The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is killing it over at Amazon. So much so, that the show has already been renewed for Season 3 over at the streaming service. In light of the renewal, however, we are now hearing that the cast is hoping to up their contracts heading into Season 3. Hope Amazon is willing to shell out some additional cash!
In the TV world, pay raises are common, but they are most frequently noteworthy when cast members start demanding a cool million per episode, as happened with The Big Bang Theory a few years ago. We don’t know exactly what the likes of Rachel Brosnahan, Michael Zegen, Alex Borstein,Tony Shaloub and Marin Hinkle will be looking for with these pay raises, but the numbers shouldn’t be akin to that. In fact, it took The Big Bang Theory cast until 2014 to renegotiate to such great heights and it had already been running for more than 5 years at that point on CBS.
Still, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has been a big win for Amazon. The show has a solid fanbase, but what’s probably more important is that it’s been splashy at awards ceremonies. It’s racked up Emmys, SAG Awards, Golden Globes and many, many more. There’s plenty of awards fodder that can be tossed on the show's posters. The timing of the pay raise news broke around the same time as the SAG Awards, in fact.
Plus, all of the awards nominations, much less wins, act as additional free press for the show.
According to Deadline, the ask for raises after two seasons idea is something that network TV lives by, and has more recently been picked up by streaming services like Amazon and Netflix. On network TV the ultimate goal is generally making it to syndication, and if you make it through Season 3, since you are producing more than 20+ episodes each season, a show is often a huge chunk of the way to 100 episodes at that point.
It’s a little different for streaming services, which maintain full control over their series and often only do 6 or 8 or 10 or 12 episodes a season. Regardless, programs like Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why and now The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel have all renegotiated at the Season 3 mark, much like network television.
Pay raises or no pay raises, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a delight and although we don’t know exactly what the cast is negotiating for, the indelible mark the show has made on the streaming service should be enough to justify a bump for the cast members.
In the meantime, since The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was actually renewed before Season 2 even came out, it could be a while before we hear more about Season 3. Still, thanks to Amazon making available all of its streaming originals, you can revisit your favorite episodes right now. Or take a look at what TV has coming up from now into spring with CinemaBlend's midseason premiere schedule.
