The Big Bang Theory Production Resumes, Characters May Have Been Written Off If Not For New Deal

Today's table read for the season premiere of CBS's The Big Bang Theory will take place as scheduled after the remaining members of the principal cast negotiated new deals and the series resumed production late yesterday, Variety reports.

Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar were the final hold-outs after the series' three biggest names (Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons and Kaley Cuoco) got massive, Friends-sized salary upgrades yesterday morning.

Helberg and Nayyar will reportedly make somewhere in the the mid six-figure range per episode, from around $100,000. That closes the gap significantly with the "big three," who were offered a million or so each in their new deals. According to Variety, the two actors negotiated via an actor who tried to get them salary parity with the main stars, but Warner Bros. Television wasn't interested and ultimately made them a take-it-or-leave-it offer that turned into the final contracts.

Their characters reportedly would have been written out of the series if a deal could not be reached. The report further claims that, at least for the first episode, such a move was a real possibility, not a negotiating tactic, with Executive Producer and creator Chuck Lorre among those so exasperated by prolonged contract negotiations that he was willing to do whatever he felt he had to in order to move along today's table read. Presumably, writing them out of the premiere wouldn't necessarily have removed the characters altogether if they could have come to a quick deal in time for next week.

Still, Lorre is famous for being somewhat intransigent. He wrote Charlie Sheen out of Two and a Half Men at a time when it was the highest-rated sitcom on TV after a series of interpersonal and professional conflicts with the star.