14 DAY TRIAL // Not even a show as successful as “The Simpsons” is safe when it comes to cutting production costs. Fox and the actors who voice the main characters on the beloved series can’t reach an understanding regarding their salaries, and the show is in serious danger of being axed.
In a bid to cut down on expenses, Fox went to the actors and told them a drastic 45 percent cut in their pay would be operated, The Daily Beast informs.
Because they naturally didn’t want that to happen, the actors asked the studio to make the cut of just 30 percent and to offer them instead a tiny fraction of the show’s back-end profits, which amount to billions.
“For the first time in nearly a quarter century of haggling, the executives have insisted that if the cast doesn’t accept a draconian 45 percent pay cut, The Simpsons will die an abrupt death as a first-run series,” the publication reports.
Fox has already turned down the actors’ offer of giving them back-end profits – an expected decision, since that would have actually meant an increase in their salary and not a cut.
“The pay-cut ultimatum was delivered Monday evening as Fox spurned the actors’ proposal, delivered late last week, to take a cut of around 30 percent in exchange for a tiny percentage of the show’s huge back-end profits – amounting to untold billions – from syndication around the globe and merchandising of Simpsons clothing, lunchboxes, stamps, DVDs, a feature film, and videogames, among other paraphernalia,” TDB says.
In other words, instead of letting the actors have a share of the multi-billion dollar business that “The Simpson” is, Fox would rather it pulled the plug on the show, because it’d still come out winning at the end.
A spokesperson for the network, though, insists there’s still a chance a compromise will be made.
“23 seasons in, The Simpsons is as creatively vibrant as ever and beloved by millions around the world. We believe this brilliant series can and should continue, but we cannot produce future seasons under its current financial model,” the rep says.
“We are hopeful that we can reach an agreement with the voice cast that allows The Simpsons to go on entertaining audiences with original episodes for many years to come,” adds the publicist.