The President of CBS, Glenn Geller said the network would be pleased to have more seasons of The Big Bang Theory. The announcement came this Wednesday at the Television Critics Association in Beverly Hills.
The network is currently working on the 10th season of the sitcom produced by Warner Bros. Television, to be broadcasted in the 2016-2017 season on TV.
The cast contracts with the studios end with the upcoming season, but if new deals between the cast and CBS successfully happen, the fans can expect to have more The Big Bang Theory for a couple of years.
Geller did not offer a date for the talks between the cast and the studios.
What could a renewal of the series mean for CBS?
The series is the last sitcom of the studios to have ratings similar to the time before the growth of online streaming.
The Big Bang Theory managed to have 20.3 million viewers through the 9th season and a rating of 5.8 of the audience between 18 years old t o 49 years old. It is one of the few shows that still generates good ratings when it repeats an episode.
The license fee for the studios to broadcast the show is almost $7 million per half-hour (Or one episode), this means that it cost over three times the price of what the network is willing to pay for a first-season sitcom.
The Big Bang Theory gets so much audience, that it would still have value for the studios even if one of the lead characters leave the show. A renewal of the contracts could be expensive, but it is still a very profitable show for CBS.
There have already been contracting renewals before, making the cost of the show go up. Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, and Johnny Galecki gain over $1 million per episode.
Breaking Bad actor to appear in multiple episodes
The star of Breaking Bad, Dean Norris, will appear in the first three episodes of the 10th season.
He will play Captain Williams, an Air Force representative interested in the gyroscope the scientists proposed in season 9, for military applications. In the final episode of the previous season, Wolowitz was preoccupied about the Air Force spying on them because of their project.
“THAT STORYLINE IS CERTAINLY NOT FINISHED. THEY HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO SEE WHAT THE AIR FORCE WANTS AND THEN GO FROM THERE”, said executive producer Steve Molaro to Entertainment Weekly.
The 10th and, for now, last season of The Big Bang Theory will air Monday, September 19.
Source: Los Angeles Times