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Why They Almost Had To Replace The Entire Friends Cast
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Aug 6, 2025
Friends is without a doubt one of the most successful sitcoms in television history. Most of that success is due in part to the absolutely perfect cast of Friends. Though as the seasons went on, and the show became more successful, the studio wasn't willing to pay the full cast their fair share. So it came down to paying the cast of Friends what they were worth, or potentially firing two of the main cast members.
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Do you guys ever get the feeling that Chandler and those guys just don't get that we don't make
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as much money as they do? This is Friends, and it's arguably one of the most popular sitcoms
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of all time. Audiences would tune in week after week to watch the antics of Chandler and Joey
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the eccentric behaviors of Phoebe, the ambitious career undertakings of Monica, and the will-they-won't-they relationship drama between Ross and Rachel. This all nearly came to
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a screeching halt when contract negotiations became increasingly hostile during the show's
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later seasons. Some of the cast came dangerously close to losing their roles on the show
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and Friends, as a whole, was nearly cancelled entirely. It's like they're always saying, let's go here, let's go there. Like, we can afford to go here
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and there. Friends was seemingly an overnight success. If you grew up in the 90s, you're well
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aware that it's legitimately difficult to remember a time when this show did not exist
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Welcome to the real world. It sucks. You're going to love it
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The pilot episode aired on September 22nd, 1994 to a crowd of about 20 million viewers
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And those numbers remained consistent until the show's final episode, which aired 10 years later
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in 2004 to a crowd of over 50 million people. The success of Friends can really be chalked up
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to the inimitable chemistry in the way the performers interact with one another. And
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chemistry can be an extremely powerful bargaining chip when it comes time to get new contracts signed
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I guess I just never think of money as an issue. That's because you have it
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That's a good point. For the first season of Friends, each cast member was paid a modest $22,500 per episode
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This seems like a fairly reasonable price forecast of relatively unknown performers venturing into the proverbial dice roll that is a television show's first season
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This started to take some turns toward the inequitable in the show's second season
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By the start of season two it was well established that David Schwimmer Ross and Jennifer Aniston Rachel were going to be the primary focal point of the show the leads if you will This led to the two of them getting a significantly larger
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pay bump than the rest of the cast. How about we'll each just pay for what we had, OK
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It's no big deal. Not for you. Schwimmer and Aniston were each paid $40,000
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for the performances in Friends' second season. Also included in this pay rate was Courtney Cox
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who had a Fonzie deal built into her contract, which basically stated that nobody on the show could make more than her
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However, the rest of the cast's salary remained stagnant at the previous rate
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We don't have as much money as you. Okay. I hear you. We can talk about that
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Well then, let's... Due to the popularity of Friends and the frenzied obsession over the relationship between Ross and Rachel
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movie offers began pouring in for both Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer
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Their respective agents thought that by Ross and Rachel emerging as the leads of the show
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it made sense that they should be asking for more money in order to remain on the show
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and not pursue these other opportunities. According to statements made by both Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox
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this didn't feel fair to the rest of the cast. We all felt 100%
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We're all doing the exact same amount of work. We all felt that way. It was actually David Schwimmer who developed the idea for the cast to band together
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to negotiate their new salaries in an equitable manner. This is known as collective bargaining, which can be defined as negotiation of wages and other conditions of employment by an organized body of employees
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The idea being that a stronger negotiation could be made together rather than on an individual basis
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The agreement made with the network was that every member of the principal cast would be paid $75,000 per episode, regardless of story importance or screen time, as Friends entered its third season
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We just have to really, really, really not let stuff like this about money get like..
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Is that a hickey? The cast also discovered that their negotiations could be strengthened by beginning them toward the tail end of the season Waiting until that time meant that writers would be operating under the intense pressure of having to scrap together a lackluster ending to the series should negotiations go sour
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And there was no way NBC was going to break their audience's trust in that way
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They felt that since they were doing all the same amount of work, they should all be getting
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paid the same. Courtney Cox has stated in interviews that literally the entire cast felt that way, and
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not one of them would budge. I thought it was the most important thing, as we all did, that we all were equal in every single way
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There were no men, no women, no leads, no supporting performers, just six people who wanted six equal salaries
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By the time negotiations for the fourth season rolled around, things began to get a little ugly between the studio and the cast
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The cast was demanding $100,000 per person per episode, and the studio was attempting to put their foot down
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The cast had two things going for them at the time. One was that they had all banded together so they were negotiating as a united front
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Two, as a sort of ethically gray tactic, the cast began speaking about contract negotiations
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in the press, which put public opinion on the line as well. This didn't really sit well with the studio executives and lawyers who were sitting in
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the room at the time. NBC's vice president of business affairs labeled the negotiation as completely insane
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He was using the restroom in a restaurant when he got a phone call that the contract
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negotiations were starting at 10 p.m. This is a hardball negotiation tactic that borders on
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psychological warfare. Starting negotiations so late means that people get tired and frustrated
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and are more likely to bend just to get things over with. The negotiations didn't end until 3 a.m
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And after that, the studio had two promos made, one for a season finale and one for a series finale
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The studio was weighing the option of whether or not to cancel the entire show. However
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numbers don't lie and despite the underlying frustrations of contract negotiations, there was still a lot of money to be made by keeping friends running How much do you think I can get for my kidney From that point on the cast was able to effectively negotiate increasingly lucrative salaries every time the conversation came up And then came the massive paydays
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The cast was paid $750,000 per episode for season 7 and 8
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and a walloping sum of $1 million per episode for the show's 9th and 10th season
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On top of all that, Schwimmer's decision to bargain as a unit also led to an extremely lucrative deal for royalties through syndication
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which to this day nets each member of the cast about $20 million per year for work they did over a decade ago
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There would be a conversation to be had about knowing your worth. However, Matt LeBlanc sees the situation in a little different light
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If you're in a position in any job, no matter what the job is, if you're driving a milk truck or installing TVs or an upholsterer for a couch
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if you're in a position to get a raise and you don't get it, you're stupid. Tongue-in-cheek comments aside, the sentiment holds true
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When opportunity presents itself to a group of performers, they should by all means leap at the opportunity
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to put themselves in the most financially advantageous position possible. After all, it's called show business, not show friends
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Look, I don't know what to say. I'm sorry that we make more money than you
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but we're not going to feel guilty about it. We work really hard for it. Oh, and you feel like we hold you back. Yes
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No. Negotiations can be a tricky thing, especially when you put millions and millions of dollars on the line
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David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston's pay was separating them from that of their co-stars
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And instead of taking the screw you, I've got mine approach to working together
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Schwimmer opted to bring the cast together and negotiate as a cohesive unit
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In Matthew Perry's new memoir, he jokingly writes, David had certainly been in a position to go for the most money, and he didn't
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But his decisions served to make us take care of each other. I owe you about $30 million, David
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The result was the cast getting compensated exorbitantly, and friends persevered for nearly a decade
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So, in the end, everyone won
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