Here's How Yahoo's 'Community' Episode Budget Compares To NBC
In addition to "hopefully" keeping the entire cast, Yahoo also plans to maintain the same production budget for each episode.
Zack Van Amburg, Sony Pictures Television president of programming and production, told The Hollywood Reporter how Yahoo's per-episode budget compares with NBC.
"We will not cut any money from what we were doing on the broadcast version of the show. No low-cost digital whatever; Yahoo was spectacular with that and told us how much they stand for quality. You haven't seen a whole slew of announcements out of them but when they make announcements, they want them to be loud and to stand for something. They really were beyond supportive with understanding the production demands of a sixth-year show. They are fully supporting it in their deal and beyond; it's pretty historic."
While the cost of a "Community" episode hasn't been released, E! Online reports that $1 million is "a starting point" for TV dramas like "Grey's Anatomy."
It appears Netflix has a higher budget. "The cheapest show is $3.8 million an episode ... 'House of Cards' started at $4.5 million and [executive producer David] Fincher took it way above that," CAA agent Peter Micelli said last year while speaking at an event at UCLA.
Micelli added, "The next series is 'Hemlock Grove' and they're doing that for about $4 million an episode ... 'Orange is the New Black' is just under $4 million as well. They're huge budgets shows, doing things in a huge way."