'Landman' Original Cast Members Score Big Salary Bumps (Exclusive)

EXCLUSIVE: It pays to be on a massive hit. That is the takeaway for original stars of Paramount+’s flagship series Landman who have successfully negotiated significant raises heading into Season 3, Deadline has learned.

That involves the entire original cast of the Taylor Sheridan drama with the exception of lead Billy Bob Thornton, who I hear has a separate three-year deal with its standard year-to-year increases and would be up for negotiating a new contract if Landman goes to a fourth season.

According to sources, that’s what happened this year with the other star at the top of the Landman call sheet, Demi Moore, whose original contract also was shorter than the norm at two years. She now has a new deal with a sizable raise, bringing her to parity with Thornton next season at what I hear is a salary in the $740K-$770K an episode range for each, I hear.

The rest of the original cast have renegotiated their existing long-term contracts. Ali Larter took the longest to close; while the rest largely were set by April, she did not reach an agreement until recently, according to sources. She scored a big increase: The Heroes alumna, who tested for her Landman role, more than doubled her most recent paycheck, going up to north of $350K an episode, in addition to getting a talent deal, I hear.

The remaining Landman original series regulars, who didn’t have particularly high profiles before joining the Sheridan series, all got nice bumps, I hear, at least doubling their previous salaries.

Leading that group are breakouts Jacob Lofland and Michelle Randolph, who are going up to $130K – $180K an episode next season, sources said. Paulina Chavez, Kayla Wallace, Mark Collie and James Jordan are believed to be under that, all landing big percentage raises off a modest base.

Reps for 101 Studios and Paramount TV Studios, which produce Landman and the rest of Sheridan’s current series, declined comment, as did reps for the actors.

Once a popular tradition on all successful shows, contract renegotiations after Season 2 are a very rare occurrence these days, reserved only for the biggest hits amid industry belt-tightening. If done at all, such renegotiations typically are pushed to later in a show’s run, after Season 3 or 4.

Landman qualifies as one of television’s biggest hits. Its Season 2 premiere drew 9.2 streaming views in its first 48 hours, becoming the most-watched premiere for an original series on Paramount+. The Season 2 finale rose to 14.8 million views within two days, making it the most-watched original series finale ever on the platform.

This past season, Landman added two big names to its main cast who could factor in future salary renegotiations: Sam Elliott and Andy Garcia.

Production on Season 3 is slated to begin in late August in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Being from Texas and especially Dallas during the initial “Dallas” series where the women of Dallas began to take on this persona of wealth and shallowness.
I like Alie and the daughter in the series, but really, they are nothing more than stereotypical cartoons of the wealthy women of Texas.
To me, they are written in a shallow, vapid hotties mere there to keep the horny guys interested.
I’d love to see the character arc for these women become more than those of the old “Dallas” series.

I want my kids to get me a Physical Therapist like Tommy got TL.

Why does Moore deserve the same as the lead actor? Her character barely became relevant last season and it quickly diminished at the end. IMO, but they could save the money and ditch her altogether. She isn’t a pivotal or critical character. If I were Thornton… I’d be pissed.

Totally agree,I love this show. Great casting. The writing is incredible
I love the cast. Taylor Sheridan out did his self.
Reminds me of Knot’s Landing with the storytelling and casting

They don’t make good TV shows like yesterday.
Please keep Landman going for years to come.

We absorb love the Landman series. I love Angela and Tommy’s relationship and their banter. Ali Larter plays a brilliant role.
It’s a brilliant cast. I hope they continue to on for many seasons but hope their salaries don’t spoil the budget. From what I read Demi Moore is getting paid double if Ali Larter which is not right. Just my opinion but it’s a brilliant cast and I love watching it.

Sheridan had an interesting interview over on Bill Simmons’ podcast last week where he talked about how he didn’t think his series should go over 5 seasons — 5 was enough to have a proper ending, and if you went longer, you tended to have a lot of filler or repetition.

Otoh, he also talked about how he doesn’t put “messages” in his shows … when Landman clearly has all sorts of messages and pro-oil propaganda. So, Sheridan is a bit of a funny guy. Sometimes really insightful, but the next he can be totally clueless.

Its also a bit of hypocritical thing to say that, then do five different spin offs for the one show – the yellowstoneverse will soon have 12 seasons – you can’t tell me thats not getting repetetive!

But also, whatever, people like the shows, its not harming anyone – just dont take the high road!

Good for them, but unfortunately the reality is that either A) we will see one maybe two seasons more of this show before it is priced out of profitability or B) they will start killing off or reducing screen time for characters to maintain budget when you have $8 million ATL talent payments per epsiode.

Not sure about that. The network-only days are long over. The new Paramount regime had to have signed off on all the significant salary bumps, and they’re entirely merited: “Landman” is handily Taylor Sheridan’s biggest hit still airing, plus Paramount won’t have much Sheridan anything once he moves over to NBCU. (We also have no clear idea how streamers necessarily measure audience counts to justify TV show expenditures.)

Guessing David Ellison learned his lesson after nearly imploding “Tulsa King” over similar financial cheapness: screwing with the golden goose is nearly always a terrible idea.

Nah, nobody at the networks thinks ahead when making contracts. Just because they signed off on S3 doesn’t mean they have a plan for 4 or 5. They just want to close 3, get the optics on returning series, high five each other and move on. S4 negotiations are problems for another day.