarding through the side stories since Episode One.
I (somewhat) agree. Any character that has nothing to do with Dexter’s character development (Laguerta, Batista, possibly Quin and Masuka [although I like him]) can either be killed off or have their parts reduced to recurring roles. However the problem would be getting the actors to accept a pay cut.
Laguerta (with a different first name than Maria, but the same character) was killed off in the first Jeff Lindsay novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, so she has extended her life as it is. I’d say with Deb, Dexter, Harry and Vince Masuka you have the vital players, as well as Cody and Astor. Anyone else it would be interesting (if sad) to play ten little indians with. Rita was a painful loss, but I think losing characters not named above you can still establish an “anything goes” tension again.
I agree. This sounds like a good set up.
I swear, if we don’t get a proper ending to this show…
Agreed. I want to see the other characters’ reactions when they realize Dex is a serial killer, especially when LaGuerta realizes he framed Doakes. Ideally the final episode will end with Dexter on death row.
Just for the Hall of it: get Anthony Michael to dye his hair, and call it day. One Hall is just like another.
Or Rebecca Hall. What this show needs is a British actress.
People need to keep in mind that not only is he an actor on the show, he’s also one of the producers. He’s not some douchey actor being a diva demanding more money; he wants a share in the money for a show that, in large part, depends on his executive input.
PLEASE PAY HIM! Easily the BEST show out there…The writing is terrific, but there is no show with out MCH.
Yup, as I figured, he’s just doing this for the money. He’d do 20 Dexter seasons if the money was right. The last few seasons were terrible and unmemorable. This show will probably end like Weeds, sudden and random, with no proper ending. What a shame.
Totally agree. Season 3 was crap, Season 4 was perfect (esp. the stunning performance John Lithgow) and Season 5 was even worse than S3. I recall when “24″ took a similiar path (s4 was crap, s5 brilliant and won a bunch of Emmys, s6 and beyond were crap) and never fully recovered it’s previous glory days.
he helped make dexter a hit if nothing else surely show time could come to if not the 24 million half way but pay him at least something that would make it worth him tieing himself for at least two more seasons of playing dexter.
@Ripsnorter – that was hilars…
The man will get his money, as usual for actors (and deservedly so)on which a whole series hangs on. Nice timing with the premiere too…
He’ll get the 24 Million. And to pay for it, they’ll nickel and dime the crew to death. Cut man days. Cut craft service. Cut it all but he’ll be set for life.
Dexter’s crew is some of the top people in the business. They will get work elsewhere and likely have it lined up before Dexter’s final episode wraps. It is absurd for people to factor the crew into a news report that concern’s the ACTOR’s REPS and the MONEY FOLKS at Showtime who charge prime dollar for boxed sets of Dexter and have done very well by him. Hall was quite good in Gamer and he would have been a good Riddler if Christopher Nolan was going to do a fourth Batman flick. Each actor is an entity of his/her own. Remember the terrible last season of Magnum P.I. that went into production only because of Selleck’s concern for the crew’s jobs? Very anticlimatic after the second-last season finale of his death.
For Michael C. Hall to do a Dexter feature film, the workload of two episodes of the show, nobody would blink at the star getting 24 million (whether or not some comes from a first dollar gross). Compare that with TWO SEASONS of shooting and a commitment that stalls non-Dexter roles that can help prevent typecasting and let him loose. Not sure how excited I am about broadway musicals, which to me means not logging another imdb title. But he does have options. If Dexter jumps the shark at some point, figuratively, it could hurt new prospects. If they jump the shark literally on the show, maybe a shark that has been feeding on dropped bags of body parts, that might be cool. Dexter Versus Jaws.
They need to write an episode of Dexter where he kills the cast of the Jersey Shore. and base it on a true story.
Honestly, I am ready for the show to end, hopefully sooner rather than later. It jumped the shark when they killed Rita. But I don’t want the show to end without Dexter being caught and brought to justice. Charismatic as he may be, he still is a serial killer and should go to prison for his crimes.
I think MCH’s lawyer is out of her mind. It does not pull huge #’s.
If they pay him 500K an ep he should be jumping. This is not The Sopranos. It does not have that broad appeal. Pay the MCH and the cast
and call it a day.
The reps for MCH are money grubbing whores. They should be careful.
They don’t even get him movies!
Why are they even trying to make 2 more seasons?!?! This show has been dragging on for too long. It should end with the 6th!!
Three words…PAY THE MAN. He deserves it, esp. delivering those stellar, physically and emotionally draining performances while beating cancer, getting divorced and god knows what else.
When someone reaches the $10M/year compensation level, an additional $2M each year is not going to make any difference to them. He clearly does not want to continue with the show. He will not be happy continuing even if he gets his meaningless additional $4M, so Showtime may as well hold out and save the money, because his attitude is going to drag the coming seasons down either way. It happens all the time. Actors kill the golden goose because they’re bored and petulant.
Normally, I would say that 24 million is excessive for any actor to get but since MCH is one of the executive producers as well as the star, I say show him the money! IMO, I’d like to see one final season end with a final scene in which the entire department realizes that Dexter is a serial killer.
MCH is the face of the show. The audience isn’t sitting there thinking while Dexter kills someone, “I wonder if the 1st A.D. eating peanuts from craft services as they film?”
Crew belong in a UNION… they are well paid and will find other work.
thats not that much…a million an episode? im sure they will figure it out..not worried
Why not offer 22 million? Everyone wins.
Don’t forget that Michael C. Hall has also battled cancer over the last few years. That may add to his perspective in addition to his career plans.
Michael C. Hall is a very good actor and I do truly understand being paid what you’re worth, but as I think about my job as a schoolteacher, all my student loans and other bills and the like…all I can think is $20 million?? Dude, take the money, shut up and get to work!
Compromise here…they want to give him 20 mil, Hall wants 24…go in between…22 million total. That should satisfy both parties.
Chris Meloni got $1 million an episode for Law and Order his last season; Hall is worth twice that much for what he puts into Dexter. 2.2 million is Showtime’s biggest opener ever. I will definitely cancel Showtime if they don’t bring Dexter back.
Rich, you are quite wrong. Remind me not to get my news from you.
Don’t compare your salary to his. This is a matter of corporate network executives sitting on their fat greedy asses making their multi-millions on the backs of the working man. I watch Dexter for the writing and the performances not because of the suits. Yes, you deserve to be paid a lot more as a teacher but don’t reward the avarice of the scumbags because you’re underpaid.