EXCLUSIVE: ABC’s Abbott Elementary has been hailed for assembling one of the strongest comedy casts on television. The group, who won the 2022 SAG Award for comedy series ensemble, are being rewarded for the show’s success with major salary increases heading into Season 4.
The six original Abbott Elementary series regular cast members, creator Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter and Chris Perfetti have renegotiated their contracts with the series’ lead studio, Warner Bros. Television, all securing big pay bumps, sources tell Deadline.
Emmy and Golden Globe winner Brunson, who is under an overall deal at Warner Bros. TV that covers her services as executive producer on Abbott Elementary, will have an acting salary in the $350,000-$400,000 range per episode this coming season as she continues to play idealistic young teacher Janine Teagues, I hear.
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Williams, who received a Golden Globe for his role as Gregory Eddie, and Ralph, who won an Emmy for playing Barbara Howard, will be at $250,000 per episode, while James (Ava Coleman), Walter (Melissa Schemmenti,) and Chris Perfetti (Jacob Hill) will be making $200,000 an episode, I hear.
The percentage salary increases are said to be in the triple digits, doubling and sometimes tripling the actors’ previous paychecks.
William Stanford Davis, who plays Mr. Johnson, is not on the same track as he started as a recurring before getting promoted to series regular in Season 2. Still, I hear he also has received a generous raise, going up to $100K an episode.
Reps for ABC, Warner Bros. TV and co-producer 20th Television declined comment.
TV actors sign multi-year contracts (usually for six seasons) when they get cast in a new series. They are not contractually entitled to additional salary increases and are obligated to continue to work under the original deal terms but it is customary for studios to reward the casts of high-performing series after Season 2 with a pay bump in exchange for an additional year added to their contracts.
The timing for such renegotiations has been fluctuating, getting increasingly pushed back. The two strongest broadcast comedy series to launch over the past couple of years, Abbott Elementary and CBS’ Ghosts, both premiered in fall 2021. As Deadline reported exclusively in December, the actors from Ghosts renegotiated their contracts after Season 2, with leads Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar doubling their salaries to $250,000 an episode and the rest of the cast seeing their paychecks double or almost triple to $100,000 an episode.
At the time I’d heard reps for the Abbott Elementary cast had made inquiries and had been told that for that show, salary renegotiations would commence after the abbreviated third season. (All broadcast series produced short orders for 2023-24 because of the strikes.)
Underscoring Abbott Elementary‘s status of a flagship ABC series, it was the network’s first show to get a renewal this year, getting a Season 4 pickup in February, shortly after Season 3 premiered as the comedy’s strongest multi-platform opener yet with 5.91 million total viewers and a 1.84 rating among adults 18-49 in MP+3. Abbott Elementary‘s second season drew a 3.56 18-49 rating in the 35-day viewing window, the strongest season average for an ABC comedy since the 2019-2020 season.
The elementary school comedy also is the only current scripted broadcast series to have a significant — and consistent — presence in the major awards races, winning multiple Emmys and Golden Globes, with Brunson, Williams, Ralph and James all scoring Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.