Beverly Hills, 90210 helped to define a generation when it debuted on Fox in 1990, and by the time the show went off the air 10 seasons later it had set a new standard for the kind of soapy drama that teenagers would be treated to on television for years to come. Fans probably thought that in order to get the original cast back together from their separate corners of Hollywood for revival BH90210, that they must be pulling in at least something close to $1 million dollars per episode. Well, it turns out the numbers are a lot lower.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, all of the original cast members are making $70,000 for each episode of BH90210. This means that everyone will bring in a $420,000 base salary by the time they wrap on the first season of the revival. Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling actually co-created the new version of the show along with showrunners Mike Chessler and Chris Alberghini, so those two stars also get a $15,000 extra per episode. In addition, Jason Priestly, who also directed one of the installments, received the Directors Guild of America standard primetime pay of $46,000 for helming an episode.
While Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Shannen Doherty, Gabrielle Carteris, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green and Jason Priestley are certainly being well-paid, this six-episode season of BH90210 is unlikely to help any of them crossover into billionaire territory. In fact, THR points out that their base salaries are far less than what many industry insiders expected them to receive, especially considering the popularity of the original show and the fact that most of the main cast returned.
The revival, which features the actors playing "heightened" versions of themselves who are based on their actual relationships and current lives as they try to get a revival of, you guessed it, Beverly Hills, 90210 off the ground, was thought by many in the business to offer pay on par with other big revivals of iconic shows.
The main cast of Will & Grace, for instance, got $250,000 for each episode of the first season of their revival, which then got bumped up to $350,000 for Seasons 2 and 3. Meanwhile, John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert were paid $250,000 per episode, each, for Season 1 of the Roseanne spinoff The Conners, and all got raises to $375,000 for Season 2.
So, why the comparably low pay days for our former Peach Pit buddies? There's no word on that specifically, but my guess is that either Fox wanted to make sure that fans were into this alternate take on classic Beverly Hills 90210 before offering up more money or the cast was so into getting back together that they were willing to sacrifice bigger paydays to make it happen.
BH90210 hit Fox on August 7 and became this summer's highest rated series debut, the top summer debut in over two years and Fox's most-streamed summer debut ever, so don't be surprised if we see some decently sized raises for the cast if the show gets renewed.
You can keep up with the meta shenanigans on BH90210 when the show airs Wednesdays on Fox at 8 p.m. EST. If you need to fill out your viewing schedule this fall, we've got all the coming premieres for you in one handy list!
