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BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE: DAILY BRIEFING | |||||||||||
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BW ONLINE DAILY BRIEFING |
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It'll Cost NBC Plenty to Keep Its Friends Happy The slipping network may have little choice but to fork over big bucks to keep the show going What does it take to maintain a hit TV show? For NBC, the tab to keep Friends on Thursday nights after this season is likely to reach $220 million for two more seasons. That's the buzz out of Hollywood, where renewal time is fast approaching for the coming season in September. Friends has been one of the strongest performers this year for NBC, which has seen other parts of its vaunted Thursday night lineup fall in a gradual decline. Rivals smell blood. For the coming season, almost all of the networks have taken aim at NBC's longtime Thursday night stronghold. Fox intends to move some of its hotter shows, including its animated hit King of the Hill, to Thursday nights, and both CBS and ABC are beefing up their lineups that night. Even the sickly UPN has decided to take on NBC's weaker-than-usual Thursday night lineup with a two-hour professional wrestling block. CHART TOPPERS. The Friends deal would pay sitcom producer Warner Brothers $5 million a week for each episode. That would put it right behind Seinfeld, which cost the network $5.5 million a week for its final season in 1997. The champion remains ER, the hour-long drama for which NBC currently pays $13 million an episode. NBC now pays $3 million a week for Friends. The deal being contemplated would extend Friends through the 2001-02 season. The show is in the last year of its existing five-year contract. Still to be worked out, however, are individual deals with the show's six stars. At present, the leads get $100,000 an episode. They're likely to ask for significant increases. Hollywood sources have put their asking price at $250,000 an episode. Last season, Friends ranked second behind only ER among all shows. Moreover, while overall ratings at NBC declined greatly, Friends lost only 1% of its viewership. By Ronald Grover in Los Angeles
EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT
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