Young Sheldon creator had to ‘fight’ CBS to pay stars ‘fairly’ for spinoff guest roles

Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage showrunner Steve Holland has revealed that he had to “fight” CBS to make sure Young Sheldon stars were paid fairly for their guest roles in the spinoff.

Jessica Radloff’s new book, Young Sheldon: The (Juicier-Than-Meemaw’s-Brisket) Inside Story of the Hit Comedy, reveals what happened behind the scenes when the hit sitcom ended and its spinoff got going.

Speaking in the book, Holland explained, “We were also still fighting to work out a budget that allowed us to bring in Young Sheldon cast members and have them be paid something fair to what they had been getting.”

He added, “They weren’t going to get paid their series regular salaries, but they had to get paid something that… they weren’t just guest stars. They were special guest stars, and there had to be a pot of money set aside so we could pay them properly to do this. And that was another fight.”

Holland also explained, “We couldn’t even say to them, ‘Hey, but we really want you to do this,’ because we had to make sure that there was money there to pay them and that we were going to be able to do that.”

He added, “Some of it probably could have been handled better on our end, and some of it I’m not sure how we would have handled better.”

Young Sheldon cast were already upset about the show’s ending

Annie Potts, who plays Meemaw Connie, was particularly unhappy about the show’s ending and how the spinoff plans were shared with the cast.

She said, “We were told they were hoping some of [the Sheldon family] would pop by once in a while, but that is not a real or generous invitation, you know what I mean? Like, ‘Oh gosh, that sounds really great.’”

Potts was reportedly “furious” about the cancellation and the lack of transparency around Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage. In a 2024 Variety interview, she called the decision a “stupid business move”.

Chuck Lorre later called her to explain why the show had ended. Potts recalled him saying, “‘I just want you to know it was our decision. We were creatively done with it.’”

She replied, “‘Well, I hear you. It’s tough for me to try and comprehend that somebody would be done with something when it’s at its apex of popularity. So my bad, really.’”

Potts then questioned whether CBS had asked Lorre to call her, saying, “‘So what you’re telling me is that CBS has asked you to call me.”

She said she was “still laughing” about the conversation, adding that she could not believe a huge network could get its feelings hurt when the cancellation had affected her too.

“Because to imagine a network could get their feelings hurt. I was like, ‘How the f*** do you think I feel?! I just lost my livelihood,’” she said. “My feelings were a little hurt, too, excuse me, huge corporation. I’m just a small little corporation, and I was enjoying doing that work, and I was sad to be done with it.”

Chuck Lorre explains why Young Sheldon really had to end

Despite the backlash, Lorre stood by the decision to end Young Sheldon after seven seasons. He said CBS had not pushed back when he explained that he felt the story was over.

“I was actually quite pleased that they trusted us,” Lorre said. “I don’t know about their feelings being hurt, but I thought it was important, I guess, that Annie knew this was a creative decision and it was not a business decision.”

He continued, “The business decision would be, ‘Let’s ride the gravy train till the wheels fall off.’ And that felt like a less appropriate path forward than recognising we’ve told our story. If you’re honouring the backstory of Big Bang, it’s time for this little boy to go to Caltech.”

For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page.