How Much The Pitt Cast Members Make Per Episode - SlashFilm (2025)

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"The Pitt" is TV's newest and biggest hit. Premiering with a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and averaging 10 million viewers across its 14-episode season, the show is a bona fide smash according to all metrics. It's also an extremely complicated show to make, with a broad cast of characters who comprise the entire team of the hospital's emergency room.

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In many ways, the show is a throwback to network medical drama "ER" (which has been the source of a much-talked-about lawsuit), but it has innovated with certain modern touches to bring the medical drama into the 21st century. The flashiest examples are its hard-edged realism, which produces tension by accurately reflecting what being inside an emergency room is really like, as opposed to the soap opera antics of other medical dramas.

The show is also innovating behind the scenes in how it pays its cast members. Normally, actors audition for a role and once they are accepted for a part, a delicate dance of negotiations takes place between the production and the actor's agents and lawyers. It's a battle of wills that is as old as time between studios trying to pay as little as possible and actors trying to extract the maximum value for their labor. "The Pitt" is upending that with an unusual strategy that might be the future of Hollywood casting.

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Rather than negotiate individually with each cast member, "The Pitt" has pursued a fixed two-tier salary, where key roles are reportedly pegged at $50K per episode while smaller parts are offered $35K per episode with no room for negotiation. According to Deadline, this would position "The Pitt" in "the low-to-mid-range for TV salaries," with the caveat that star and executive producer Noah Wyle is not tagged to this salary limit, making him the exception to the rule.

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Sources close to the production say this model is a unique circumstance of "The Pitt's" production that necessitated a break in typical salary negotiations. For a show like "The Pitt," that boasts a sprawling cast and a "each hour is in real time structure" that necessitates them all being available at any moment, every recurring part has the potential to be seen in the background of a scene, even if they don't have any lines. Traditional actor salaries in these circumstances could balloon and make a grounded, realistic project like "The Pitt" impossible for a studio to finance. It also speeds up the casting process, allowing the production to quickly cast roles without the risk of negotiations breaking down and sending everyone back to the drawing board looking for a new actor.

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However, these same production issues also result in actors having to work far more than on a typical show. Actors on "The Pitt" reportedly work seven out of eight shooting days, which is higher than average, despite the lower-than-average salary.

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Sources say that similar models have been used traditionally for anthology and "crime of the week" roles in shows like Fox's "Accused," CBS' "Elsbeth," and Peacock's "Poker Face," where guest roles have a fixed salary associated with them that is consistent across the season. But if this model were to expand, it could radically reshape how actors are paid for their work on television, which has traditionally been one of the safest ways to make a living wage in the industry.

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In all the examples listed above, the lead of the show is not tied to a pegged salary, while their supporting and recurring cast are. In a world where studios are producing less shows with fewer episodes and lower budgets, this model threatens to create a two tiered future for Hollywood, where the name talent becomes a part of a privileged 1% able to negotiate for their fair share of a show's profits, with everyone else fighting for an ever shrinking number of roles. If you don't accept the salary offered, the production will simply move on to someone else.

In the words of one representative quoted by Deadline: "It's more about the budget than about the person." Let's hope this model stays quarantined in the emergency room.

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