The entire adult cast of Modern Family (Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Ed O’Neill, and Sofia Vergara) are taking a major stand against their studio 20th Century Fox over money issues.
Ed O’Neill, who was the only major star when the series got started, makes $100,000 and episode, and the others make $60,000. They reportedly want around $200,000 now. (TV star problems, most average people would be happy to make $60,000 a year, but then again, the average person doesn’t have millions of people watching them, which in turn, funnels millions of dollars in revenue to the studios and networks.)
Everyone (except O’Neill, who has a different contract) is already suing 20th Century to get out of their contracts (they say they violate California’s Seven-Year Rule,) and now they refused to show up for the first day of table reads for the new season to show they mean business.
A rep for ABC says: “We can confirm that today’s table read has been canceled. No other comment at this time.”
Modern Family’s a popular AND award winning show. Do you think they’ll cave?
UPDATE: The adult cast have struck a deal, and the lawsuit was dropped. Executive producer Christopher Lloyd told E!:
It’s not a surprise. It’s a distraction that has gone away. It’s not a particularly pleasant thing but a necessary hurdle when you’re on a long running show. It didn’t last that long and we’re ready to get back to the fun of our job, which is a really fun job.”
