Hmmm if someone could come up with a 3d engine that was good enough to look real, you could cut a lot of those costs dramatically. Even if it only ran on something out of industrial light and magic’s league, it’d soon pay for itself.

and using virtual “recordings” of the real actors you could save on the “actor gains weight one season and loses it again next season” issues as well.

Probly a few years off yet tho… but only a few.

As high as $2 million sounds, comparatively it’s not that high. The pilot for Lost cost $10 million and several half hour sitcoms have paid over $1 million per episode to the primary star alone. NBC has paid WB $12 million per episode for ER. If a show becomes extremely popular with high ratings, it garners more ad revenue for a 30 second spot (also dependent on demographics), resulting in those extreme licensing fees. In the case of Lost, it cost a quarter of a million just to get the wrecked plane components to the shooting locale in Hawaii.

Also consider the amount of cinematography related equipment, lighting systems, generators, cameras (and lenses, filters, etc.), rigs for the cameras & lights, cabling, diffusors, etc., plus the transportation costs to get this equipment to an external locale shoot. We haven’t even touched upon the post production costs.

While this isn’t standard, most drama series nowadays run in the neighborhood of $1 million to $2 million per episode, even those filmed in Canada where costs are lower. Despite this, many shows don’t even make a profit for their production company until they reach ancilliary markets including syndication, cable sales & DVD’s.

Technically high quality television is costly to make and the crew usually work 12-16 hour days to complete an episode roughly every 10 days.