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Most Expensive TV Shows

How These 10 Shows Managed to Become the Most Expensive Series in History

Oct 2 2018

It's the golden age of television, and the entertainment industry has been putting a heavy emphasis on creating more cinematic shows. Now, more than ever, we see imaginatively directed and visually striking shows like The Handmaid's Tale and Fargo. With great production value comes multimillion-dollar price tags per episode. This is especially true for prestige shows that put heavy emphasis on set design and casting, like Game of Thrones, which spends upward of $10 million per episode. To put that in perspective, Oscar-winning film Moonlight had a tadpole budget of $1.5 million.

We've rounded up the most expensive TV shows of all time, from ER's $13-million-per-episode George Clooney days to The Pacific's whopping $200 million miniseries budget.

Image Source: Netflix

10. Camelot, $7 million (£5.3 million) per episode

Best known for succeeding Steven Moffat on Doctor Who, Chris Chibnall also co-ran the Starz series Camelot, a historical drama fantasy about King Arthur's adventures. Often compared to Game of Thrones, the racy show received early praise, even nabbing an Emmy nomination.

But its success was short-lived and quickly fizzled out. Starz cancelled the series after one season, attributing its decision to production scheduling challenges within the star-studded cast, which included Joseph Fiennes, Eva Green, and Jamie Campbell Bower. Chibnall himself had left the show because of other writing obligations, claiming he did not know about the show's cancellation.

Image Source: Everett Collection

9. Sense8, $9 million (£6.8 million) per episode

It's no secret that Netflix puts a great sum of money into developing premium content, spending $6.3 billion in original shows and acquired programming in 2017. That's why Netflix was the perfect playground for the Wachowski sisters, who had worked on the exorbitantly complex fantasy film Cloud Atlas, which had a $102 million budget.

In their ambitious show Sense8, eight strangers across the world find themselves emotionally and mentally connected. Given the scope and beautiful production of the series, it cost Netflix $9 million per episode. The series was cancelled after two seasons, but Netflix wrapped things up with a movie finale to appease fans.

Image Source: Everett Collection

8. Game of Thrones, $10 million (£7.5 million) per episode

Honestly, we expected Game of Thrones to be further up on this list, given its intricate set design and huge cast. The show puts a heavy emphasis on production value in order to excite and enthrall its fans, and by its sixth season, the show averaged about $10 million an episode.

Speaking with Deadline, cinematographer Robert McLachlan shared that the fantasy series would be spending more money than ever per episode in its seventh and eighth seasons. "Before, we'd have one or two showstopping, major episodes per season. This season, probably at least half of them are whoppers. They're not going to disappoint," the filmmaker said.

Image Source: HBO

7. Rome, $10 million (£7.5 million) per episode

Like Camelot, Rome has often been compared to the wildly popular Game of Thrones. Shot in Italy, the show adapted Julius Caesar's civil war of 49 BC against the traditionalist faction in the Roman Senate, touting complex set designs, beautiful costumes, and a well-stacked cast. Unfortunately, critical acclaim was not enough to keep it afloat. HBO let go of the show after its second season in order to save money on production resources in Italy.

Creator Bruno Heller admitted that his series paved the way for Game of Thrones' success. "They learned a lot from a business commercial sense, what not to do. Rome was the first show HBO shot out of country with large budget that was period. The mistakes we made are the mistakes Game of Thrones learned from," the writer and director explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

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6. Friends, $10 million (£7.5 million) per episode

You might be scratching your head over this one. It's pretty hard to imagine how a true-to-life half-hour sitcom like Friends could cost so much to make. Well, each of the six cast members figured out their worth and brought home $1 million each per episode by the last few seasons. In 2002, the entire cast famously worked together to negotiate a deal so each actor would be paid equally — or else they would all leave the show.

Image Source: Everett Collection

5. The Get Down, $11 million (£8.3 million) per episode

The short-lived Netflix musical series was dropped before it even saw a second installation, becoming the first Netflix show to be cancelled after one season. (The first season was separated into two parts, which dropped months apart.) Detailing the birth of hip-hop, it was directed by Baz Luhrmann, who's known for his exaggerated and colourful style in movies like Moulin Rouge! and William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet. Luhrmann's signature cinematography added a few heavy dollars to the budget, but the most expensive part of the $120 million production actually came from using licenced hip-hop, soul, and R&B music.

Image Source: Everett Collection

4. ER, $13 million (£9.8 million) per episode

Before the days of Grey's Anatomy and Chicago Med, there was ER, TV's longest-running medical drama. The show kept NBC viewership thriving, largely thanks to George Clooney's presence as Dr. Doug Ross. In order to keep Clooney around, NBC paid a whopping $13 million an episode for a few years. Luckily, the show later trimmed down its budget and managed to stay on air through its 15th season.

Image Source: Everett Collection

3. Band of Brothers, $12.5 million (£9.5 million) per episode

Executive-produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, who had collaborated on Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers dramatises the history of the Easy Company, which was assigned to the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division during World War II. Before Hanks and Spielberg worked together for the sequel series The Pacific, Band of Brothers was the most expensive miniseries ever made with a budget of $125 million. Did the creators get a bang for the millions of bucks that they spent on the show? Yup. The 2001 miniseries won Emmy and Golden Globe awards for best miniseries.

2. The Crown, $13 million (£10 million) per episode

It's really no surprise that this highbrow drama about English royalty is the most expensive ongoing series of all time, with a $130 million price tag per season. The cast is full of seasoned, well-known actors, including John Lithgow, Claire Foy, Jared Harris, and Matt Smith — with Helena Bonham Carter on the way, might we add. Between the show's cast and its lavish tiaras, coronation gowns, and royal scepters, rolling out the big bucks was inevitable.

Lithgow, who portrays Winston Churchill, revealed that the production isn't necessarily as glamorous as the final product. "We were in draughty, old, rundown, superannuated stately homes outside of London, where they had taken over the interior in order to made it look extraordinary lavish," the American actor told The Daily Beast.

Image Source: Netflix

1. The Pacific, $20 million (£15 million) per episode

Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg teamed up once again to work together on The Pacific in 2010. The miniseries follows the experiences of three Marines — Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge, and John Basilone — who served in the 1st Marine Division of the Pacific War.

Like its predecessor, it received praise from critics, bringing home eight Emmy wins out of 24 nominations. Its Emmys didn't come from thin air. The Pacific is the most expensive miniseries of all time, with a budget of $217 million; $5 million alone went to a particularly grisly scene during a battle in Peleliu, where the 1st Marine Division was attacked by 11,000 Japanese soldiers. The scene took four days to shoot and involved 300 actors working at a beach in Queensland, Australia.

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